PRESSWATCH: Unstatesmanlike Conduct
Taranto, James
TWASMONDAY, AUGUST27,whentheCapitolHillnewspaperRollCallbrokethenewsthatIdaho'sSenatorLarry Craig had pleaded guilty to misdemeanor disorderly conduct in a June sex-solicitation sting at a...
...It's now aggressive and it's liberal and it's naming people to try to put themincompromising,difficultsituations...
...After her husband's denial, she said, "I'm incensed that you would even consider such a piece of trash as a credible source...
...Theycontinued though October 2006, when, amid the Mark Foley scandal, a gay blogger named Mike Rogers "outed" Craig,claiming,basedoninformationfromanonymous sources,thatthesenatorwashomosexual...
...Many observers, including this columnist, have celebrated the way the Internet has weakened the press's traditional gatekeeper role...
...Craig's various excuses for the Minneapolis incident--his feet touched those of the cop in the next stall because he urinates with a "wide stance," and he reached under the divider to pick up a piece of toilet paper--were, to say the least, hard to believe...
...It was Tuesday, August 28, when the Idaho Statesman published a 3,800-word investigative story detailing "previous allegations of homosexualconduct...
...But the Craig affair is a reminder that this is a mixed blessing...
...Before moving on to the next question, Craig turned to his wife and said, "Sorry, Hon...
...In retrospect, it is obvious that Rogers meant Craig...
...Rather, it had reported the story earlier, over a five-month period, during which reporterDanPopkeyhadacringe-inducingconversation with the senator and his wife: In the May 14 interview, Craig and his wife listened to a four-minute excerpt of the Statesman's interview with the 40-year-old man who first spoke to Rogers...
...Onedifferencebetween1992and2007isthatthe Internet then was an obscure subculture and there wasnosuchthingasablog.InthePackwoodcase,the pressarguablywastooslowtoreportwhatitknew.As one Oregonian columnist put it, two days after the Postbrokethestory,"TheworstkeptsecretinOregon politics is out...
...Rogers's threat was a heads-I-win-tails-you-lose proposition, inasmuch as an anti-Alito vote would have been so out of character politically as to raise questions about Craig's motives...
...Ifhomosexualdesireisaninborntraitandnotachoice, then it is not something for which one can be held accountable.Ifsomeoneishomosexualandthinkshomosexuality is immoral, then remaining in the closet and opposing gay-rights measures is entirely consistent withthatbelief.Ifsuchamanseeksoutfurtiveencounters in rest rooms, that is an act of weakness...
...Even the Post, though, withheld the story until late November, after Packwood had been re-elected...
...We worked hard and behaved responsibly, notpublishingastoryuntilitwasready.Wedidn'tprint anything until the senator pleaded guilty...
...The decision to publish is easy to understand when viewed through a competitive lens rather than an ethical one...
...The Statesman's report did not mention the Alito threat...
...James Taranto iseditorofOpinionJournal.comanda member of the Wall Street Journal's editorial board...
...It had been pursuing a story about Sen...
...Do we really wantsomeonelikeMikeRogersactingasgatekeeper...
...Suzanne Craig's eyes reddened and filled with tears as she listened...
...At least one newspaper--the Spokesman-Review of Spokane, Washington, which also circulates in nearby northern Idaho--had aired Rogers's claims (along with Craig's denial) back in 2006.Craig'sguiltypleawasboundtoleadothernews organizations to investigate the rumors...
...What would bethepointinactingasgatekeeperforastorythatwas alreadyoutofthegate?WhyshouldtheStatesmanlet itself get scooped...
...Thegaymovement, we know it for what it is...
...Statesman editor Bill Manny shot back: "As our story today demonstrated, we followed leads and asked questions...
...The man's voice was disguised.Craigsaidthemanisanactivist...
...Three years later, after the Senate Ethics Committee recommended Packwood's expulsion, he resigned...
...It did say that Rogers sought, in the newspaper's words, to "nail a hypocritical Republican foe of gay rights" and that Rogers's campaign against Craig was "prompted by his anger over the GOP electionyear push for a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage": Craig voted for the failed measure [actually for "cloture," which would have allowed a vote on the amendment itself] July 14, 2004...
...Atthesametime,itwasdifficulttoworkupmuch enthusiasmfortheStatesman'snewsjudgment.If the story was too insubstantial to merit publication on August 26--or in May, after Popkey obtained the senator's denial--why did it pass muster on August 28...
...If Craig is in fact homosexual, his alleged behavior can be construed as tragically self-loathing, or as a sign that he is, as blogger Mickey Kaus put it, "almost heroically non-hypocritical...
...In January 2006, Rogers posted an open letter toan unidentified senator threatening to expose him as homosexualifhevotedinfavorofSamuelAlito'sconfirmation to the Supreme Court...
...The rumors about Craig's sexuality were widely known to people who follow politics, including journalists...
...He also has opposed allowing gays or lesbians in the military and voted against extending civil rights protections to homosexuals in the workplace...
...BobPackwood'ssexualharassmentofwomen, including employees and lobbyists, but the Washington Post beat the Portland paper to the punch...
...Yet while privacy is no defense for sordid conduct in a public place, the real hypocrites are those who claim to believe in a right to privacy but use their political opponents' personal vices as a weapon...
...THAT IS WHAT HAPPENED to the Oregonian in late 1992...
...In the event, Craig voted in Alito's favor...
...Our story outlinedwhatwe'vedoneanditspeaksforitself...
...Those allegations spanned nearly a quarter century...
...But it is alsoanactthatevincesshameabouthisownhomosexuality--which, again, is fully consistent with the belief thathomosexualityiswrong...
...It is especially a boon to conservatives, who have little representation in America's newsrooms...
...Afterthestoryran,Craigprofessedinnocenceand accused the newspaper of having conducted a witch hunt:"Inpleadingguilty,IoverreactedinMinneapolis, because of the stress of the Idaho Statesman's investigation and the rumors it has fueled around Idaho...
...And while police investigations like this may sometimes ensnare innocent men, it seemed far-fetched that, as the left-wing blogger David Kurtz cruelly put it, "he P R E S S W A T C H UnstatesmanlikeConduct 4 8 T H E A M E R I C A N S P E C T A T O R N O V E M B E R 2 0 0 7 by James Taranto I N O V E M B E R 2 0 0 7 T H E A M E R I C A N S P E C T A T O R 4 9 wassofearfulofbeingwronglyoutedasagaymanthat he wrongly pleaded guilty to charges arising from [allegedly] seeking gay sex in a public restroom...
...The accusations against Craig--which include nothing as obtrusive as Packwood's forcible groping and kissing of women in his office--might neverhavecomeouthadthemainstreammediabeen acting alone...
...Thehypocrisycharge,however,doesnotstandup...
...They began in 1982, when Craig, then a freshman House member, issued an odd pre-emptive denial of untowardbehaviorwithcongressionalpages.(Thenext yeartheHousecensuredtwoothermembers,inascandalthatwasbothbisexualandbipartisan...
...TWASMONDAY, AUGUST27,whentheCapitolHillnewspaperRollCallbrokethenewsthatIdaho'sSenatorLarry Craig had pleaded guilty to misdemeanor disorderly conduct in a June sex-solicitation sting at a Minneapolis airport men's room...
...At first, Craig objected to the man's anonymity, but agreed to listen...
...J A M E ST A R A N T O Onedifferencebetween1992and 2007isthattheInternetthenwasan obscuresubcultureandtherewas nosuchthingasablog...
...The Statesman had not set a world speed record for indoor muckraking...
Vol. 40 • November 2007 • No. 9
