[bit.listserv.gaynet] Discussion on Crossfire

jonesra@SILVER.UCS.INDIANA.EDU (rex jones) (02/10/90)

From watching Crossfire tonight (It's replayed sometime after 1am) it appears
that Rooney had a meeting with the head of CBS News yesterday, and was not able
to talk his way out of the problem. Rooney said that he would accept the d
decision of CBS News and not fight the suspension. One of the guests (a former
reporter for ABC) said that this seemed to him to be an admission of guilt by
Rooney (the other guests were a member of the G/L Anti-defamation Association
{or something like that} and a west coast media critic who is a major spokesman
for Accuracy in Media).

The GLADA person made the point that CBS should have suspended or fired Rooney
for his anti-gay statements earlier, and that it was a double-standard tgat
(sorry...that) they didn't. He also said that the head of CBS News is now
allowing G/L literature to be passed out at CBS News.

The reporter (who is African-American) seemed to think that the racist stateme-
ments were MUCH more important than the anti-gay statements and went out of his
way to explain why. The AIM person tried to paint the question as one of Rooney
stating a scientific theory (going so far as to back it up with a cite of an
Atlantic Monthly by a Harvard Professor...I don't remember the name...which
allegedly says the same thing Rooney did...there wasn't a title of the article
given by the AIMer) that he accepted as correct.

Pat Buchannan (the EVIL co-host) made it clear that he feels Rooney's statement
that gay unions = death was quite correct.

Editorial: I wish someone would go on Crossfire and tell Mr. Buchannan that the
only difference between his anti-gay bigotry and Rooney's is that Buchannan is
smart enough to couch his hatred in Religious terms (Pat's Catholic) and Rooney
isn't. It would make my day for someone on that show to say that Pat is a bigot,
and that he should be called to the Woodshed by Ted Turner for that.