Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Kotz / Media / Politics Radio Intelligentsia, NPR, Takes a Turn With Censorship
Posted by Pete Kotz on Tue, May 12, 2009 at 3:14 PM
Kirby Dick's new documentary, Outrage (trailer above), outs closeted gay politicians who vigorously vote against gay rights for reasons too pyschologically complex for we here at Pith to fathom. Outing's always been an ethically tricky affair, but Dick offers a compelling argument for his move: He's taking on people who screw their own simply to cover their secrets.
So it would seem a natural topic for NPR, Official Radio of the Smart & Curious. Dick has appeared on Fresh Air, and the network commissioned a review for its website. But it also engaged in some weird censorship. Since NPR doesn't cover the private lives of pols unless they find compelling reason, editors stripped names of the outed from the review.
That caused some blowback from its own critic, Nathan Lee, who finds the policy a bit hypocritical. As he notes, most media routinely cover private lives when they pertain to public policy -- except on gay issues. As Lee told our sister paper, The Village Voice:
"Let's say (Florida governor) Charlie Crist had a record of voting for vigorous anti-immigration policies, and then it was rumored that he employed illegal immigrants. The press would have absolutely no qualms investigating him to the hilt in the public interest of exposing hypocrisy. Why should it be any different in the case of possibly gay public figures who vote against the civil rights of gay people, or, in the case of HIV/AIDS funding, their very life and death?"
We're going with Lee on this. Who cares if a politician is gay? But as the Voice argues, the "entire subject of the documentary is the hypocrisy of men who behave one way in private life and then try to legislate against that very same behavior in public life."
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