News Analysis: SOCO-phobia

LGBT readers of the South Coast's SOCO magazine can be forgiven for doing a double take after seeing the cover for the mag's Valentine's Day issue. Right underneath the headline, "V-Day is for Everyone," comes a teaser that undercuts that message, "We Revisit Gay Marriage and Take Another Look at the Progress (or is it Regress?)."

The teaser is a fitting preview of the content between the covers. The magazine features a package of content focused on same-sex marriage: a pair of editorials that take opposite sides in the debate over whether marriage equality is a good thing for Massachusetts, and an article by the magazine's investigative reporter, Richard Costa, on the local and national debate on same-sex marriage. Yet Costa's article, far from serving as an objective look at the topic -- "just the facts," as he promises early on in the piece -- seems slanted against marriage equality. At the very least Costa's piece shows very little understanding of the deeply personal reasons that same-sex couples have fought for and won the right to marry.

Costa does not appear to have interviewed advocates on either side of the marriage debate for the story, nor does he seem to have spoken with any actual same-sex couples. He attributes nearly every fact in the story to another news source, even facts that most other journalists would not bother to attribute either because they have been widely reported by a plethora of outlets or because they're simply common sense. For instance, Costa attributes information about the speaker line-up at President Barack Obama's inauguration to conservative news site Breitbart.com; he gives Boston.com credit for the insight that the 2007 defeat of a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage was a victory for LGBT advocates.

Costa's choice of sources might also raise the eyebrows of LGBT readers. In addition to mainstream media sources like the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times Costa also cites several websites known for their strong anti-gay slant, including the aforementioned Breitbart, WorldNetDaily and LifeSiteNews.com. Why would an objective journalist turn to such biased sources for such basic information as Obama's stance on "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" or the results of the vote on Florida's 2008 marriage amendment? It is unclear, and SOCO senior editor Jennifer Thompson did not respond to a request to comment for this story.

The slant in Costa's story runs deeper than his choice of sources. In the first paragraph he writes that same-sex couples in Massachusetts are "seeking marriage for benefits or psychological satisfaction," as opposed to, say, a way of expressing and cementing their love and commitment to each other. He writes that in Massachusetts "the issue is not resolved by any means, and gay weddings continue to be a controversy in some quarters," despite the fact that the issue has been resolved, at least for the time being, with the defeat of the constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage in 2007.

On top of that, there is no longer a concerted effort to overturn same-sex marriage in Massachusetts. Costa says that a New York judge who granted a divorce to a lesbian couple "is believed by the [New York] Post and some New Yorkers to be playing the familiar role of the activist judge." In the final sentence of the story Costa does everything short of brandishing a "Let the People Vote" sign, writing, "Same-sex marriages have not succeeded by voter approval but rather by legislative actions and judicial decisions."

Cindi Creager, national news director for the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), said after Bay Windows brought the article to their attention her organization reached out to the editorial staff of SOCO to discuss their own objections to the magazine's coverage of same-sex marriage. She said she was troubled by Costa's reliance on anti-gay sources as well as his use of phrases like "homosexual behavior" and "homosexual marriage" throughout the story. Creager said GLAAD also believes that by not talking to any LGBT advocates or same-sex couples Costa's story lacks crucial balance.

"We are disappointed by this imbalanced piece and are reaching out to the editors of [SOCO] to advocate for coverage that is fair, accurate and inclusive," said Creager. GLAAD has little objection to the magazine's dueling opinion pieces on same-sex marriage, she said, although she believes the pro-gay piece is overly academic in tone. But she said Costa's article is so slanted in opposition to marriage equality that it functions as a second anti-marriage equality piece.

"Using an antagonistic writer to pen a quote unquote 'news piece' on this issue shows a serious error in editorial judgment by the magazine," said Creager. "Had they just run the two pieces we may not be having this discussion, but they tried to present the news piece as the balance. ... It seemed to be two against one."

Ethan Jacobs can be reached at [email protected]