Under fire from both readers and Gary Bauer's fading bid for the Republican presidential nomination, Salon is defending its decision to publish gay journalist Dan Savage's account of how he tried to pass the flu to the Bauer campaign in Iowa in retaliation for anti-gay statements he heard Bauer make on television during the campaign.
The e-zine reportedly has been threatened with a "civil action" from Bauer's Iowa caucuses campaign operation, and has also taken heavy reader fire for publishing "Stalking Gary Bauer" by Dan Savage. But Salon insists it sent Savage out to Iowa only to cover the caucus campaigns - not to play any prank on Bauer, never mind trying to get the candidate sick.
"(We) sent…Savage to Iowa to cover the presidential primary caucuses," Salon says in a piece Feb. 2 defending the publication. "While there, he came down with the flu. The story he filed - a feverish, compelling, and disturbing account of how…Bauer's crusade against gays drove him to try to infect Bauer with his flu - was not what we had in mind."
Savage could face assault and voter fraud charges for the prank - he had also registered to vote in the Iowa caucuses even though he lives in Seattle - but reader reaction in Salon and on various online newsgroups and message boards has often called for punishing Savage and Salon for publishing the essay.
"I didn't think it was possible for anyone to be more outrageous in their views than Gary Bauer," writes one reader, Bill Stanley, "but Dan Savage has managed to make Bauer look normal…they should remember that wit requires humor and I'm not laughing."
Another reader, Katie Balem, attacked what she - and others - have seen as a strain of hypocrisy underlining Savage's essay. "I love the militant gay Democrats who think that if you have a difference of opinion, they have a right to do whatever they think necessary," she wrote to Salon. "What ever happened to freedom of speech? I suppose that is only for the Democrats. How many laws and moral codes did this reporter break getting close to the campaign to spread germs and actually voting? I guess perjury and germ warfare are OK if you are a Democrat."
Another Salon reader demanded the e-zine publish an apology to Bauer and drop Savage from its roll of contributors. "If Mr. Savage's article is a riff on every would-be politically motivated undercover saboteur's fantasy, then it is hugely amusing and creative," wrote Jeff Friedman. "If his story is true, however, then it violates my definition of media ethics."
Salon, however, is standing by its man's right to say it. "(E)very day Salon prints good writing that describes ideas, points of view, even actions we don't endorse or condone," the e-zine says. "Our staff holds a wide range of opinion about Savage's article and his actions - but we defend his right to write about them."
