The Philadelphia Gay News received an “official” statement/apology from CBS 3 regarding Alycia Lane’s alleged “dyke” comment:

“All of us at CBS 3 certainly understand the disappointment the community must feel about the disparaging remark our anchor is alleged to have made. Alycia and her lawyer have categorically denied that she used this language. While Channel 3 is in the midst of its own investigation, we can state without hesitation that we find this language offensive, intolerable and inappropriate under any circumstance. Our longstanding relationship with the GLBT community is important to us and we hope this alleged incident will do nothing to change that.”

Short version: It’s not us — it’s her.

CBS3 Reaches out to paper over Alycia Lane flap [Inquirer]
Philadelphia Gay News gets scoop and sends to all [Metropolis]

The inevitable “How are the gays feeling about the Lane flap?” story was first broached by Philebrity yesterday, and now the Philly Metro picks up the cue and confronts Mark Segal, publisher of the Philly Gay News, to get his take on Alycia’s whole “fucking dyke” routine:

“It’s like using the word faggot or the n-word,” Segal said. “If she said it, it’s extremely offensive. A news anchor is not a celebrity like Paris Hilton. A news anchor has to have credibility and if she made those statements, her credibility is totally shattered.”

The paper also tracks down Abigail Williams smoking a cigarette outside of the bar Sisters and gets her smoke-blown pshaw: “I really don’t run into that much. For her to say it, it’s whatever …”

Metro does point out that that Lane attended the Philadelphia Gay News’s 30th anniversary party last year and made sure to mention that CBS 3 has been gay-friendly for years.

Until this all gets sorted out, expect the station’s standard weather forecast to be “party cloudy with a 100 percent chance of rainbows.”

Word choice affects anchor’s credibility [Metro]