Long gone are the glory days of the Washinton Post with Ben Bradley as executive editor (1968-1991), a time that included challenging the federal government over the right to publish the Pentagon Papers and overseeing the Woodward and Bernstein investigative reporting of the Watergate Scandal.
But I did not realize how low the WaPo had sunk until this week, when they decided that fair and balanced reporting required them to publish -- on National Coming Out Day -- an editorial by Tony Perkins of the anti-gay Family Research Council.
Do they publish a rant by someone who hates mothers on Mothers' Day?
More than the inappropriateness though, this was bad journalism -- as all of that Christian anti-gay pseudoscience stuff is. Doesn't WaPo even do fact-checking anymore? The article was full of discounted research and lies about gay people, blaming them and their "homosexual life style" for the scars that have clearly been demonstrated to result from growing up in a homophobic culture, while making the assertion that there is no empirical evidence to show that. I have a list of just such evidence, Mr. Perkins, if you would care to open up your mind.
How can they give space in one of the major newspapers in the country to someone whose purpose is to try to discredit the gains that gay people have made in society -- on the very day set aside to encourage self-acceptance and honesty about who we are?
It helps that this was actually overshadowed by the judge in California who said No to Don't Ask, Don't Tell. No, Uncle Sam, you may not continue to discriminate, you may not continue to treat honorable, highly qualified service men and women as unworthy human beings.
I guess their next move will be, in reporting about the spate of gay teen suicides in response to bullying, to include an editorial about why gay teens should kill themselves. I'm sure they could find someone to write it in this bigoted land of ours.
The Washington Post is losing its prestige very quickly, and this will only accelerate the process. Meanwhile, we're winning in battle after battle, with fewer and fewer losses.
It's only a matter of time. Some day, the difference just won't matter any more.
Ralph
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It already doesn't matter so much what Tony Perkins says. The comments to his article are scathing. I think you've actually already won, but the pockets of resistance are still noisy. Sooner or later, hate groups achieve the opposite of their goal - they expose their own illogical arguments to the light of day and they desensitize the world to the humanity of their hated objects. Perkins and Dobson are headed for obscurity. About time...
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