The Treker criticized the boy pop band for their refusal to meet with a little girl with leukemia during a concert last November. (See: Backstreet Boys smash dying girls' dream.) 

Here are some excerpts of the Wil Wheaton interview published by "Ain't It Cool News". 

"I do a lot of things for the Make A Wish Foundation. It's an organization that grants wishes to terminally ill children. There were a number of times where I was very, very fortunate, and I consider myself to be very blessed, that I was some kid's wish…. I can use my super powers for good instead of evil. I got a couple of requests like that. I understand that there are some people that refuse to do it."

"… Like The Backstreet Boys refused to let a little girl, through the Make A Wish Foundation, come backstage at the end of one of their concerts. So, I'd just like to say right now, on record, fuck them. Fuck them. I mean, honestly, was it going to kill them to take 15 minutes away from sitting back there, drinking beer, patting themselves on their collective back, talking about how great they are? Honestly. There are times when you get an opportunity to do something, to really make a difference. Not the way everybody says, "I'm going to make a difference." I mean really, right now, directly make a difference in somebody's life. You gotta seize those opportunities and if you don't, then fuck you and I hope you fail. OK. Off the soapbox now." 

Last November we published an editorial concerning this incident that sparked controversy among fans of the pop group. One fan went as far as taking down her Backstreet Boys fan site after reading our account. 

Although the band's handlers issued a statement regarding the incident many of their fans opted to defend their TRL heros by bashing yours truly. Here are some of the comments posted by BSB supporters. (These comments are not edited for spelling or grammer.) 

From Jessica: .." by the way..antiguy...bubble gum whatever if you do as much research on bsb as you didmorgan youd understand theyre NOT fakes...processed whatever you said...get the facts!" (How about mildly talented and perpetrators of shallow bubblegum music about puppy love? Or New Kids on the Block Part II? aG)

From Lauren:  "They may have been really busy! How do you know? Just because you heard it on a stupid talk show does not mean it is real! The Backstreet Boys have real talent and no matter what anyone says I will always be a fan. I am only 14 years old and I know already not to believe everything you hear. You people are just looking for something to put the Backstreet Boys down." (Their music is usually enough fuel to criticize this "group" aG)

From bsbfanforlifeanddon'tcare: "Okay people! This is what I don't get. The little girl was five and she has a disease. I understand that this creates quite a stir and bsb should have responded better. I'm just letting you know, that it probably wasn't them that said no. It was probably others who were in relation to them. The managers, producers, whatever, not bsb themselves. I'm sure that they wouldn't have done this, had they known about it, or had they been informed. It's not them you should be mad at, it's the person who said no. NOT BSB" (You may be correct that initially they did not know about this request. However, they surely knew about the request after all the bad press they received from this incident and they still refused to meet with her. aG)

From Tori Spelling "antiGUY you are out of line. the BSB have lots of talent. Can you dance or sing like that? So they didn't go see a little girl, my god she is only 5 years old she'l get over it. They would come see a real fan like me 
becuause at 14 I'm like way more important." (How can you respond to this stupidity? aG)

From sandruh: "how can the backstreet boys be the biggest band in the world when they don't write their own songs or play their own instruments in the first place?"  (Answer: Marketing! aG)

From Heartless: "If Morgan's parents really lover her, they would put her out of her misery. The Backstreet Boys were busy and probably weren't sure if this was a scam."

From Tina: "anti guy you are so mean. the backstreet boys are the best. all that happened was they did not have time to visit this girl, its hard work being the biggest band in the world. get a clue"

Finally Autum decided to attack the messenger with her comments: "OK, first of all, I'd like to comment on how awful of a writer you are antiGUY. …do know that all these facts are even true? My guess is no. Who knows, what if their management never even told the BSB bout it? My point is, is that you DON'T obviously know the whole story."  ( I stand by that story. Like Wil said they could have taken 15 minutes after the show to meet with the girl. She was at the concert! As for being an awful writer? What can I say? I could live my life based on the opinions of 14 year old girls but I will leave that to the Backstreet Boys.  aG)

Update: In the interest of fairness, while certain facts were left out of this article, they are present on the original article. What follows is the response to this criticism by the groups Keyboard player, Tommy Smith, at bsbband.com. While it is inconsistent with the facts that were picked up by the media as a whole at the time of the incident. (See original Story) It is only fair to post this response to these allegations. It also must be pointed out that the Make a Wish Foundation was not the organization that made the request, it was the Rainbow Connection. (see original article) 

Q: IS IT TRUE THAT THE BACKSTREET BOYS REFUSED TO GO VISIT A GIRL WITH A DISEASE BECAUSE THEY WERE TOO BUSY???? 

Tommy Smith: Well.......yes and no. (Sigh), I knew I was going to have to get into this one. Ok, it goes like this, every week the boys get handed a stack full of things to do. This includes meeting people, radio promotions, charity work, meeting sick kids and stuff like that. These things come from people and charity organizations that have contacted the boy’s management company. Thats how you get the boys to do something. So everyday there is a list of things for the boys to do. In this particular instance, the organization didn’t fill out the paperwork correctly, the names never made it to the management OR to the boys. So when the girl’s father brought her to the venue to meet the boys, they were told by security that they were “not on the list”, which was true. The boys themselves had no idea about this. They thought they did everything they were supposed to do that day. They do an incredible amount of charity work. I see it. They do a thousand things right but everybody jumped on them for one thing that was not even their fault. Anyway, after they were made aware of this, they had a press conference, met with the girl and made things right. The charity organization even held a press conference to say that it was not the boys fault. But at that point it was too late. Every wanted to believe the worst about the boys so the press ran with it. A little known fact about this is that the girl in question wasn’t mad at the boys at all, she completely understood the situation. In my opinion, the boys have nothing to defend themselves for, the amount of giving they do amazes me, if I were them I wouldn’t do half of it. I’m just glad I'm not famous.
 
 

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