The executive director of the GLBT Center of Central Florida is taking a local television news station to task for its coverage of the launch of On My Honor, a group dedicated to maintaining the Boy Scouts’ current ban on gay members and scout leaders.
Randy Stephens contacted WESH after its 6 p.m. report on March 23, where it discussed On My Honor’s press conference announcing the group’s goals. In the WESH report – a truncated version of which was available online as of press time – reporter Amanda Ober uses the phrase “open homosexuality” at least four times when describing pro-gay activists’ goal to lift the Boy Scouts ban on gays, according to Stephens. It appears twice in the online version.
Many find the word “homosexual” offensive when describing gays. Because of the word’s clinical history, many anti-gay activists use “homosexual” to imply that gay people are disordered, and it tops the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) media reference guide of offensive terms to avoid.
Stephens said he spoke to a WESH news assignment editor at 8 p.m. on March 23 to complain about both the use of the offensive phrase, and that the reporter failed to talk to any of the community’s LGBT leaders when covering the story. According to Stephens, the longer TV report only used a quote from a press release he issued six months ago, but did not bother to contact Stephens even though his phone number was included in that press release.
Stephens said he explained the offensive history of “homosexual” to the editor, who promised to review the language used in the report and on WESH’s website. Stephens was “surprised and extremely disappointed” to see the exact report, with the same offensive language, rerun on the 11 p.m. news broadcast.
There are also questionable language choices on WESH’s online report, written by reporter Michelle Mullen. It appears alongside a shortened version of Ober’s broadcast report, and uses the phrase “open homosexuality” as well. Mullen’s report also describes On My Honor’s press conference as a “debate,” when it was clearly a press conference that only allowed anti-gay activists affiliated with the group to speak.
On March 25, WESH News Director Bob Longo responded to Stephens via email.
“I regret that your initial phone message wasn’t passed along to our producer and that we did not seek a rebuttal comment – both these actions would have likely prompted a change in copy and made your follow-up unnecessary,” Longo’s email said.
He also promised to use Stephens’ feedback to follow up with managers and producers, “so that the correct terminology will be used in future stories.”
Stephens has invited Longo to have a face-to-face discussion of the issue in order to avoid further misunderstandings.
