HOW TO FACE IT: CUNANAN WE HAVE "WITH US ALWAYS"

Media's Current Cover-Up of the FBI/ Police Cover-Up

A Vicious Billy-the-Kid-Type "Legend" is Deliberately-Created. Why?

By Jack Nichols

A&E's Biography wasted no precious time mindlessly canonizing Andrew Cunanan Saturday night. Rushing into production a fluff piece par excellence, the program epitomized the vulgar, sour reach of low-grade journalism into a venue that has been rightly respected for occasional bouts of integrity. Biography's lowest point came in mid-programming with a host of 911-style dramatic improvisations, including a voice-over of Miami Beach police chief, Barreto saying of Cunanan: "He should be considered armed and extremely dangerous." The program's obliging "historic" placement of the killer is where he likely hoped to be placed, in "select" company. The Biography narrator says: "Andrew Cunanan was about to become the most hunted man in America, the man suspected of brutal exploits that would put him in the deranged company of Charles Manson, Jeffrey Dahmer, and Ted Bundy; and when he joined that select group he achieved a level of notoriety he had been striving for his entire life." Thanks, in no small part, to Biography. It is hard to say that Biography uncovered anything previously unknown. What the program does say is that "nobody knows the real Andrew Cunanan." In a world where self-knowledge is rare, this uninspired finding is hardly a surprise. Is there some kind of media conspiracy afoot, a twisted wringing from Cunanan of every sordid angle available? Are there suspect forces in motion? Are there heroes? Certainly heroes are among those unnumbered gay and lesbian activists who posted Cunanan look-out flyers everywhere in cities from coast to coast. The Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project in New York stands out with particular heroism in the midst of the Cunanan fiasco. Its $10,000 reward to houseboat caretaker Fernando Carreira was money well spent, its good will effort spilling pridefully on behalf of gays and lesbians into media everywhere. Bob Kunst, the indefatigable Miami Beach gay activist who publicly and successfully battled Anita Bryant in 1977, also performed an earnest and Herculean task, rousing public opinion and collecting over 6,100 signatures demanding that city halls in Miami Beach and New York City give their promised rewards to the caretaker. He forced financial regurgitation, using tactics to embarrass, so that the local political machinery that had been set to deny the 71-year old caretaker his promised reward, is now set to fork it over. GLAAD, in a warmhearted and sweeping gesture, has given credit to America's most classic continuing case of homophobia, The Miami Herald. This is credit--as seen by GayToday's staff, that must be meant as praise for having taken another about-face step away from that paper's previously biased reportage. The Herald, however, still tightly tied to conservative and reactionary interests, has yet to prove itself a trusted friend to fairness, even, though on occasion, it rises to an occasion. While the South Florida paper gave praiseworthy attention at first--as did the rest of the nation's press--to FBI and police incompetence, it now seems--in matters surrounding law enforcement's fiascoes following Versace's murder--willing to forget and forgive bumbling self-serving, anti-gay FBI & police know-nothingism-do-nothingism-except nightly to cruise public lavs to "earn" their taxpaid salaries. Why not let Herald editorialists prove themselves worthy of continuing praise once the national Cunanan spotlight has been turned off in Miami. To do this, for example, the newspaper could easily seize a current opportunity to memorialize Gianni Versace by crusading for the same gay and lesbian equal treatment (employment discrimination, public access, and housing) ordinance that failed Metro passage only a few days before the designer's murder. Or, perhaps, it could suggest the urgent passage of ENDA at the federal level. This to atone for its shameful support of Anita Bryant's 1977 crusade, its foul attempt at tarnishing the image of a capable area activist, and its support in the Hardwick/Bowers case of the anti-gay 1986 Supreme Court decision. Tawdry South Florida police and FBI behavior shows how necessary are the Miami area's ordinance protections or those in the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) presently before the U.S. Congress. With such editorial leadership, The Herald could rightfully aspire to truly all-American levels like those now being reached in Gannett papers like USA Today or in the much-improved New York Times. What's the Herald to do? Simply arrange to give strong support to equal rights for gay men and lesbians in an area where Knight-Ridder has a long dreary history of opposing such rights editorially, that's all. The