I was 19 years old when I met Amelia. I was a young
upstart college newspaper editor. She was a returning student probably
about 25 years older.
We were good friends and colleagues until her death
about 10 years ago, and she taught me a lot about the fight that gays
and lesbians have waged to gain acceptance and rights in the United
States.
I was raised in a family that accepted what many
would consider “difference” — ability, belief,
politics. As a professional in the realms of journalism, film and
theater, I have always valued the diversity of these professions. But
it was Amelia who, for me, personified the issues involving gay and
lesbian rights. She knew firsthand what the struggle was about. As a
member of this country’s military in the 1960s and ’70s,
she recalled the lengths she and others had to go through to stay clear
of military investigators seeking them out for discipline and likely
discharge.
As we learned the craft of journalism together, we
understood the importance of fact, fair play, and understanding as many
sides of an issue as possible in the pursuit of truth.
So it is with Amelia in mind that I find recent
public accusations of homophobia against me (and my students) terribly
disappointing.
Until March 3, these accusations were limited to
the realm of academics at San Diego City College, where I advise the
student newspaper. Even then, the accusations were spread to my
students, and involved not just me but two of those students directly.
Given the public nature of e-mail, and its abuse of it in my classes
recently, these accusations were already starting to make whispered
rounds. But they have now truly entered the public arena after a
supposedly “factual” story was published under the news
section of a San Diego “magazine” ironically named
Zenger’s.
Why ironic? As the magazine’s own staff box
states, Zenger’s Newsmagazine is named for the man whose 1735
case basically established truth as a defense against libel. It was in
1735 that John Peter Zenger published an article critical of New
York’s governor. His attorney, Andrew Hamilton, successfully
argued that Zenger’s articles were not libelous because they were
based on fact.
This is hardly the case with the magazine that
carries his name, in my view. It is the accusations that this magazine
apparently failed to vet in its supposed pursuit of truth that I am now
defending myself from.
In the March 2009 print and online editions of
Zenger’s Newsmagazine, a journalism student of mine, Leo E.
Laurence, published a story accusing me, two editors and the newspaper
itself of homophobia. This has been an ongoing issue between me,
Laurence and the staff since we started the semester in January.
In communal e-mails based on innuendo without
documentation (i.e., facts), he held two of my students up to public
ridicule to the rest of the newspaper staff. He held me to the same
public ridicule to my students by accusing me (and them) of homophobia,
as well. The level of accusations (of which my defense is documented in
facts) reached the levels of college management.
In the interest of academic due process, it is not
appropriate for me to address anything beyond what was printed in
Zenger’s. The investigation on campus will take its course. It is
the now-public accusations contained in Zenger’s that I am
compelled to address — publicly.
Among the questionable tactics used by the magazine:
In its online version, Zenger’s ran a photo taken by Leo
Laurence of my students — in a session of class — without
Leo Laurence either acknowledging he was covering the students for an
article, nor identifying himself as a journalist for Zenger's. The act
of taking a photo for news is not my concern; it's the fact it was
taken clandestinely without their knowledge. There is also a direct
conflict of interest since he himself is a member of the City Times
staff while serving as associate editor of Zenger’s. From what I
have observed, the photo was taken under false pretenses, used under
false pretenses. Worse is the caption, linking every student in my
class as being “under investigation” for homophobia.
I have worked in journalism locally since 1991 as
an award-winning publisher, editor and writer. From 1995 to 2000, I
served full-time as a copy editor/wire editor/designer at the North
County Times. From 2000 to 2005, I served as an assistant news editor
at The San Diego Union-Tribune, first as a full-timer and then on
part-time contracts as I transitioned into teaching. I now publish the
online news journal North Coast Current, occasionally contribute as a
writer to the Rancho Santa Fe Review, and teach full-time at San Diego
City College.
After Leo Laurence’s article was published, I
respectfully asked the publisher of Zenger’s Newsmagazine to
allow me the opportunity to respond to the unsubstantiated accusations
contained in his publication. He never responded.
The publisher failed, as far as I am concerned, in
his due diligence to fact-check and confirm the veracity of Leo
Laurence’s claims before passing his account off as
“news.” In my professional assessment, that is journalistic
negligence.
And to quote Amelia’s classic last line in
her college columns — “That’s how I see
it.”
She — as do I — would have expected
nothing less than fair treatment in the face of such accusations. She
certainly had the life experience to hold that expectation.
All I can tell you ultimately is this — the
way Leo E. Laurence has behaved in this public endeavor, he certainly
didn’t learn it from me.
