Signorile on Koufax

I held off on talking about this because I figured someone would do it better than me at some point. I think some well-intentioned folks, like Keith Olbermann, really lost the plot on this one. The accuracy of the blind item regarding Koufax's sexuality is of course a valid concern, but the sportswriter world reacted as if someone had accused Koufax of molesting children. Accusing him of being gay is not accusing him of a horrible crime, which is how some reacted. Signorile says:

But the paper runs a blind item, buried in a gossip column, about a baseball hero being gay - and all hell breaks loose.

Don't get me wrong: Koufax, a classy and circumspect guy, has every right to correct inaccuracies about himself as well as to try to protect his privacy. And Leavy has an obligation to counter those who might impugn her journalism. But if "there's nothing wrong with being gay," as some were quick to say in prefacing their criticisms of the Post, then why is it so "contemptible" to suggest it? Why not just say it's inaccurate and move on?

Was the Post item really worthy of Koufax's severing last week his 48-year-old ties with the Dodgers, an action that, in fact, resurrected the December item and made it a story? And did it warrant Olbermann pulling out of a book deal and announcing it to the world?

Certainly Rupert Murdoch has done far worse things - including pandering to the brutal Chinese government - than owning a newspaper that runs blind items suggesting that sports stars are gay. The pandering obviously didn't keep Olbermann from taking a multi-million-dollar job with News Corp.'s Fox Sports in 1999 (he's now at the ABC radio network), nor did it keep him from signing on the dotted line with HarperCollins. But a blind item suggesting one of his idols isn't straight has him ripping up his book contract?

The critics' indignation has been couched as a defense of Koufax's privacy. But it's interesting that none of them, nor, apparently, Koufax himself, protested in early January when New York Daily News columnist Michael Gross named Koufax as the subject of the Post's blind item, adding that there was "no way" Koufax was gay.

Gross claimed - without quoting anyone, let alone Koufax directly - that he'd "confirmed" that Koufax lives with a women who "bears an uncanny resemblance to Carly Simon." Funny, but no one charged that this invasion of Koufax's privacy was "contemptible" and "scandalous."

So let's be real: All of the howling is not about privacy. It's about homosexuality and the intense discomfort surrounding it in professional sports.

UPDATE: Local columnist Debbie Woodell has more.