<% IssueDate = "7/21/03" IssueCategory = "Events" %> GayToday.com - Top Story
Top Story
White House is Accused
of Smearing a Canadian Gay Journalist


Angered by His ABC Report on Plummeting Iraq Troop Morale

Bush's Communication Department is Exposed by Matt Drudge

Compiled by GayToday

Washington, D.C.-An openly gay ABC reporter, Jeffrey Kofman, has been said to be the target of a White House smear campaign, according to the famed Internet gossip Matt Drudge. Mr. Drudge has said that the White House communications department tipped him off to the news that "Jeffrey Kofman is not only gay, but also Canadian."

The White House, reportedly angered by Kofman's story on sagging U.S. troop morale in Iraq, has denied the charge, one that has nevertheless received international exposure. It was first filed Tuesday on ABC World News Tonight.

Jeffrey Kofman's profile in The Advocate as an openly gay male was cited by Mr. Drudge in his own report.
ABC reporter Jeffrey Kofman

Kofman's report included comments from soldiers in the Second Brigade, Third Infantry Division who were stationed in Fallujah. They were unhappy about the White House's decision to delay their return to the United States, their third postponement.

"Pretty much makes me lose faith in the army. I mean, I don't really believe anything they tell me," said one soldier. Another suggested that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld needs to resign.

General John Abizaid, who heads the U.S. Central Command, told ABC News that the soldiers who had spoken out would be pointedly punished. "None of us that wear this uniform are free to say anything disparaging about the Secretary of Defense or the President of the United States," he said. The soldiers' careers may be at an end, according news reports.

Right wing pundits have been using the controversy surrounding the mainstream outing of the Canadian gay journalist to defend the White House and, simultaneously, to disparage the contributions of gays/ Canadians, indicating that neither category can be trusted with reporting the news.

"When you take a job in the United States in the public eye, that goes with the territory," Mr. Kofman told the Toronto Globe from Baghdad's ABC News Bureau, "My darkest secret has been revealed," he laughed.

Mr. Kofman was gracious with regard to the White House's denial. He said: "I'm going to take the White House at face value and accept the comments that they made, which is that this is the first that they've heard of it and if it did happen then it was totally inappropriate."

Being a disloyal because he's Canadian, doesn't worry him either. "I think people look at all the Canadians at the three networks and scratch their heads at times and say, 'What is it about you Canadians?…I think what it is, is that the CBC is a terrific news organization, and we all got terrific training, so we had this incredible leg up."

Mr. Kofman worked with the Canadian Broadcasting Company for 11 years before moving to CBS News in 1997 and then to ABC. Other ABC journalists from Canada include Gillian Findlay and Peter Jennings.
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