The Wenner free-for-all signaled a significant change in the way the press deals with a once taboo issue. Just five years ago ““outing’’ was the sole province of radical publications like the now defunct OutWeek. But now, the practice of uncloseting gays has begun to drift into the mainstream. The shift has journalists asking whether reporting a person’s sexual orientation is just the latest chapter in the tabloidization of news, or a legitimate attempt to treat gay people the same as everyone else. ““If Jann Wenner had left his wife for a beautiful 28-year-old woman how would it be reported?’’ asks Gabriel Rotello, who writes a column for New York Newsday on gay issues.
Journalists are still grappling with answers to such questions. Under the old rules, outing was rarely acceptable at major media outlets. In 1990, when OutWeek ran an article purporting to detail the secret homosexual life of publishing magnate Malcolm Forbes, many news organizations published pieces saying that a major figure had been outed, but didn’t use his name – even though he’d been dead for two months.
News organizations are slowly moving away from the don’t-ask-don’t-tell approach. They argue that if a person’s sexual peccadilloes are germane to a story there’s a legitimate reason to include them. Six weeks ago, when it first appeared the Wenners’ breakup might jeopardize his magazines, Newsweek published an article without discussing Wenner’s extramarital affair. Editors considered his concern about his young children, and the fact that no one else had disclosed his sexual activities in print. Four weeks later, Journal editors decided Wenner’s homosexuality was newsworthy, since a marital split could damage his closely held media empire. “"[It] was relevant to a very interesting story,’’ says a WSJ spokesman.
But relevance isn’t a static concept. For the most part, media organizations didn’t touch the Wenner story until after the New York Post weighed in with its account (chart). And just a few years ago, they probably wouldn’t have mentioned it at all. Why the shift? ““Times have changed,’’ says former OutWeek columnist Michelangelo Signorile. ““Homosexuality is no longer the most horrible thing in the world to report.''
Not everyone believes the media was acting for noble reasons. ““You can always find a notion of relevance to expose sexual proclivities,’’ says Tom Goldstein, dean of the journalism school at the University of California, Berkeley. ““Whether [Wenner’s magazine] “Family Life’ was going to be sold or not seems a stretch.’’ Deb Price, a columnist on gay issues for Gannett, says media emphasis on gay-celebrity sex lives creates a picture of homosexuality as ““a dirty little secret;’’ she favors more stories about everyday gay life. But as the rules are rewritten to introduce equality into news coverage of gays, what was once a dirty little secret may become just another fact of life.
takes the first step in outing Jann Wenner with a veiled reference to former model Matt Nye as ““man of the moment,’’ 28-year-old friend to ““Ross Bleckner, David Geffen [both of whom are openly gay] and Jann Wenner.''
spots Wenner and Nye at Nobu, the chic TriBeCa watering hole. Once again Bleckner’s in the background, dining at a nearby table.
is the first publication to identify Nye as Wenner’s ““new companion’’; item buried on gossip page.
runs a Business story examining impact of a Wenner divorce on the couple’s publishing empire.
a mainstream British paper, outs Wenner, reporting he’d left his wife for a man.
reports on the British report, and so outs Wenner – at long last.
speculates on the division of spoils in the crumbling Wenner marriage, its front-page piece touching on Jann’s now public behavior.
weighs in with an account of the affair, focusing on how and when it was covered in the press.
pokes fun at the media’s tiptoeing its way around celebrity outing.
