As Rosenthal ascended to the top of the Times ladder, his prejudices defined the unspoken but nevertheless unmistakable rules for deciding what was fit to print. As journalist and writer Charles Kaiser, who worked at the Times under Rosenthal, put it, “Everyone below Rosenthal spent all of their time trying to figure out what to do to cater to his prejudices. One of these widely perceived prejudices was Abe’s homophobia. So editors throughout the paper would keep stories concerning gays out of the paper.”
Abe Rosenthal’s Reign of Homophobia at The New York Times by Larry Gross ~ May 16, 2006 ~ Truthdig
Larry Gross is the director of the USC Annenberg School for Communication and is a pioneer in the field of gay and lesbian studies.