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America's Newsmagazines in Review By Liz Tracey GLAAD Publications Manager The end of a year, much like an anniversary, often finds newspapers and magazine reflecting on events past. Among the national publications with special "Year in Review" issues were Time, Newsweek and U.S. News and World Report. GLAADAlert thought that this presented us with an opportunity to briefly review the major newsmagazines, both for their coverage throughout 1998, as well as for their "Year in Review" issues. TIME: When Time's year-end issue hit the newsstands, a collective groan issued from the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. The lack of community presence in the magazine's pages was particularly resonant in light of the 75th anniversary issue, where again, no true representation of the community's contributions to history were to be found. While there is no doubt that Time's coverage of events has exceeded the other national newsmagazines (if only in sheer volume,) somehow when Time is putting together its lists of important events and people, the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community somehow becomes lost in the shuffle.
 December 1998: In its double year-end "Person of the Year" issue, in which Time declares President Clinton and Special Prosecutor Kenneth Starr "Men of the Year," real coverage of the lesbian, gay bisexual and transgender community is nowhere to be found. Eleven pages are devoted to slugger Mark McGwire's breaking of Roger Maris' home run record. Most egregiously, a section, entitled "Second Acts," covers Viagra, the Jonesboro school shootings, the Seinfeld finale, and the duel between Tara Lipinski and Michelle Kwan for dominance in the women's ice skating arena. The only mentions (quite literally) of lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender news are a small photo of Matthew Shepard in the year-end news quiz. Also, in the Letters section, there is a note on the online poll for person of the year, which at press time, Matthew Shepard had won, stating only that deceased people are not eligible for consideration.
October 1998: The death of Matthew Shepard brought outstanding coverage from Time writer Howard Chua-Eoan, among others, who wrote movingly and hauntingly about Shepard in an article entitled "That's not a scarecrow". Time also devoted a cover story to Matthew Shepard, and coverage of the state of the lesbian and gay community. December 1998: In an article on Tom Hanks, the reporters, in trying to convey how "nice" he is, talks about how Hanks is "not secretly gay, or having unnatural relations with certain varieties of fish…". GLAAD has been in contact with Walter Isaacson, Managing Editor of Time Magazine, and is anticipating further action on the sparse and coverage devoted to the community, particularly when preparing special issues. GLAAD urges readers to contact Time directly with their own feelings about how Time's continuing "oversights" of lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender people affect them as readers and consumers. Contact: Walter Isaacson Managing Editor Time Magazine Time-Life Building 1271 Avenue of the Americas New York, NY 10020 Fax: (212) 522-8949 E-mail: Letters@time.com (Be sure to include name, address, and phone number with all letters.) Newsweek:
The year's coverage of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and
transgender community in Newsweek was nothing if not paradoxical. While
many events went unnoticed, or underreported, such as the referenda in
Hawaii and Alaska, and the election of Tammy Baldwin, the first openly gay
or lesbian person ever elected to Congress as a first-time representative,
other were given multiple pages, with little real balanced content.
May 1998: Carren Strock writes a "My Turn" column about after many years of marriage, coming out as a lesbian. GLAADAlert found the story "poignant" and "respectful of all families." August 1998: Newsweek devotes eight pages to a cover story package entitled "Gay For Life?," examining the anti-gay ad campaign which was waged during the summer of 1998 against the lesbian, gay, bisexual transgender community. In addition to the title story and sidebars, the particularly skewed nature of the representations stands out prominently. One, of a "well-adjusted" gay man, makes him appear as if he has been condemned, the other is the traditional bare-chested gay men at a Pride parade shot. In addition, Newsweek chose to run a piece by OUT editor in chief James Collard. The positioning of the piece created the expectation that it was meant to be a response to the extremists who dominated the previous pages. In fact, Collard's piece was a serviceable explanation of a controversial position taken on the part of the author in an earlier public forum, and engaged none of the issues raised by the previous pages. GLAAD met with Newsweek, and discussed their concerns with editors. GLAADAlert requested readers to contact Newsweek with their concerns directly, in light of the slanted nature of the articles, and lack of community representation and response included. October 1998: After the murder of Matthew Shepard, Newsweek's coverage is described as "jaundiced" in a GLAADAlert roundup. While covering Shepard's death in Wyoming, the writer also included an episode in Shepard's past that might have been intended to show him as naïve, but may have served instead to feed people's belief that lesbians and gay men "ask for it" by approaching people who they're interested in. However, in the same issue, writer Jonathan Alter wrote an excellent piece on hate crimes legislation, thus making their Shepard coverage up to this point a "draw." December 1998: In an article entitled "The Last Days and Nights of A Martyr," reporter Mark Miller explores Matthew Shepard's last days, during which, he writes, "Shepard was drinking more and fighting a slow slide into despair, even though he was taking prescription drugs to control depression." The GLAADAlert observed, "Sadly, what Newsweek has done is drawn a picture right out of Jacqueline Susann's "Valley of the Dolls," of a young man sliding towards his demise on a road strewn with emotional problems, substance abuse, and a "party boy" mentality." A more informative story might have included an examination of the loneliness and isolation that Shepard must have felt in Laramie as a young gay man. The Year in Review: In their year-end double issue (January 4, 1998) issue called "Perspectives 98," Newsweek covered the presidential impeachment, international news, and the cultural phenomena brought up by the current events of 1998 (articles included: "Let's Talk About Sex," "Hype, Hope and Cancer," and "A One in a Million Year." In a section of quotes and cartoons summing up the year past, one quote stands in for the entire Matthew Shepard story. "Sometimes we forget in the middle of our little gay lives that they hate us. They want to kill us." This was overheard from an unidentified speaker at a New York City vigil after Shepard's death. No coverage is given to the Alaska and Hawaii referenda, the election of Tammy Baldwin, the ex-gays ads (which seemed so important earlier in the year to Newsweek with the "Gay For Life?" cover). Contact: Mark Whitaker Managing Editor Newsweek 251 West 57th Street New York, NY 10019-1894 Fax: (212) 445-4120 E-mail: letters@newsweek.com (Be sure to include name, address, and phone number with all letters.) U.S. News And World Report:
May 1998: A story on Focus on the Family leader James Dobson manages to completely ignore his strenuous anti-gay activity, instead creating a picture of Dobson as a homespun, grandfatherly Christian with simple ways. Anyone familiar with the multi-million dollar budget, worldwide radio network and media empire that Dobson has built up in pursuit of political religious power knows otherwise. Focus on the Family outspokenly lobbied for Colorado's Amendment 2, and worked with the Family Research Council to produce The Homosexual Agenda, a gay-baiting tract used to fight against equal rights for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. October 1998: Coverage of the death of Matthew Shepard contained a good "hard news" story about his death, yet was unfortunately muted by John Leo's call to prohibit prosecutions of crimes motivated by hate under stricter or more stringent laws. A year end issue also failed to produce notable (or noteworthy) coverage of any of the major issues or people of concern to not simply our community, but our country as a whole. Sadly, U.S. News and World Report seems to be under the impression that none of their readers are interested in lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues, or that there are no readers who actually are members of the community. Contact: Harrison Rainie Managing Editor U.S. News & World Report 2400 N Street N.W. Washington D.C. 20037-1177 Fax: (202) 955-2685, E-mail: letters@usnews.com. (Be sure to include name, address, and phone number with all letters.) _____________________________________ Visit GLAAD Online: http://www.glaad.org |
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