page :2 - Out in the Motmtuins

COIMNTARY by Terje Anderson

When AIDS

Readers of the Burlington Free Press
have recently faced two stories which
served no newsworthy purpose other
than to alarm the public.

In December, the paper reported
that health authorities were
investigating the case of a gay man
who died on Christmas day, and that
AIDS was one of the possibilities being
considered. This was reported despite
the fact that there was no evidence to
suggest that the man had died of
AIDS-related causes. (A month later,
autopsy reports confirmed that he had
died from heart failure and that he did
not, in fact, have AIDS.)

Then, in early February, the front
page of the local section carried the
news that a person with AIDS had
been admitted to a local hospital. The

Letter to the Editor

Dear Friends,

Please sign me up to receive "Out in
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eager for the day when all publications
will refuse to publish material which is
racist, sexist, anti-Semitic, agcist or
homophobic and when all people will
happily welcome diversity in all our
Vermont communities.

Sincerely

Jean Shappee

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t e goodness and diversity of the lesbian and gay
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story included significant discussion of
the precautions hospital staff members
would take to avoid contracting the
virus from the patient.

With both of these stories, the Free
Press overstepped the bounds of
appropriate coverage of AIDS issues. It
is particularly upsetting because the
Vermont media, including the Free
Press, has previously been far less
inflammatory than much of the press
across the country in its AIDS
coverage.

While these stories do not approach
the blantantly homophobic and
sensationalist journalism of papers like
the New York Post, they do represent a
disturbing trend.

In the case of the first story, it was
highly misleading to suggest that AIDS
was the cause of death when absolutely
no evidence pointed in that direction.
While health authorities legitimately
consider all possibilities in an
unexplained death, it would hardly
have been considered newsworthy if a
heart attack or stroke was being
investigated.

Gay men continue to develop many
illnesses other than AIDS, and to report
that AIDS was suspected merely
because a person was gay is to make
an unwarranted connection.

It is particularly disconcerting
because such a suggestion can only
serve to amplify the AIDS-related
discrimination which gay men
increasingly face. There have been cases
of gay men with the flu fired because
an employer believes the illness is
AIDS. Everytime a gay man coughs,
develops a rash, or loses weight, rumors
spread about his health. Stories such as
the one in the Free Press only
encourage such misinformed speculation.

In the ease of the second story, it is
unclear why the Free Press felt it was
newsworthy that someone had been
admitted to the hospital. Hundreds of

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is not news

people are admitted to the hospital
everyday, for a variety of reasons, but
that is never considered front page
news unless the patient is famous. Why
was this different?

More disturbing was the article's
discussion of the precautions hospital
staff would be taking to avoid
exposure. The procedures to be followed
are hardly extrordinary, the same as
for hepatitis and other infections.

Yet, despite quoting hospital
authorities to the contrary, the article
could only reenforce the misimpression
that AIDS is easily transmitted. By
simply raising the issue, the article
conjures up visions of rubber gloves,
isolation wards and surgical masks in
the mind of the average Free Press
reader. In fact, the only real matter of
concern is being accidently pricked
with a needle used for drawing blood.

The Free Press seems to be trying, a
bit too hard, to find something to
report about AIDS in Vermont. In a
state with only six cases to date, that
sometimes means grasping at straws,
reporting on events which are not
really news.

To the paper's credit, they did run
a sizeable article when the autopsy
report on the December death came out.
That story, which quoted medical
authorities and gay activists critizing
the coverage, seemed to be an attempt
to undo the damage done by the earlier
article, an acknowledgement of error.

There is plenty of legitimate news
to be reported about AIDS if the Free
Press really wants to cover it. The
public is starved for accurate
information about transmission, medical
advances, risk reduction, the antibody
test and AIDS related legal and social
issues. Let's hope they devote their
energies in the future to reporting that
real news, rather than manufacturing
stories which invade individual privacy
and do nothing to educate the public.

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