political witchhunters and fundamentalist loonies will work against equal rights protections by using the dramatics of the Cunanan story to critique every segment of gay culture about which they can make propaganda hay, and there, too often, is media alongside, working to assist in what could too easily become a wave of social repression. GLAAD warns against such possibilities. Others, like visionary Miami Beach activist Bob Kunst, believe that dark political-witchhunt clouds are already gathering on the nation's horizons and that provocative Cunanan coverage is being purposefully used to fan anti-gay and anti-lesbian flames. GLAAD reports that Deal With It, a regular column in the Rolla (Missouri) Daily News, ran a July 29 piece entitled "Cunanan is Dead, and Aren't We All A Little Better Off?" that uses the crimes of Andrew Cunanan as a stick with which writer Bill Morrison bashes the entire lesbian and gay community. Using the Bible to justify his hatred, Morrison manages to not only trot out the usual misinformation about the community, but then maintains that Cunanan did a good thing, by killing 2 fellow gay men. "According to news reports," the columnist writes, "Cunanan's killing spree involved homosexual people he probably had had past relationships with. Which leads me to wonder, where's the downside to this story?" Morrison continues on claiming that being gay is "unnatural" and a choice, how Cunanan would have been in "hog heaven" if imprisoned, and how if he had gone to a counselor to deal with his being gay people may not have died. Lastly, the columnist spews, "On reflection, I believe what happened was for the best. Cunanan is dead and he took along several people who were ultimately contributing to the erosion of the moral state of the country." It is obvious, says GLAAD, that columnist Morrison saw Andrew Cunanan's crimes as a perfect spot from which to preach his anti-gay views. The climate surrounding the media coverage of Cunanan's murders unfortunately contributed to the perceptions that his orientation and the murders were causally linked. GLAAD suggests that readers tell the Rolla Daily News that the overtly homophobic Morrison needs to learn about the lesbian and gay community, and that the paper owes Cunanan's victims and all of us a huge apology. Tell them to deal with that! Contact: Stephen E. Sowers, Publisher, Rolla Daily News, 101 W. Seventh St., Rolla, MO 65401, fax: 573.341.5847, e-mail: rdn@rollanet.org. GLAAD also reports that the Cunanan media coverage is defaming the gay community. The July 29 San Jose Mercury News evaluated some possible long-term effects of Cunanan media coverage, including fueling a misperception of a "gay underworld," overemphasizing gay "sugar daddies," and the HIV blame craze. The article quotes gay activists from all over the country, noting "the problem is that Cunanan and the details of his racy, scheming and apparently violent life only reflect the reality of one individual--not an entire minority group," adding that the activists "believe that the mainstream media were largely responsible for perpetuating the myth that Cunanan was a part of a gay underworld, where decency and morals have long been forgotten and prostitution and murder are commonplace." In addition, it quotes Chris Thomas, editor of San Joe's gay newspaper OutNOW!, noting that the public made "'a lasting connection between HIV and the killings'" as the media widely reported on an AIDS organization volunteer who spoke with Cunanan. Since then, Cunanan has been confirmed as HIV-negative. Finally, the story notes that much was made of Cunanan's being a "gay gigolo": "The fact is, there are some older, affluent gay men who pay to maintain the company of young, attractive partners...but the same is true of heterosexuals." The San Jose Mercury News, says GLAAD, has the "self-awareness" to realize that the media's irresponsible Cunanan coverage warps the realities of the gay community. By noting this and acknowledging their own hand in it, the Mercury News has educated the public about stereotypes and holds the media industry accountable. GLAAD asks that readers thank the San Jose Mercury News for an insightful article which speaks to the morality of balanced coverage. Contact: David Yarnold, Managing Editor, San Jose Mercury News, 750 Ridder Park Drive, San Jose, CA 95190-0001, fax: 408.288.8060, e-mail: letters@sjmercury.com. Stressing that each member of the gay community should be looking beyond Cunanan, GLAAD's worthy strategy centers on two articles that ran July 25 and that helped examine the perspective of lesbian and gay communities in the aftermath of Cunanan's crimes and the media coverage surrounding them. USA Today examined the relationship between gay and lesbian communities across the country and law enforcement. Reporters Richard Willing and Maria Puente talked about the