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 NBC's Today Book Tour Gambit Has Allowed Unproven Speculations to Foment Anti-Gay Bigotry Meanwhile NBC Omits the Gay Identity of Hero, Mark Bingham |
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Compiled by GayToday Courtesy of GLAAD
NBC's Today: A Transcript of Matt Lauer's Interview 
New York, New York--Even as the effects of September 11 on gay and
lesbian Americans continue to go largely unreported, some media outlets have
chosen as our community's most newsworthy event the well-worn speculation
that Adolf Hitler may have been gay.
That's exactly what happened October 15 as NBC's Today became the latest stop on German author Lothar Machtan's publicity tour for his new book, The Hidden Hitler. In one teaser for the interview, co-host Matt Lauer said: "There have been 120,000 books, give or take a few, written about Adolf Hitler since his death. The newest one claims that Hitler was actually gay, and that his homosexuality was at the root of his evil.". Machtan's speculation about Hitler's sexual orientation is, of course, just that. By his own admission Machtan's research and, indeed, the premise for his assumptions are without proof or empirical verification.
It also is extremely disappointing that NBC News and Matt Lauer would invite Machtan's speculations without a rigorous line of questioning to examine the validity of his sources and conclusions. Please write to NBC News and let them know how you feel about Matt Lauer's interview with Lothar Machtan, as well as the continued invisibility of real LGBT lives in NBC's post-attack coverage. Contact: Andrea Smith Literary Editor Today NBC Television Network 30 Rockefeller Plaza New York, NY 10112-0002 Fax: 212.664.2914 E-mail: today@nbc.com |
