10/03/07

By TAMARA McKENZIE

Assistant News Editor

tamara@nasguard.com

Irate members of the Bahamas Christian Council queried yesterday whether The Tribune newspaper had become the official mouthpiece for gay rights activists in the country.

Lyall Bethel, Pastor of the Grace Community Church and president of a select committee formed to prevent the inclusion of a gay television channel on local cable, told the press yesterday that he, together with pastors Allan Lee and Cedric Moss, have called upon The Tribune on more than one occasion to address their "biased" reporting as it relates to gays, but the newspaper continues to run front page stories in favor of sexual rights, while burying articles considered to be anti-homosexual on its back pages.

"For instance, Bishop Gomez's statements (representing the entire Anglican community worldwide) coming out of the Primates meeting in Tanzania was relegated to page five on Tuesday, February 27, 2007, while the response from the spokesman for the Rainbow Alliance got the front page! Would The Tribune have us to believe that she (Erin Greene, spokesperson for the gay Rainbow Alliance Group) carries more weight, or is more newsworthy than Bishop Gomez representing the world's 77 million Anglicans?" Bethel asked.

"Yet anytime Ms. Greene opens her mouth," Bethel said, "she is guaranteed front page! Once again, we are to believe that her comments are of greater worth than the thousands of Bahamians who gathered to make a statement."

But The Tribune News Editor Paco Nunez outlined in a statement yesterday that the newspaper subscribes to the democratic ideal of allowing all voices to be heard and does not choose sides as Pastor Bethel claims. His accusations, Nunez said, "display an unfortunate ignorance of the manner in which stories are chosen for prominence in a well-run newspaper."

"Like politicians and other members of society who view all issues from a sectarian perspective, he assumes that everyone operates in the same way. Pastor Bethel seems to think that prominent coverage of a point of view is equivalent to promotion of that point of view.

"He also appears to share the politician's fascination with social hierarchy, and thinks it should be applied to what is "newsworthy". Thus he asks if a spokesperson for the Rainbow Alliance carries more weight than an Anglican Archbishop. Pastor Bethel will be happy to hear that The Tribune does, in fact, have a policy when it comes to choosing the prominence of stories which, while it does not involve promoting the agenda of the Christian Council, is also not a reflection of any agenda held by the news staff. That policy is quite simple: To defend the public's right to know - not about what journalists or politicians or church leaders want them to know - but what they themselves want to know."

Nunez claimed that some commentators have told The Tribune that the Council's "near obsession" with gay rights and "covert gay agenda" conspiracy theories is a symptom of the Christian Council running scared, because they are afraid to confront the fact that homosexuals occupy an increasing number of the most prominent positions in every sector of Bahamian society.

"This seems to be reinforced by the fact that, while they are always quick to become militant on this particular issue, they fail to say anything of substance with regard to the rampant incest, pedophilia, sexual crime and adultery which plague this society," Nunez said.

Bethel, on the other hand, said "right thinking people" are tired of having the issues regarding homosexuality "rammed" down their throats and want the right to say no. He said Bahamians have watched the civil war of values taking place in the United States and around the world and want an opportunity to say "not in our land" without being "hoodwinked" by biased reporting or labeled homophobic and hysterical.

"We take this time to remind The Tribune and all the other media that it is the job of the fourth estate to report the news, not take sides," Bethel said.