A few weeks ago, I got a call from my friend Michael Smerconish, formerly of MSNBC and now on CNN. We met years ago when he started his media career with a radio talk show. He’s one of a rare breed in media: He does his research and he actually cares about the story he covers. But one story caused him some pain on how best to present it. He had been working on a story regarding Westboro Baptist Church, the church famous for picketing funerals of dead servicemembers with signs that refer to the dead as victims of a U.S. system that promotes homosexuality, proclaiming messages such as “death to homos” — something that has gotten Westboro lots of media attention over the years.
A father of one of those servicemembers who died and whose funeral had been picketed by Westboro had written Michael a letter. As Michael tells me the story, it appears to me to be similar to the case that made its way to the Supreme Court last year and garnered much national publicity. When a decorated Marine died in Afghanistan and Westboro picketed the funeral, the father sued for invasion of privacy. And, as expected, the man lost his case because of the First Amendment, freedom of speech.
Michael shot back, “Yes, that’s the case, but there’s a twist.” Michael reached out to be assured that he was being sensitive not only to Mr. Snyder, the father of the late Marine, but also to the LGBT issues surrounding the case, and the twist. Michael didn’t want to sensationalize a story, but at the same time he felt there was a story here that needed to be told. And he was correct. Turns out that the father suing Westboro was gay, in a long-term relationship and his son knew about it since he was 14 and had treated his father’s partner, Walt, like an uncle. After getting the brief summary, I told Michael that it’s a good story and he’s very capable in handling it with sensitivity. For me this is a coming-of-age story. First we have Michael, a media personality wanting to do more than just shout out sensationalized stories about our community. Then there’s a father who comes out of a difficult situation, but feels a victory in losing to the hated Westboro Baptist Church … and he did. Note how all lines come together since this case gave Westboro its exit ticket. Have you seen them in the media of late? Chances are they won’t get much media attention anymore.
Mark Segal, PGN publisher, is the nation’s most-award-winning commentator in LGBT media. He can be reached at [email protected].