Jul 18, 2008  |  By: CHRIS JOHNSON  | COMMENTS     

The news that longtime Wash-ington Post editor Len Downie is stepping down in September has some media watchdogs hopeful that the paper will change its policies regarding coverage of gay issues.

Marcus Brauchli, former managing editor of the Wall Street Journal, is set to become executive editor of the Post on Sept. 8. He will succeed Downie, who led the paper for 17 years.

Rupert Murdoch, who took control of the Journal in December, forced Brauchli (pronounced BROW-klee) out of his position there in April, reportedly because of disagreements over editorial policy. The New York Times estimated that the payout Brauchli received for leaving was between $3-5 million.

The Post named him as the new executive editor July 7.

Brauchli, 47, takes control of the paper at a time when some have criticized the Post’s handling of gay stories.

Pam Spaulding, who operates the popular Pam’s House Blend site, said the change in leadership can only help the Post, given the paper’s history of not disclosing the sexual orientation of openly gay people.

“This has been a problem not only at the Post, but at many mainstream non-LGBT news outlets, where sexual orientation is ‘private’ — except when you’re heterosexual,” she said.

One recent story that drew criticism was Downie’s handling of news about Maj. Alan Rogers, a gay U.S. Army soldier who was killed in January in Iraq. Downie personally edited the story and omitted any mention of the soldier’s sexual orientation or his work for a group fighting to overturn the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy.

Deborah Howell, ombudsman for the Post, wrote that Downie felt there was no proof that Rogers was gay or that he wanted such information to be made public. The Blade confirmed that he was openly gay and was the first media outlet to address Rogers’ sexual orientation.

Ultimately, Howell concluded the Post erred in its coverage of Rogers’ death.

“The Post was right to be cautious,” she wrote, “but there was enough evidence — particularly of Rogers’s feelings about “don’t ask, don’t tell” — to warrant quoting his friends and adding that dimension to the story of his life. The story would have been richer for it.”

Spaulding said the Post’s handling of the Rogers story is an example of the “unfortunate” insistence under Downie to “re-closet individuals as a matter of editorial practice.”

The Post stylebook states that a person’s sexual orientation should not be mentioned unless relevant. The guidelines also caution against identifying someone as gay because such a disclosure may be “invading the privacy of someone who may not wish to his or her sexual orientation known.”

Despite the criticism, a number of organizations claim the Post has been fair in its coverage of gay issues.

Eric Hegedus, president of the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association, said the Post under Downie’s leadership has done “a pretty decent job” with gay stories, even though there have been stumbles, such as the Rogers incident.

“I think there was an awareness that gay or LGBT issues have to be covered as well as possible,” he said. “I would be hard-pressed in recent memory to come up with much that was particularly egregious.”

Hegedus also commended the Post for its staff diversity and deciding earlier this decade to publish marriage announcements for same-sex couples.

Rashad Robinson, senior director of media programs for the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, said the Post has done significant work in “telling the stories of GLBT lives.”

Robinson said his organization’s main concern with the Post is its use of the word “homosexual,” which GLAAD considers a pejorative, instead of the word “gay.”

Besides the Rogers story, the Post has been criticized for other coverage of gay subject matter, although it’s unknown how much of a role Downie played in the editing of those stories.

When filmmaker Ismail Merchant died in 2005, the Post, and other mainstream media outlets, failed to mention that fellow filmmaker James Ivory was his partner. Similarly, the Post and other outlets did not mention that writer Susan Sontag had a female partner in coverage of her death in 2004.

In another case, when openly gay Sgt. Robert Schoonover of the D.C. Police Department committed suicide, his death merited a one-sentence mention in a 2006 Post story about another officer who committed suicide. The Blade reported allegations of homophobia in the police department that some speculated played a role in Schoonover’s death.

The paper has also been accused of inadequate coverage of the debate over the Employment Non-Discrimination Act and of Capital Pride in the past, though it did feature the ...