The New York Times has a baffling piece on a gay Republican political consultant marrying his partner in a civil ceremony in Massachusetts. By most standards of the newsworthy – time to pull out your first-year journalism notes – this story has no reason for being. The wedding was in December; he lives in Massachusetts, so it wasn’t a trek; his sexuality has been known for several years at the least (40 years with the same partner); he’s a self-described libertarian who has said publicly the party is getting too close with Christian conservatives and going the wrong way on social policy. As an out-of-the-closet gay man, he helped socially conservative Republicans get elected – like Jesse Helms – showing he has priorities that outrank gay marriage. If he were leading a high-profile campaign for gay marriage, or suddenly stopped consulting for socially conservative candidates, this might be worth a story. But 1) keeping quiet on the issue 2) private wedding 3) still helping candidates he disagrees with on gay marriage? Believe it or not, many Republicans, gay and straight, disagree with the party leadership on gay marriage, and yet they remain and try to persuade instead of stomping off. If a prominent pro-life Democratic consultant privately donated money to the National Right to Life Committee, would that warrant a story? This is a huge stretch for the Times, which apparently really wants to stoke a fire on the GOP’s internal arguments about gay marriage, regardless of how newsworthy the story is. Fortunately because the central interview happened on Friday, this non-story ran on Saturday, the least-read day of the week.
I’m a tech journalist who’s making a TV show about a college newspaper.