Just a few weeks back, I posted about Thomas Roberts, wondering what the heck happened to him and why he wasn't on "The Insider" anymore. Well, we find out in the new issue of The Advocate which features for former CNN Headline News anchor on the cover. He was let go from the show in February.

Here are some excerpts:

A tall, muscular, classic hunk of a man, Roberts is the all-American matinee-idol version of a broadcaster, as opposed to, say, Anderson Cooper's effete, almost European vibe. But Roberts isn't talking to me today to name names or speculate about other people's careers and choices. He's here simply to talk about his own experience being gay in broadcasting -- which, for the most part, has been positive, despite what you may think.

Indeed, Roberts says, being gay has never held him back. "I've worked my ass off, I've been fortunate, and luck doesn't hurt either," he says. "If people don't like that I'm gay or that I talk about being gay, I'm sorry. Because that's not my problem."

On the photo scandal that hit the first week of his job at "The Insider" ...

It was September 6, Roberts's fourth day at The Insider, when the Manhunt photos were posted online last year. The next day, a Page Six item dripping with homophobia detailed the whole thing. The headline? "New Sex Mess Jolts Insider." Roberts had come out to California excited about the new gig -- he had spent the summer looking for a good opportunity like this -- and now he was faced with potential disaster.

So Roberts was out of a job -- but the blogger had made a name for himself. Funny thing is, if you go to his site now (and, full disclosure, he once discussed writing for The Advocate with me, though nothing came of it), you can't find the original item without some assiduous searching. Instead, you'll see links to the coverage it got -- and an undated photo of the blogger with Roberts at an event, both smiling. It's a paradox of contemporary fandom not unique to the gays: We love our stars, but we also love to tear them down.

Posted by Greg Hernandez at 9:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Thomas Roberts, the former CNN Headline News anchor, has a new job: he debuts Sept. 10 as a correspondent for the syndicated show "The Insider" which runs as a time-slot companion to "Entertainment Tonight." It should be a high-profile gig for this openly gay broadcaster who will be more handsome than most of the movie stars he interviews.
Roberts left CNN less than two months after appearing on Anderson Cooper 360 where he discussed his sexual abuse by a priest from age 14 to 17. 34-year-old Roberts joined CNN in December 2001. His contract was to have run until February 2008.
At the time, he said he was leaving Atlanta to relocate to Washington D.C. to be with his partner.
It was nearly a year ago that Thomas Roberts spoke very publicly at the National Gay and Lesbian Journaists convention in Miami about being a gay man working as an anchor on CNN. He did so in a very small room packed with journalists - with computers - so accounts of the session were reported quickly. Roberts seemed so relaxed the whole weekend, laying out by the pool, chatting up new friends. He left the convention kind of a rock star because we were all so impressed with how he conducted himself and let's face it, we all thought he was REALLY hot.

The NLGJA convention is in San Diego this year and starts next week. I'll be there as part of my "vacation." I wish I could write that Roberts would be there speaking as an opnely gay CNN anchor but whatever the reason, his star did not continue to rise. Thomas was marginalized pretty quickly, losing his Headline News anchor spot during a "restructuring." I had done a brief interview with him in Miami and wanted to do an in-depth one for The Advocate but there was some weirdness going on that I hope will one day be explained. Roberts seemed to want to do it and we exchanged several e-mails but he had to let CNN's PR department handle the request and they put the kibosh on it.
Roberts has never spoke out against CNN or complained about its treatment of him. Maybe now, once he's settled into his new gig, we will find out what really happened once his sexuality became so public. Anderson Cooper, as we all know, remains the network's biggest star.
He never discusses his private life.

Posted by Greg Hernandez at 10:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

When I was a kid, I never missed one of Barbara Walters celebrity specials. Who would she be visiting this time? Elizabeth Taylor? Katherine Hepburn? John Wayne? Bette Davis? And maybe one day, maybe, she'd interview ME and ask, "What kind of a tree are you?"
Well, obviously, Babs hasn't gotten around to me yet. But over the years I've seen her interview celebs ranging from Bing Crosby, Lucille Ball and James Stewart to Tom Cruise, Diana Ross and Cher to Streisand, Bette Midler and Audrey Hepburn. Not to mention Oprah, Arnold, Jane Fonda, Eddie Murphy, Farrah Fawcett, Johnny Carson, Richard Pryor, Lauren Bacall, Elton John, Shirley MacLaine, George Clooney, Clint Eastwood, Warren Beatty, and Marlo and Phil. The list, literally, goes on and on and on.
Most of those celebrities have a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame and in a ceremony later today, Barbara Walters will join them with a star of her very own. Hers will be located across from the Kodak Theatre and she and whoever is left on "The View" will join her since they are all in town for Friday's Daytime Emmys. Her star is so well-deserved for those celebrity specials alone, which used to come on FOUR times a year but now are limited to Oscar night and a year-end 10 Most Fascinating People thing.
I gotta say, it's a little sad to see Walters all over this Paris Hilton thing even if she scored the exclusive jailhouse telephone interview with the celebutante. I mean, from Hepburn to Hilton? C'mon!
For the record, Katherine Hepburn said she'd be an oak tree, "strong and pretty."
What kind of a tree would Paris be?

