Panel scrutinizes LGBT press for bias

By Caitlin Copple
NLGJA Reporter Staff Writer

Turn on talk radio or peruse the nonfiction best-sellers on any given day, and it’s hard to miss accusations of a liberal bias in mainstream media. That debate came to the NLGJA Friday – sort of.

The panel was billed as “Lavender Press Politics: Too Blue for Red State Readers?” and focused solely on bias in LGBT publications.

Two of three panelists told an audience of fewer than 15 that bias in the gay press is softer and subtler, colored by the industry’s roots in the gay liberation movement of the 1960s. Panelists focused on newspapers, as opposed to broadcast or other media.

Terms like “lesbians of color” or even “LGBT” show evidence of how normal this bias has become in the gay press, moderator and panelist Terry Michael said.

Michael is the founder of the Washington Center for Politics & Journalism and former chief spokesman for the Democratic National Committee.

Identification by an oppressed group is part of victimization politics, Michael said.

In some cases, panelists said, LGBT isn’t a true description.

“To call marriage an LGBT issue isn’t accurate,” said Chris Crain, the Washington Blade’s executive editor and editorial director and co-founder of Window Media, LLC. “It’s not a bisexual issue unless the person is in a relationship with the same sex and it’s not a transsexual issue.  But I think that’s more being lazy than political.”

Being gay-centric is understandable, said Karen Ocamb, news editor of IN Los Angeles magazine. Ocamb said people should be able to determine how they want to be identified.

Crain complained about the lack of coverage of the Log Cabin Republicans, a gay and lesbian GOP group.  He said party affiliations should be mentioned in all articles, rather than being chosen to fit an agenda.  Gay publications should find conservative columnists for their editorial pages as well as established gay-friendly or openly gay politicians.

“I’ve been at this conference every year since 1998 and every year I’m surprised by the loud, emotional reaction booing George Bush … That says to me there’s a bias here,” Crain said.  “No one’s worried about showing it in a room of people they think are like-minded folks.”

“There’s a lack of tolerance for the conservative viewpoint,” Crain said. “Readers should see the gay press asking tough questions about the establishment. There has to be fearless coverage of elected officials.  It’s easy to buy into the establishment and not do your jobs as journalists.”

Ocamb said IN Los Angeles covers the Log Cabin Republicans and about 25 percent of her readers vote Republican.

Openly gay or gay-friendly Democratic politicians need their feet held to the fire when they flip-flop by saying they support gay rights but then vote against legalizing gay marriage, Crain and Michael argued.

During a question-and-answer session at the end, Duncan Osbourne of New York’s Gay City News asked for evidence that a liberal bias exists.  No content analysis could be done due to the subtle nature of the bias, Michael said.

Afterward, first-time NLGJA convention-goer Sandra Nortunen of the Palm Beach Post said the panel was demeaning to the mainstream press. She also said she came expecting to hear about bias in coverage of LGBT issues in the mainstream media.

“This whole concept of the mainstream media not understanding gay and lesbian people is demeaning. It’s like saying because I’m gay, I can’t understand a concept like marriage.”