To the editors:
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The story so far–Outlines has reported the names of closet gays who are felt to be politically incorrect often with little more proof than the person’s name mentioned by what Outlines calls activists but I call thugs, informers and hooligans. Defending their policy on WBEZ, when asked by the moderator how they avoid slander and libel suits, Outlines said the paper reports on “what people say at rallies or bars” and simply report those comments! Then, members of the staff began outing people on the air over the objections of the host. All the while claiming they were against outing. (Including naming a former governor). In Tracy’s phony letter to the Reader of June 7 the first few paragraphs were spent denying the paper supported libel and slander, until one read to the end of the second paragraph when they admit they most certainly have reported names as news. This is what a lawyer calls positioning. If they report the names, they claim it is news, that is a legal nuance meant to protect the paper with no regard to journalistic ethics or human emotions.
It is also funny to me that she defends hiding her writers’ names but refuses to answer specific charges–has Outlines been used as a source for supermarket tabloids or not? I have the issues, Tracy. I collect gossip publications from the old Confidential to Fertile la Toya and the Star. I have the issues Outlines was quoted in. Answer the question (or call your lawyers so they can find a convoluted way to defend your practice). The thing that really bugs me is that the tabloids are always placing snitches around celebrities and their kids–in Chicago when a game-show host’s son was at college one tabloid was offering $10,000 for any dirt anyone could find on the poor kid. Outlines gives information away for free!
I repeat the warning I gave on May 24. Those who support the politically correct movement should scrutinize the outing movement which punishes the incorrect. It began there. It has hit the campuses. It will backfire against the far, far left. It is a public relations nightmare. Don’t do it. The same week my letter appeared in the Reader Nat Hentoff and the Village Voice ran articles criticizing using sex as a political tool and banning free speech on school campuses. The backlash is starting, not from the right, but from concerned citizens and publications from the middle and left.
