Huffington Post writer Lila Shapiro grossly distorted and in some instances completely fabricated what a pro-traditional marriage advocate told her during an impromptu interview during the March for Marriage. That's the allegation of one Andrew Jacob Cuff in a post today at First Things.
Cuff, an Orthodox Christian and a grad student in church history at the Catholic Universit
y of America, detailed both his interactions with Shapiro and his chagrin at reading his grossly distortive write-up. Here's an excerpt (emphases mine):
...I was approached by a woman carrying a notepad who asked if she could interview me. She introduced herself as Lila from the Huffington Post, and we walked toward the Supreme Court chatting for about twenty minutes. It felt good to leave behind the raucous rally stage with its over-amplified demagogues bookended by loud rock-n-roll interludes. It was cathartic to be able to explain to Lila that people were here for many different reasons and a wide diversity of motivations, and that traditional marriage could not be reduced to platitudes.
[...]
Perhaps I overshared. I delved into the question of universals proper to human nature and the differentiation of gender. Her eyes began to glaze over when I started quoting medieval philosophers. I sensed our interview was coming to a close, and wished her a happy Saturday. Awesome, I thought in my hubris, she looked super convinced.
Then I read her article a few days ago. I discovered that my interviewer was Lila Shapiro, a two-time award-winning journalist for the “Gay Voices” section of Huffington Post. I prepared myself to read her “spin” on what I said. I was surprised, though, when I saw that she disliked the interview so much that she just made up another one to replace it.
According to her, I said the following: “I’m a married human being, so what does this mean for me? It’s against the way I see marriage. It’s against the way I see myself.” Shapiro scoffed, “Same-sex marriage is wrong because, well . . . because it’s wrong.”
An imaginative fabrication. Apparently I’m married? (I’m not). It was frustrating that after a twenty-minute interview in which I listed numerous reasons why government redefinition of marriage is bad for everyone, Shapiro published a (completely fictional) quote that boiled down to “it’s my personal opinion.” What do you win the “LGBT Journalist of the Year” award for? Yarn-spinning? Creative hijinks?
Yet this broach of journalistic ethics is more interesting than irritating to me. Shapiro said it herself numerous times: This issue is already decided. Public opinion has ruled: There are no good arguments for traditional marriage.
So why should Lila lie? If my arguments were stupid, why not publish them?
The answer is simple enough. It must be that the complexity of the marriage debate does not only affect traditional marriage supporters, it affects everybody. As I made my arguments to Shapiro during our interview, she seemed perplexed and unable to reply with more than stock responses: “You’re not gay. Why protest something that doesn’t affect you?” “Aren’t you worried you’ll end up on the wrong side of history?” Her article ridicules the “closed-mindedness” of traditional marriage supporters, but when faced with actual arguments on the subject, Shapiro opted to pretend I’d said something else. Even on the “cusp of victory,” same-sex marriage supporters are taking no chances by engaging these dangerous, volatile truths. How strange to discover such fear among those who have routed their enemies so completely.
To read the full piece, click here.
