CBS Evening News Uncritically Reports ‘Gay Cabal’ Conspiracy Theory
Josh Marshall warned last night that the House leadership’s “last gambit” may be “to blame the Foley debacle on a cabal of gay staffers who hid and/or enabled Rep. Foley’s behavior for years.” The accusation is that gay staffers were willing to cover up for Foley simply because he also is gay. Already, The Nation’s David Corn reports that a list is being circulated detailing “top-level Republican congressional aides who are gay.”
Last night on Katie Couric’s CBS Evening News, this homophobic conspiracy theory was paraded to tens of millions of people. Their segment featured Family Research Council president Tony Perkins suggesting that the House leadership failed to investigate Foley months ago because they were “afraid to stand up to that network” of gay GOP staffers.
No views questioning this theory were aired.
GLORIA BORGER: Just a few hours after Kirk Fordham resigned as chief of staff to Tom Reynolds, the House Republican campaign chairman, Fordham told the Associated Press that he had more than one conversation with senior staff at the highest level. That means Hastert’s staff. Fordham was once a top aide to Mark Foley and is known to be gay. CBS News has learned that several other top Republican staffers who handled the Foley matter are also gay. Their role in this controversy has caused a firestorm among Republican conservatives who charge that a group of high-level gay Republican staffers were protecting a gay Republican congressman.
TONY PERKINS: Was the leadership afraid to stand up to that network out of fear of being labeled homophobic or gay bashing?
BORGER: Hastert’s office didn’t immediately respond to Fordham’s charges, saying it’s a matter for the ethics committee to handle. But Republicans won’t wait that long and they could still decide that Hastert has to go. Katie?
http://thinkprogress.org/2006/10/05/couric-gay/...........and David Corn.............
There's a list going around. Those disseminating it call it "The List." It's a roster of top-level Republican congressional aides who are gay.
On CBS News on Tuesday, correspondent Gloria Borger reported that there's anger among House Republicans at what an unidentified House GOPer called a "network of gay staffers and gay members who protect each other and did the Speaker a disservice." The implication is that these gay Republicans somehow helped page-pursuing Mark Foley before his ugly (and possibly illegal) conduct was exposed. The List--drawn up by gay politicos--is a partial accounting of who on Capitol Hill might be in that network.
I have a copy. I'm not going to publish it. For one, I don't know for a fact that the men on the list are gay. And generally I don't fancy outing people--though I have not objected when others have outed gay Republicans, who, after all, work for a party that tries to limit the rights of gays and lesbians and that welcomes the support of those who demonize same-sexers.
What's interesting about The List--which includes nine chiefs of staffs, two press secretaries, and two directors of communications--is that (if it's acucurate) it shows that some of the religious right's favorite representatives and senators have gay staffers helping them advance their political careers and agendas. These include Representative Katherine Harris and Henry Hyde and Senators Bill Frist, George Allen, Mitch McConnell and Rick Santorum. Should we salute these legislators for being open-minded enough to have such tolerant hiring practices? After all, Santorum in a 2003 AP interview compared homosexuality to bestiality, incest and polygamy. It would be rather big of Santorum to employ a fellow who engages in activity akin to such horrors. That is, if Santorum knows about his orientation.
Let's be clear about one thing: the Mark Foley scandal is not about homosexuality. Some family value conservatives are suggesting it is. But anytime a gay Republican is outed by events, a dicey issue is raised: what about those GOPers who are gay and who serve a party that is anti-gay? Are they hypocrites, opportunists, or just confused individuals? Is it possible to support a party because you adhere to most of its tenets--even if that party refuses to recognize you as a full citizen? The men on The List might want to think hard about these questions--as they probably already have--for if I have a copy of The List, there's a good chance it will be appearing soon on a website near everyone.
http://www.davidcorn.com/archives/2006/10/the_list_of_gay.php
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