Gay Newsmen — A Clearer Picture: Part II

That's what unity is all about

Like the ABC and NBC executives interviewed here, CBS News senior vice president Linda Mason believes that her news organization also has a welcoming work environment for gays and lesbians. "And we've labored very hard to make it so," Mason said. "And I've been told by some of my gay colleagues that it's a good place to work."

Mason has a wonderfully compassionate response when it comes to why gay on-camera colleagues seem unwilling to come out to mainstream America. "I'm not gay … but I've been told by gay people it's a tremendous thing to come to grips with the fact you are gay, and then to come out to friends and family, and then maybe at the workplace," explained Mason. "So to take it to the next step [with the public] is huge. And I can't even presume to talk about it."

Mason, who said she has seen profound changes in the 40-plus years she has worked at CBS, is a trailblazer herself. In fact, said Mason, "I've been the first woman on every job I've had [at CBS]." That includes being the first woman producer on the CBS Evening News, the first female executive producer of CBS Sunday Morning, and the first female senior vice president of CBS News.

Mason said her presence changed things for women within newsrooms — "opened their eyes" — and that women on the air changed society at large. She admitted it wasn't always easy. She and other women, like racial minorities, haven't had the option of concealing who they are to anyone. "The thing is we all look different," she said. "Gays don't look different. And that's of course the differentiation."

So is Mason giving gay people a break she didn't have? If women and racial minorities have no choice but to face possible discrimination, do gays have a responsibility to link arms with them and face down bigotry in all its forms by being honest? Mason responded: "That's what unity is all about, I think. I think in an ideal world, yes. Yes. But I'm not going to make judgments."

We're proud, and we are who we are

In the many on and off the record conversations for this article, it became clear that there is a distinction between being out within the news organizations, and being out to the public. And for journalists, being out within national news organizations is not the issue. The five major television news organizations (ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox News Channel and CNN) routinely recruit at National Lesbian and Gay Journalists' Association (NLGJA) events, and all five organizations have same-sex domestic partnership benefits.

However, a majority of the high-profile national journalists contacted for this series declined or didn't respond with many explaining that within their news organizations they were out to everyone – right up to the president of the network. The implication being that this excused them from further candor. And many conversations with media relations departments also made it clear that when it came to being gay inside the newsrooms – everybody knew. Nobody cared. Or as it was often described: “It is not an issue.”

No example makes this across-the-board acceptance within the national news organizations more apparent than the case of the Fox News Channel. AfterElton.com spoke with Fox News Channel executive David Brown, currently executive producer of Fox News' morning show franchise, Fox & Friends. Like the other network executives, Brown easily and immediately identified his sexual orientation — gay — the first time Brown has made that revelation to the press.

Brown has worked closely with Fox News CEO and chairman Roger Ailes since two years before the Fox News Channel began, and has been with FNC since its inception. Brown said he's been out to Ailes throughout that entire time and that Ailes has no issue with it. As Brown describes their relationship: "Loved me. I love him."

And Brown said that working with Ailes so closely, "He's your buddy, he's not just your boss. It's wonderful, I got to know him on a different level than a lot of people might have, and he's just a great guy."