By CHRIS JOHNSON, Washington Blade
Apr 3 2008, 12:49 PM |
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A Wikipedia article about
Maj. Alan Rogers, a gay soldier who was killed in January in Iraq, was
apparently edited by someone in the Pentagon, who removed any mention that
Rogers was gay.
The user on Monday redacted
details about Rogers that appeared on the online encyclopedia site. Information
that was deleted included Rogers’ sexual orientation; the soldier’s
participation in American Veterans for Equal Rights, a group that works to
change military policy toward gays; and the fact that Rogers’ death helped
bring the U.S. military’s casualty toll in Iraq to 4,000.
Rob Pilaud, a patent agent
and a friend of Rogers who attended the soldier’s funeral, restored the
information to the Wikipedia article the next day. Pilaud was among Rogers’
friends who created the Wikipedia page.
The anonymous poster also
provided the following comment in the “discussion” section about the article:
“Alan’s life was not about
his sexual orientation but rather about the body of work he performed
ministering to others and helping the defense of the country,” the poster
wrote. “Quit trying to press an agenda that Alan wouldn’t have wanted made
public just to suit your own ends.”
The IP address attached to
the deletion of the details and the posted comments is 141.116.168.135. The
address belongs to a computer from the office of the Army Deputy Chief of Staff
for Intelligence (G-2) at the Pentagon. The office is headed by Lt. Gen. John
Kimmons, who was present at Rogers’ funeral and presented the flag from Rogers’
coffin to his cousin, Cathy Long.
The Army’s public affairs
office did not return a call seeking comment.
Pilaud noted that while the
computer where the changes originated can be found, the identity of the user
remains unknown.
“Obviously, we still don’t
know who accessed the computer at this IP address — it could have been a
general, it could have been a civilian contractor, it could have been anyone
with access to their computer,” he said.
At Rogers’ funeral Kimmons
acted “very business-like” and was respectful toward the fallen soldier and his
family, Pilaud said.
Pilaud is asking Rogers’
friends for biographical information on the fallen solider to enhance the
Wikipedia article. Pilaud said he thinks the online article should “be a
balanced view of his life,” disclose the fact that Rogers was gay and discuss
Rogers’ feelings on military policy toward gays.
“With Wikipedia, at least,
I simply want to present objective information about Alan — about who he was,
what he did with his life and what he would have wanted,” he said.
Rogers, 40, was killed Jan.
27 in Iraq when an improvised explosive device hit his Humvee. The Army
posthumously awarded him a Purple Heart and a second Bronze Star. He was buried
in Arlington National Cemetery on March 14.
Rogers’ death caused controversy
because media sources such as the Washington Post and National Public Radio did
not mention that Rogers was gay in coverage of the soldier.
Deborah Howell, ombudsman
for the Post, wrote a column on the Post’s coverage of Rogers’ death and said
the Post originally planned to include his sexual orientation in its coverage.
Executive Editor Len Downie, however, decided to excise that information
because there was no proof that Rogers was gay and no indication the soldier
wanted his sexual orientation to be made public, Howell said.
Howell concluded that the
Post story “would have been richer” if it had disclosed Rogers’ sexual
orientation, particularly because his feelings on the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”
policy were known.
The media coverage of
Rogers’ death is causing gay organizations and journalism scholars to question
the appropriate way to handle gay subjects in the media.
The Post’s decision to omit
Rogers’ sexual orientation from its coverage is the not first time a major
media source withheld such information. When filmmaker Ismail Merchant died in
2005, most mainstream media sources did not mention that James Ivory was his
partner. Similarly, many media outlets did not mention that Susan Sontag had a female
partner in coverage of her death in 2004.
Roy Clark, a senior scholar
and the vice president of the Poynter Institute, a journalism school based in
St. Petersburg, Fla., said the Post made “a big mistake” by not disclosing
information on Rogers’ sexual orientation in the article about him.
Clark emphasized that he
spoke for himself and not on behalf of the Poynter Institute.
“It’s obvious that … this
was not just a private part of his life, but it was a public part of his life
and his identity and his belief system,” he said.
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