HUFFINGTON
12.09.12
OUT AT THE TIMES
discussing his friendship
with Schmalz, his views
on gays and his agenda
for the paper moving
forward on the issue of
diversity. Then the top
editors of the paper, including Max Frankel and
Joseph Lelyveld, spoke
with me about Schmalz,
the paper’s coverage
on gay issues past and
present, and their own
shifts on gay rights, as
did popular columnists,
such as Anna Quindlen.
The word seemed to have
traveled: No need to hold
back. Reporters, editors,
photographers and others, several coming out
as gay or lesbian for the
first time, spoke frankly
with me about their own
experiences and about
what they described as
the antigay reign of terror of Abe Rosenthal, The
Times’ former executive
editor, still with the paper as an op-ed columnist at that time.
According to current
and former Times staffers as well as gay activ-
ists quoted in the story,
Rosenthal had assigned
pieces that seemed to
demonize homosexuality and discouraged positive pieces about gays.
He was described as a
man who used his power
to negatively affect the
careers of current and
former employees he believed to be gay and who
wouldn’t even allow the
word gay to be used in the
paper — preferring the
more clinical homosexual.
Rosenthal practically
ignored the AIDS epidemic in the early years,
though activists such as
playwright Larry Kramer
railed against him and
The Times for the catastrophic lack of coverage.
As the most influential
media organization in
the country, The Times’
refusal until the late 80s
to use the word gay arguably slowed the gay rights
movement’s fight for legitimacy. Its negligence on
AIDS early on had a detrimental effect on bringing in-depth, life-saving
attention to an epidemic
that had been callously
ignored by political leaders and sensationalized
by other media.
Rosenthal had heard
that people were speaking
with me about his tenure
and about his views on
gay rights, and he decided
to give me an interview to
defend himself. His explanations and responses
to the criticisms were
nothing short of fascinating, as was his own turnaround on gay rights and
AIDS, suddenly seeing
the issues as important in
his role as an op-ed columnist, particularly after
Schmalz came out.
The progress at The
Times after Rosenthal
stepped down as executive editor, and certainly
after the arrival of the
new publisher and the
coming out of Schmalz,
was dramatic enough to
be measurable — a scan
of Nexis’ database of
searchable news articles
at the time showed how
The Times appeared to