Posted by Greg Hernandez at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Headline News anchor Thomas Roberts left CNN on May 1, TVNewser has confirmed.
"After five years, he has decided to leave us, with intentions to settle in the Washington, D.C., area," Ken Jautz wrote in a memo on Monday. His final major on-air appearance came last month, as he recounted being sexually abused by a priest for a 360 special hosted by Anderson Cooper.
Jautz's memo said Roberts will be "pursuing new journalistic opportunities." TVNewer wonders: Is it related to this tip/question: "What Headline News anchor has inked a syndication deal?"
Last fall, Roberts did a really brave thing in Miami at the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Assn. Convention: he appeared on a panel to discuss what it's like to be a gay anchor. Although he hadn't been in the closet at the cable network, it was a major step toward becoming more public about who he is.
Coincidentally or not, the mid-afternoon Headline News show he anchored was pulled off the air and he never appeared as prominently on the network again, relgated to reporting and weekend anchor shifts.
In Miami, Roberts told us he has spent too many years being "very, very buttoned up."
"I wasted way too much time worrying about this and I didn't want to do it anymore," he said. "There's no more time to lie."
What gave Roberts the courage to be out to be out from the beginning at CNN was a change in priorities and the realization that living a double life, even for a very promising career, isn't really living.
"My personal life is much more important to me than the professional," he said. "It switched for me in my late 20s."
So when he was interviewing at CNN, he asked the recruiter if it was going to be a safe environment for him, a gay man, even though he wasn't asked if he was gay or not during that or any other interview.
"When you hold something back, that's all anybody wants to know...and it becomes bigger than it is."
At CNN, Roberts co-anchored the network's coverage of the Columbia Space Shuttle tragedyin 2003 as well as the war in Iraq. He also reported from New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina and also covered the 2004 presidential election. He was nominated for an Emmy Award in 2002, the year after he won the prestigious Edward R. Murrow Award.
"I do hope that for younger journalists and people coming up, that they can have an example out there of people who have found a safe haven and have had success because he's a scary business," Roberts told me im Miami. "CNN was extremely supportive of me."
Good luck Thomas!

Posted by Greg Hernandez at 2:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Steve Kmetko, by far the best anchor E! News Daily ever had - is getting ready to say goodbye to Hollywood.
Kmetko also anchored E! News Weekend and was E!'s correspondent covering the Academy Awards, Golden Globes, Cannes Film Festival and many other high-profile events. He also spent 11 years at KCBS in Los Angeles and appeared frequently as a CBS This Morning entertainment reporter. His most recent regular TV gig was anchoring QTN World News on the now-defunct Q Television Network.
I bumped into Steve at the opening night party for Q-MeCon and asked him what he's been up to. He told me his alma mater, Columbia College in Chicago, has asked him to join the television department and teach some courses starfing with the fall semester in September. "I've lived [in LA] for 25 years and Chicago's my home and I'm ready to go home and do something else - Chapter Three."
He's still open to doing some television and there has been some interest from some Chicago stations "so, you never know what might happen."
Kmetko was disappointed at the financial collapse of Q Television last year, but he is not at all impressed with the two remaining gay channels.
"I think here! and Logo could do a better job than they're doing in reaching the gay community and giving us something substantive to listen to and think about. They need to aim higher - they couldn't aim lower. I thought Q was doing what we're supposed to do in terms of bringing news of interest to the gay community. 'Dante's Cove'? And Logo is like MTV, they show the same thing over and over again. I think there's a place out there for people who are gay to learn something."

