Was it wrong for the Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Wash., to hire a computer forensic expert to go online posing as a 17-year-old boy and chat up the that city's mayor on Gay.com? Some media critics thought it crossed a line for the newspaper to do so in order to try to confirm the allegations of two men who'd told reporters at the paper that Mayor Jim West had molested them years ago, when they were underage, as well as to confirm the claims of an18-year-old who said he'd recently engaged in consensual sex with West after meeting him online.
Maybe because the mayor ( who was cruising the web under the screen names RightBi-Guy and Cobra82nd ) has been a right-wing, antigay Republican politician we've not seen much of an outcry from gay advocates about the newspaper's controversial tactic. Quite the contrary, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force ( NGLTF ) called for West to resign, solely citing the sexual abuse allegations, more of which are coming in.
But that is the wrong reason to call for West's resignation—though I do think he's got to go. I also believe the Spokesman-Review absolutely did the right thing in going online to find West—but not for the reasons that the paper itself has given.
Let's imagine for a moment that West was very pro-gay rather than antigay. Let's then say that men came forward claiming that this pro-gay politician had molested them when they were teenagers, and let's say that the newspaper hired someone to go online undercover and gather information from him.
Do you think in that case NGLTF would be calling for the man's resignation before any molestation charges were proved in a court of law? It's quite probable that gay activists in fact would be critical of the paper, charging that it had overstepped; at the very least they'd not weigh in at all. I think we'd all be a little suspect of a pro-gay politician brought down because of claims he's a child molester, and people would at least be wary and not rush to judgment. Some might argue that those making the charges could have been put up to it by political operatives. Others might say that when West was chatting with the undercover operative online he may have known he was talking to an adult and that it was all part of an online fantasy—many people go online to imagine themselves as someone else—and that he might not have intended to actually meet anyone.
True, all of that would be highly improbable. But it would nonetheless be possible. And because he was a pro-gay politician, I think gay people would at least let the charges be proved before calling for his resignation.
That is not to say that I believe Jim West is innocent of the charges of molestation. The scenario here is all too familiar: the twisted, repressed self-hating closet case who tries to get sex any way he can, including preying on the most vulnerable, and does whatever he can to prove to himself and others that he's not gay, including railing and voting against the gay community. But, until it's proven, my and your assumptions are not reason enough for him to resign—lest anyone accused of molesting boys should resign before getting a chance to tell his or her side.
But I do believe West most definitely should resign for another reason. The Seattle Times put it best in calling for his resignation: 'Allegations at this point are just that. West is innocent until proven otherwise … That said, West also must face the hypocrisy of his stances on gay rights as a state legislator and mayor. On several occasions, West voted against legislation that would protect gays and lesbians from discrimination. According to the Spokesman-Review, he supported legislation that would have prohibited gays and lesbians from working in schools and day-care centers. As recently as last week, he opposed a Spokane City Council ordinance extending benefits to domestic partners of city employees.'
The Spokesman Review was right to hire a computer forensic expert to chat up West undercover—but not for the reason the paper has been positing, which was to capture a pedophile. I don't mean to downplay the serious, grotesque charges about sexual abuse of minors. On my radio program, the editor of the paper, Stephen Smith, said that those accusations are what gave the paper the impetus to bring in the computer expert; he wasn't sure that he'd have done the story had the accusations of abuse of minors not been there while the evidence of West meeting men online just over the age of 18 was there, even though West is a major antigay hypocrite.
Going undercover online solely for the purpose of finding an abuser, however, strikes me as something the police, if anyone, should be doing—and even when law enforcement does it, there is often a whiff of entrapment. To the paper's credit, the forensic expert didn't coax West into doing anything he'd not already done. The expert simply verified that it was West behind the screen names, and that he would speak with a 17-year-old and engage in sexual banter. Still, the reason the paper offered is not the strongest argument to justify the tactic.
There was every reason, however, to do what the paper did in order to expose West's lies and hypocrisy about his own life and about the policies he supported, since he'd practically given the media carte blanche to do so the moment he aligned himself with antigay crusaders. Anyone who attacks other people's lives is open to scrutiny of his own life. West had misled the people of Washington by railing against gay rights while he was secretly gay himself. In not so many words he dared the media to investigate him and hunt him down in the same way that Democratic presidential hopeful Gary Hart had literally dared reporters back in 1987 to spy on him after he'd denied that he was having an extramarital affair. ( He later was tracked down on a boat near the Bahamas with Donna Rice. )
West, who has taken a leave of absence as the FBI begins the initial stages of a possible 'public corruption' case, is now whining that he's been persecuted by the paper. But the Spokesman-Review and its reporters did exactly what journalists are supposed to do: hold politicians—including closeted antigay ones—accountable. Let's hope other media organizations follow the paper's lead.
Michelangelo Signorile host a daily satellite radio program on Sirius OutQ 149. He can be reached via his website, www.signorile.com .
