Going After Jeff Jacoby
Wisse, Abigail
Going After Jeff Jacoby by Abigail Wisse Jeff Jacoby is a conservative columnist at the Boston Globe. More to the point, he is the only conservative columnist at the Globe, and he was brought to...
...But when it comes to a matter involving a conservative's column on the need for tolerance of Christian views on sexuality and the inappropriate use of a Holocaust analogy, six phone calls were apparently enough to get Thomas to act...
...A fair question...
...So, on October 23, he was doing his job, and doing it well, when he published a piece about tolerance and free speech...
...The thrust of the column was to attack those at Harvard who would not let others speak," Greenway told the ombudsman...
...And not just any gay staffers...
...His own treatment at the hands of the Boston Globe's ombudsman—and his copy editors—makes Jacoby's argument all the stronger...
...These inspired him to "ferret out" the supposedly aggrieved gay Globe staffers...
...To the gas chambers...
...That wasn't good enough for the ombudsman, who went on to question the accuracy of Jacoby's description of gay protests at the society's meeting...
...Abigail Wisse is an editorial writer at the Washington Times...
...If you criticize any part of this orthodoxy, you show yourself to be a homophobic gay-basher...
...Or you Black and Asian guys...
...Sponsored by the HLS Society for Law, Loathing & Hate...
...Or you, wearing the pink triangle...
...Thomas wrote ominously that "by means of rhetorical devices—'gay activists thronged the entrance'—Jacoby left some readers with an impression that the meeting had been unruly...
...Every year at Harvard University, gays and lesbians on campus celebrate National coming out Day...
...They argued that Jacoby's column was insulting and in violation of a rule enunciated by editorial-page editor David Greenway that "free speech is not a license for the Globe to purvey bigotry or hatred...
...A rhetorical device...
...Op-ed editor Marjorie Pritchard sent the piece to her boss, Greenway, because it made her "uncomfortable...
...A previous Thomas column was based on over 200 angry phone calls to the paper about a specific news story...
...In his column, Jacoby criticized those at Harvard who would equate the advocacy of heterosexuality with fascism and genocide...
...According to Thomas, the op-ed page's copy editors, Peter Accardi and Robert Hardman, "were incensed" by the piece...
...The gods must have a sense of humor," Thomas wrote, because they sent two "gay activists" to the Globe to serve as Jacoby's copy editors—whose job it is to shepherd Jacoby's column from his computer into print...
...Within a day, the Christian group's posters were either torn down or defaced and replaced with a parody that read in part: "For those struggling with Judaism there is hope in the truth...
...More to the point, he is the only conservative columnist at the Globe, and he was brought to the newspaper to serve as its conservative columnist...
...A paper with a circulation as large as the Globe's— 493,000—receives several hundred letters and phone calls a week complaining about something or other...
...The ostensible purpose of a newspaper ombudsman is to serve as an in-house critic, though it is more often the case that the ombudsman plays the role of kind-hearted apologist...
...He began no-holds-barred, describing Jacoby's writings on "gay men and lesbians" as "intolerant, frequently overbearing and sometimes downright insulting...
...he was revealing his own bigotry...
...The fraudulent posters continued with, "Open to the entire Harvard community . . . except you...
...Bring your own rope...
...Yes, the Jewish-looking kid...
...The message was to be delivered by Michael Johnston, a man who had renounced a gay life and taken up both heterosexuality and Christianity...
...Horrors...
...This year, Jacoby told his readers, a Christian group from the law school decided to offer an alternative on that day...
...It was titled "Where's the Tolerance Now...
...Thomas's censoriousness underscores an important truth of our time: Homosexuality must not only be tolerated, it must be advocated...
...The posters advertising the meeting read: "For those struggling with homosexuality, there is hope in the truth...
...But in an extraordinary and unusual move, Thomas devoted his entire November 3 column to an attack on Jacoby...
...But for some staffers at the Globe and especially for the paper's ombudsman, Jack Thomas, Jacoby was not only asking an unfair question...
...When I asked Thomas how he came to write a piece denouncing his colleague in these remarkably strong terms, he told me he had received "six calls and one letter to the editor...
...American Nazi party ID will be required to present proof of non-mongrel ancestry for at least four generations...
...What Jacoby got for his trouble was an explosion of intolerance, and an effort to stymie his speech, from his coworkers...
...Jacoby asked how inviting a man to speak at Harvard about having turned from homosexuality to het-erosexuality and Christianity could be considered on a par with marching Jews into gas chambers...
...The Society for Law, Life & Religion organized a meeting called "National Coming Out of Homosexuality Day...
...He only quotes a Globe reporter in attendance, who said he thought the meeting peaceful and civil...
...He wrote that from the moment of his arrival from the Globe's conservative rival, the Boston Herald, Jeff Jacoby has been a thorn in the side of gay staffers...
...You can walk away...
...The National Coming Out of Diversity Day...
...Dare to suggest that homosexuality may not be something to celebrate," Jacoby wrote, "and instantly you are a Nazi, a hate-monger, a gas-chamber operator...
...Thomas ends his column by saying that, while in this case Jacoby's "offensive" column should have run, "it's a high price to pay for freedom of the press...
...Jeff Jacoby wrote a column about intoler-ance—the intolerance toward those whose views on homosexuality violate the new orthodoxy...
...The group announced a gathering open to all Harvard students with a valid iD at which they would hear a "message of compassion and hope for those who desperately seek a way to leave the lifestyle of self-destruction behind...
...You can walk away...
...And indeed, Thomas offers no evidence to contradict Jacoby's assertion that "gay activists thronged the entrance...
...Anything that does not further the advocacy of homosexuality is by definition a condemnation of homosexuality and by extension all homosexuals...
...But Greenway refused to touch Jacoby's work...
Vol. 3 • November 1997 • No. 10
