From the moment Mike Wallace began his March 22 60 Minutes report on queer studies, his bias was explicitly clear: "It may surprise you that before we begin this report on a growing field in academia, that we'd have to give you a parental warning, but you should be on notice that some of what you're about to see-indeed some of what is being taught on college campuses today-is for mature audiences only." Wallace leads off the story with a controversy last fall over a SUNY-New Paltz conference on women's sexual freedom. He interviews arch-conservative anti-feminist activist Candace Derussy, identified only as "a trustee of the college" in the story. She derides the conference as a "travesty," calling it a "platform for lesbian sex, for public sadomasochism, anal sex, bisexuality and masturbation." Interviewing the president of the college, Wallace goes on the aggressive, indignantly reading from a pamphlet called Safer Sex Handbook for Lesbians, and commenting, "Please give me a break! This is the academy?" During a discussion of gay history with historians, Wallace gives them time to explain the value of their work without editorializing. "But at the other end of the spectrum," Wallace warns, "we found more debatable scholarship." Wallace sits in on a class where sexuality and power are discussed, and after the professor explains "butch/femme" and "top/bottom" dynamics, Wallace quips, "It was difficult for me to understand how this discussion belonged in a college English class." While he interviews celebrated queer theorist Michael Warner, he also gives significant time to Roger Kimball, managing editor of the arch-conservative journal The New Criterion. Wallace allows Kimball to ramble on about how reports about a lack of education among students is somehow related to "the total politicization of the curriculum," as he calls queer studies. Wallace says, "Wait, total politicization?" When Kimball changes it to "extreme politicization," Wallace fails to follow up with any questioning of how the "politicization" of those seeking to include queer studies is any different than the "politicization" of people like Kimball and Derussy, who fight to exclude and silence academic perspectives outside of their own. Far from objective, Wallace and 60 Minutes irresponsibly make the issue of queer studies far more sensationalistic and lurid than it actually is. Instead of seeing the importance of providing a pamphlet to lesbians, for example, on the issue of safer sex, he sees the work as "dirty" and somehow beneath a university setting. His discomfort with the subject matter outweighs his journalistic integrity. In the past few years, Wallace has expressed regret over his involvement in a 1967 CBS documentary called The Homosexuals that was the original "homosexuals behind potted plants" story, noting that at the time, he lacked the perspective to see gay people as anything more than stigmatized, marginalized, ashamed people. Hopefully, he will soon recognize that the same ill-informed bias was at play in this story. Let CBS and 60 Minutes know that this kind of sensationalistic journalism is beneath such an esteemed program. Contact: … Andrew Heyward, News President CBS Television Network 524 West 57th St. New York, NY 10019-2902 fax: 212.975.9387 … Don Hewitt, Executive Producer 60 Minutes 555 West 57th St. New York, NY 10019-2925 fax: 212.975.2019 The GLAADAlert is the weekly activation tool of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. GLAAD promotes fair, accurate and inclusive representation in the media as a means of challenging homophobia and all forms of discrimination based on sexual orientation or identity. Contact GLAAD by e-mail at glaad@glaad.org or by phone at 213.658.6775 (Los Angeles), 212.807.1700 (New York), 415.861.2244 (San Francisco), 202.986.1360 (Washington, DC), 404.607.1204 (Atlanta) and 816.756.5991 (Kansas City) Feel free to pass GLAADAlert on to friends, family and associates.