BY DAN
KENNEDY
Notes and observations on
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For bio, published work, and links to other blogs, visit
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For information on Dan Kennedy's book, Little People: Learning to
See the World Through My Daughter's Eyes (Rodale, October 2003),
click
here.
Thursday, March 18, 2004
MARRIED WITH CONFLICTS.
Should a newspaper allow a married same-sex couple to keep covering
the gay-marriage debate? It's a hard question, but Media Log's view
is that it depends on the circumstances of the couple's
marriage.
The San Francisco Chronicle
decided earlier this week that reporter Rachel Gordon and
photographer Liz Mangelsdorf could no longer cover the issue after
they got married at City Hall. Here
is editor Phil Bronstein's memo to the staff (via Romenesko).
This is a very, very tough call,
but I think Bronstein was right. The San Francisco marriages weren't
just marriages (though they were surely that); they were also acts of
civil disobedience by the mayor, Gavin Newsom. Newsom did a fine
thing by challenging state officials to recognize gay and lesbian
couples as being equal in the eyes of the law and the state
constitution. But for journalists to get married under such
circumstances and then continue to cover the story would be the
equivalent of carrying signs and shouting slogans at a demonstration
that they had been assigned to report on.
Here's the difference. If Gordon
and Mangelsdorf had waited and flown to Boston on May 18 to get
married, then no one would have had a right to complain. They would
have been legally married in accordance with the state Supreme
Judicial Court's Goodridge decision, and there would have been
no political overtones to their exchanging vows.
But that's not what they did. They
took part in a political act, and now they should sit it out, at
least in terms of offering straight news coverage. (No harm in
offering something more personal, with the appropriate
disclosure.)
PlanetOut.com covers the story
here.
DONALD RUMSFELD, LYING LIAR.
And in this
ad by MoveOn.org, his pants
are on fire. (Thanks to Michael Goldman.)
QUOTE OF THE DAY. "It is
absolutely ridiculous and unfair and a stretch. Tell them to come to
me and ask me about it and look me in the eye. I'll straighten them
out in good force - the yellow, rotten, dirty [expletives]
that they are. I commend Tim Cahill for looking beyond the political
and not falling for the [expletive] disgrace of caving in and
punishing a kid who deserves something." - State Auditor
Joe
DeNucci, in today's
Boston Herald, which reports that State Treasurer Tim Cahill
has promoted his son-in-law.
NEW IN THIS WEEK'S
PHOENIX. Former Bush speechwriter David Frum comes
thisclose to saying that John Kerry is Osama
bin Laden's candidate for
president.
posted at 9:05 AM |
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link
MEDIA LOG ARCHIVES
Dan Kennedy is senior writer and media critic for the Boston Phoenix.
