John Roberts Apologizes

I wrote to CNN reporter John Roberts a few minutes after he made his comment about people with AIDS on the network's morning news show on December 12. He replied very quickly:

Thanks very much for your email this morning. First, let me assure you that I certainly did not intend to convey what you suggest I did in that ‘tease’ to commercial. It was a hastily written script, and I readily admit the choice of words could have been better.

I have nothing but the utmost compassion for victims of this horrible disease, and personally, I see no demarcation of pre/post Ryan White. As the medical correspondent for CBS in the 90s, I did innumerable reports on the fight against HIV/AIDS, a period during which, thankfully, enormous strides were made in treatment.

Please accept my assurance that nothing pejorative was meant in our tease to commercial – one of the hazards of live television – but your note is a sharp reminder to me to be more vigilant in the future.

Thanks again for writing,

John Roberts

American Morning

CNN

Although the words "I'm sorry" or "I apologize" don't appear here, I still count this as an apology.

I've never worked in live television, and I imagine it's not easy. Cliches like "putting a human face on ..." come easily to the tongue, and people say them without necessarily thinking through the implications of what they're actually saying.

As far as I know, John Roberts does not have a history of either insensitivity or animus toward gay people or toward people with AIDS. So I take him at his word that this was a careless slip that betrays no hostility.

Now if only the subject of Roberts' news story - Mike Huckabee - could show a little humanity himself. His reaction to the revelation of his '92 quarantine comments is to express a willingness to meet with Ryan White's mother.

A critical component of the desire to quarantine AIDS patients back in the '80s and early '90s was animus toward gay people. Toss in the fear of disease, and you had a volatile mix.

Unlike John Roberts, Mike Huckabee has a long history of hostility toward recognizing the basic human rights of gay and lesbian Americans. This history extends to the present day.

Huckabee's attitude toward gay people does not seem to have advanced much since the dark days of the 1980s.

CNN Anchor Dehumanizes Gays

Leading in to commercial at 7:10 am on Dec 12, 2007, John Roberts said that Mike Huckabee was willing to meet the mother of Ryan White, the boy "who put a human face on the [AIDS] crisis."

Roberts's characterization of those who died before Ryan White is breathtaking in its callousness. Because most who died before White were gay men, they were not human? Did they deserve what they got?

Ryan White didn't put a "human face" on the crisis; he put a *non-gay* face on the crisis. In the America of that era, that's what was needed to get most people to pay attention to this horrible disease and its victims. Because most with AIDS were gay, Ronald Reagan would not even say the word "AIDS" and he refused to see the AIDS Quilt when it was on the National Mall.

Most of the country has moved on since then. I guess John Roberts has not.

Has CNN? We shall see by how it responds.