difficulties FBI agents had in approaching the community, and the traditional wariness of lesbians and gay men towards law enforcement. The article talks to both FBI representatives and community members, all of whom hope the gains made during this difficult time are only the beginning. Newsday in New York covered the five serial murderers of gay men and transgender people who remain at large. The article quotes Christine Quinn, executive director of the Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project talking about how hard it is to get law enforcement to take the murders of lesbians and gay men as seriously as they might otherwise, and points out that it was the murder of Chicago businessman Lee Miglin that first brought Andrew Cunanan to light. Reporter Karen Freifeld finished with a summary of each of the five serial murderers and their crimes. USA Today also finished its story with information about the unsolved murders. GLAAD also asks that readers let USA Today and Newsday know that their efforts to cover the lesbian and gay community thoroughly are appreciated, and that alerting their readers to the unsolved murders may help stop violence against us. Contact: David Mazzarella, Editor, USA Today, 1000 Wilson Blvd., Arlington, VA 22229, fax: 703.276.6585, e-mail: editor@usatoday.com; Anthony Marro, Editor, Newsday, 235 Pinelawn Road, Melville, NY 11747, fax: 516.843.2953, e-mail: letters@newsday.com. Since it is hard, as GLAAD and New York's Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project say, "to get law enforcement to take the murders of lesbians and gay men as seriously as they might otherwise" Bob Kunst hopes to see such obvious difficulties publicized to help gain passage of the Miami ordinance and of ENDA. "This would be the best kind of memorial to Versace," he says, aware that powerfully-connected straight and gay celebrities could easily help spearhead such a memorial effort. "Since the media is already covering up for the police," says Kunst, "we've got to get out there and make sure that police take our communities into consideration too, and they won't do that until there are ordinances that require them to treat us like equals." Kunst attacked the FBI upon its announcement that Cunanan's motive might be AIDS. He remained alone in Miami charging that such stories were being purposefully leaked by the FBI to cover its own homophobic ineptness. In Ft. Lauderdale Hotspots' editor George Ferencz also waxed critical of police and FBI disinformation about its imaginary spreading of gay community warnings. Miami Beach police, as it turned out, announced that the FBI had failed even to notify them about Cunanan until after Versace's murder. Before it was unexpectedly announced late last Thursday that Cunanan had been HIV-negative, Kunst had thundered: "Precisely because Cunanan's HIV status was used as a political weapon and diversion from a totally irresponsible lack of investigation, is one reason we need to know (if Cunanan has AIDS) for this is a brush stroke smear upon the millions of HIV/AIDS people who suffered and died and are suffering and dying and who would never 'get even' by mass murder like Cunanan 'supposedly' did. This is also a smear on the Gay male community that all Gays have HIV, and may well be part of the phobia the FBI and others suffer from in not getting too close to the Gay community in asking for our real help to have gotten Cunanan before he got Versace." Carreira's attorneys publicly addressed the help that Kunst had made turning signed public opinion into a positive outcome for their client, telling how he'd collected 6,000 Miami Beach signatures. Kunst, greeting Carreira at the Miami airport gave the caretaker a hero's welcome returning from receiving his New York award. Kunst's proximity to media, in spite of his non-mention in the Herald has continued to propel him into significant venues where he says "honest media explore the whole enchilada including their own mistakes," and, he believes, help give focus to ending the reigns of a macho-oriented police states along with FBI-type discrimination. This morning (Monday) at 7:30 AM he is scheduled to speak over New York's WABC-radio. He points to the case of Atlanta's Richard Jewell as one other instance in which FBI disinformation went rampant in media. This focus must therefore see passed the recently failed Miami Metro ordinance, thus making necessary law enforcement's sincere interest in gay community concerns. The same type ordinance must also be pursued on the national level through Congress's passage of ENDA, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act which, according to a report in the Washington Blade from Representative Barney Frank, is said to be currently languishing. Is that so? It must languish no longer. We folks need to goad the Congress a bit. Bug-grrrrrr thy Congressperson!