The same maxim holds true for the reporter. On the news page, the reporter becomes the mediator between the situation and the public. It is not the reporter's job to prejudge the case and present it to his audience in a neat moral package.

Unfortunately, when an influential group--the media, the "cultural elite," call it what you will--comes to accept a certain belief as indisputably true, impartiality itself can become a political position. In the current political climate, a reporter who does not take a conscious stand in print in favor of gay rights may find himself labelled homophobic, regardless of his personal beliefs, Yet on an issue so controversial, entertaining a bias in favor of gay rights--even if its correct--should be just as unacceptable as a bias against gays.

The power of the national media lies in its ability to determine the terms of discourse on issues. So even the media's choice of language can be influential--and revealing. Consider media coverage of abortion issues. Casually accusing those who think abortion should be illegal of holding back history hardly seems palatable, even for Newsweek.

But even here the choice of words is telling. Supporters of legalized abortion are invariably described in the main-stream media as "pro-choice." Those on the other side of the issue become the enemy, the "antis"--"anti-abortion," "abortion rights foes." Similarly, people like the residents of Ovett have become the "antis" in that debate--although they would probably think of themselves as "pro-morality."

Whether the media's biases are the rights ones is not the issue. It may be true that gay-rights laws are just and desirable. However, it is not thus desirable for reporters to reflect the view in their reporting. Journalism, as John Leland himself ruefully admits, is about the real world, and to write from a perspective of moral certainty inaccurately presents that world.

Regardless of their stance, everyone must agree that the public's attitude toward homosexuality and gay rights is one of profound ambivalence, of many shades of gray. The reporter's job is to paint those shades as truly as he or she can so that we can decide for ourselves, not to tell us which color is which.

The debate on gay rights, like that on any great issue, must be portrayed not as a simple struggle between good and evil, but as a difficult and ongoing process of choice.