Cyber-Bullying Towards Star Wars Fans — Not Cool

Last night, a slide show of Celebration VI cosplayers, featured by a local news station, was brought to my attention by a fellow member of the 501st Legion, a professional costuming organization that uses the dark side of the force to help raise money bring and awareness for charities world wide.

Some of the images were friends of mine, hanging out and enjoying the convention. What my friends didn’t know was that their pictures were being taken to be used for a slide show that can only be described as cyber-bullying. The person who put this slide show together did not leave anyone out, including children.

Let me give you some information about the people being attacked in the slide show:

Most are members of the 501st Legion,

Last year, the 501st Legion helped raise over $12 million dollars for charities worldwide.

The 501st Legion is a not-for-profit organization. All of our activities are funded by the membership and fundraisers within our group.

Two things confuse me about this public ridicule. The first is that the 501st Legion has trooped this news station in the past, at their request. So, why, after we have helped them in the past, do they choose to attack us now? The second thing is that this news station has run articles and news reports about anti-cyber-bullying. One write up was even entitled, “3 Things Parents Can Do to Protect Their Kids“.

So my question for the news station is this, has your stance on cyber-bullying changed?

If it hasn’t and they are still against cyber-bullying 100 percent, my suggestion to the station is that they remove the slide show and issue an apology, especially to the children who were subjected to this.

If you have ever been touched by the 501st Legion, and want to help, you can.

Contact the news station and let them know they are out of line and ask that they remove the slide show from their site. You can reach them via their Facebook page, through their website, or by calling 954-364-2500. If you decide to contact them, please do so respectfully.

Thank you and may the force be with you.

Update : The station has removed the slide show from their site, but no apology has been issued yet. I will update this page if we receive one. Thank you!

Update 9/7/2012: Our cries for the slideshow to be remove and an apology to be issued was heard yesterday at 6pm. Thank you to everyone for reaching out and letting the station know that enough is enough. May the force be with you.