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Looney Rooney
Here's the scoop on just what happened with Andy Rooney
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ist out T 2 ▼ A pril 1990
BY
KARI N
S C H W A R T Z
he media storm created by Andy
Rooney’s suspension and subsequent
reinstatement has subsided. Yet, for all the
column inches devoted to the story, most
people are still in the dark as to what really
happened.
The story began in October of last year,
when Rooney stated in his nationally
syndicated column that he felt the same way
about homosexuals that he feels about
cigarette smokers: he “wouldn’t want to
spend much time in a small room with one.”
Then, in December, he stated on national
television during a CBS special that
“homosexual unions,” like drugs, alcohol and
cigarette smoking, lead to “premature death.”
These two incidents prompted the Gay and
Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation
(GLAAD) to wrote to CBS News president
David Burke requesting a meeting to discuss
the broadcast, and to begin a letterwriting
campaign involving GLAAD chapters
nationwide. Rooney received a copy of
GLAAD’s letter, but chose not to respond to
it; instead he sent a now legendary letter to the
Advocate. The letter was supposed to be an
apology, but contained statements that were
more anti-gay and more incendiary than any
that had preceded it. Advocate reporter Chris
Bull followed up with a phone interview, in
which Rooney is alleged to have made an
extremely racist statement, which he denies.
Two days later, after the allegations of
racism surfaced, Rooney was suspended.
Rooney was reinstated from his suspension
two months early, amid public pressure to
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bring him back and a rating drop at 60
Minutes. His “return statement” focused
overwhelmingly on the charges of racism. He
apologized — sort of — for making the life of
homosexuals “a little harder.”
There are a number of general principles
that can be extracted from this experience.
Here are a few:
1. The media does not treat gays and
lesbians as authorities on our own issues or
gay and lesbian organizations as credible civil
rights groups. It’s as if they believe that we
are too close to our own issues to be objective.
2. The media unquestioningly buys into
the same stereotypes about us that many
bigots do. Consider for a moment the amount
of investigative journalism that went into
examining Advocate reporter Chris Bull’s
history for evidence of prior misconduct.
Why didn’t we see that same effort expended
delving into Rooney’s past for evidence of
similar homophobia and racist statements?
3. What we consider to be neutral,
unbiased reporting on our issues, the media
considers to be advocacy. It’s as if they don’t
think they can be fair to us without appearing
pro-gay.
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Many Americans probably agree with
much of what Rooney said about gays and
some probably agree with Rooney’s alleged
statements about African Americans. But
while most people know better than to admit
publicly to racism, they are much less
reluctant to own up to being bigoted against
gays and lesbians. The public pressure to
keep your homophobia to yourself just isn’t
there.
So, what do we do about all this? First and
foremost, gays and lesbians have to come out
of the closet and be counted. It is too easy for
the media to cover our community only as a
handful of staffers o f gay and lesbian
organizations.
Second, people need to support the
established gay and lesbian organizations —
not just with money, although that is crucial
— but with letters when we initiate
campaigns.
Third, we have to try to get debate going
on the opinion pages o f the nation’s media on
gay and lesbian issues. W e have to contact
columnists and persuade them that our issues
have an impact on all o f society.
Fourth, we have to work to make the
newsroom a safe place for openly gay and
lesbian reporters. There are no gay and
lesbian anchorpeople, for example, and no
openly lesbian or gay syndicated columnists.
Rooney may be back on the air, but we are
not back at square one. Rooney’s statement
last week, and then on 60 Minutes, sent a
message to the general public that people can
be educated and can learn to confront their
own homophobia. And now many million
Americans know something they didn’t know
before: that there is a national gay and lesbian
organization devoted to making sure that gays
and lesbians are treated with dignity and
respect in the nation’s media. If you defame
us, prepare to face the consequences.
Karin Schwartz is the Deputy Director for
Public A ffairs with Gay and Lesbian Alliance
Against Defamation in New York City.
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