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By BARRY COOPER
Syndicated Columnist
One of the first things they
teach you in journalism school is
the importance of being fair. A
reporter should always look at
both sides of a story, and he
should not report something ? or
even suggest it - unless there is
plenty of evidence to support the
claim.
Those rules were badly breached
in Los Angeles during the recent
Olympic Games. Carl Lewis,
a gifted young black man who is
the greatest track star since Jessfe
Owens, was all but slandered by a
t . ? -
nostue press that repeatedly suggested
that Lewis is a homosexual.
That was the nastiest thing the
virtually all-white media had to
say about Lewis, but there were
other unpleasantries. The press,
for instance, also wrote that
Lewis appeared to be an
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egotistical punk who is interested
only in himself.
Perhaps some of those things
are true, but most are mere
assumptions. The fact of the matter
is that Lewis angered the press
by refusing to bow to every call
for an interview.
Lewis decided he would 'control
his access to the press and
that he would say what he wanted
and no more.
Well, the media got one big
load of that and said to
themselves, "We'll show this soand-so.
He can't treat us that
way."
Soon afterwards, ugly rumors
began surfacing about Lewis'
personal life.
Let's take the homosexual
rumor first.
From all I can tell, no one has
ever spotted Lewis in an embrace
with another man or seen him
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entering a gay bar in San Francisco.
No one even seems to know
how the danged rumor even got
started. In a lengthy feature story
on Lewis, Sports Illustrated
jumped on the issue, and Lewis
emphatically denied in the article
that he was gay.
Terrific. That, however, is
what every reader would expect
Lewis to say. so there are a bunch
of people who came away from
that article figuring that, by golly,
Carl Lewis is gay.
This is the kind of rumor that
is almost impossible to put to
rest. Thanks to mostly-white
media that suddenly appeared to
turn racist, there will be whispers
about Lewis' sex preferences for
years to come.
One other thing comes to mind
here: What difference would it
make if Lewis were gay? The way
I see it, a man's sex life is his own
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business.
But, because Lewis wasn't Mr.
Nice Guy, because he told more
than one white sportswriter
where to go, the collective press
arose with all its might and
started what essentially was a
campaign fueled by a vendetta.
Shame on them. If an athlete
chooses to be difficult with his
fans and the press, then that
should be reported. But the
media should stick to just reportinn
4 VIA fo
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To get angry and then begin
reporting innuendo after innuendo
is senseless and childish. In
Lewis* case, it is also racist.
What we have is a bunch of
grown white men bellyaching
because a young black superstar
won't do things their way.
More power to Carl Lewis.
May he continue giving the media
a hard time.
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V
__The Chronicle, Thursday, September 6, 1984-Page B5
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