Posted by Greg Hernandez at 9:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In case you missed it, CNN is scheduled to re-air Anderson Cooper's terrific interview with his colleague Thomas Roberts, titled "sins of the Father," on Monday where Roberts discusses the sexual abuse he suffered at the hands of a trusted family chaplain.
"I had a lot of hesitation," Roberts tells People magazine about speaking out. "You worry about what everybody thinks of you."
I'm a little dismayed by some of the reaction I've been reading on the Internet. People are disappointed or downright pissed that Thomas did not mention being gay or that it was not stated at all during the piece. Some feel that Cooper dodged that area because of all the mystery/speculation/interest surrounding his own sexuality.
Here's my take: As for as Anderson Cooper goes, I give him the benefit of the doubt that his not focusing on the openly-gay Roberts' sexuality was a journalistic decision. He's a terrific journalist and does not seem uncomfortable about his sexuality. He just chooses not to talk about it, period. That's his right.
As for Roberts, he has been out for years and in case anyone didn't know, his appearance last fall on a panel about being gay in the new biz at the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Assn. convention left no doubt. So let's focus on the actual story here which is about a man who suffered greatly in his life because of the sexual abuse and is now ready to taik about it.
In the interview with People, he recalls a suicide attempt at the age of 14 because he felt that the abuse had to end: "I just wanted to fade away." Rev. Jerome Toohey Jr. comforted Roberts, then molested him for another two years.
"What happened to me was a selfish and disgusting thing to do to a kid," Roberts says. "I thought I'd go to my grave with this secret." The news anchor believes he buried the experience for so long because "I didn't want to understand the severity of what he had done to me. I didn't want to be a victim."
Roberts, 34, now says he feels ready to move on with his life: "I feel like I've been through a ring of fire. Being on this side feels so much better."

Posted by Greg Hernandez at 8:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Came in from the pool long enough tonight to catch Anderson Cooper's interview with openly gay anchor Thomas Roberts who told the heartbreaking story of being molested as a child by his priest. I'm glad he's
telling his story, it cannot be easy. I dashed off some notes but I think I'll post the story in his own words:

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- I became a victim of sexual abuse at the age of 14; the abuse lasted three years. It took me nearly 20 years to gather the strength to help put my abuser behind bars. Now, a year after "justice" was done, I am ready to tell my story publicly in ways I never have before. My abuser was Father Jeff Toohey, a trusted man of God. He was the equivalent of a religious celebrity in my private all-boys Catholic school in Baltimore, Maryland. Father Jeff was every boy's friend and mentor. I considered him my mentor as well.

When my parents divorced, I was sent to Father Jeff to help me cope with all the changes. Divorce in the mid-1980s still seemed so foreign. Plus, I was just a kid, and I didn't know much about divorce. I just knew it sucked. All I had at that time in my life was my family and school. Those were my constants. But as my family fell apart, so did my life at school. After the abuse began, high school became a prison of shame and lies.

I felt trapped. My parents would be horrified to know their failure at marriage put their son at risk to be sexually abused and that the man abusing me was the high school chaplain and beloved priest. The school would never believe me, I thought, and I feared I would be expelled if I revealed the abuse. I was 14, with no voice, except the one in my head saying, "You can never tell the truth about what is happening."

Roughly a month after the abuse started, I attempted to commit suicide. I took a bottle of my mother's pills. I lined them up one-by-one on my maple dresser. I took them all and lay on my bed hoping to just fade away and die. My sister, Patsy, came home and found me. It was the day before her 18th birthday. She saved my life that day just by merely coming to my room to say, "Hi." She saw the pill bottle and went to get ipecac, which made me throw up.

My parents were terribly upset by my actions. Father Jeff was told I tried to kill myself. All agreed I just needed more counseling. Father Jeff's exact words were, "You have so much to live for." I felt so cornered, and I had nowhere to go and no one to run to. I just became numb to the abuse. "This too shall pass" is one of my favorite religious sayings. The abuse did pass, but it left me so insecure about who I was.

When I was in college, another boy, Michael Goles, came forward and reported his abuse at the hands of Father Jeff. I knew I could help Michael if I, too, revealed Father Jeff's abuse, but out of a feeling of self-preservation, I remained quiet. Michael wasn't believed, and his case was thrown out of court.

Nearly 20 years after the abuse started, I became strong enough to go back and confront what had happened to me. I was strong enough to tell my family the truth. I was strong enough to report it to the archdiocese. And I was strong enough to call Michael Goles and tell him, "I am sorry," and that I believe him because it happened to me, too.

Together, we were strong enough to see our abuser finally admit his crimes. Father Jeff was charged with 10 criminal counts of child sexual abuse in relation to my case. He asked for a plea and admitted his guilt in court. He was sentenced to five years in jail but only served 10 months. He was released early to serve eight months in home detention.

This story is so layered. For a long time, I couldn't talk about it without crying. But a year ago, CNN Anchor Anderson Cooper and CNN Senior Producer Charlie Moore approached me about telling and following my story. I was scared. I was scared of being so honest and televising this journey.

What would people think? Would I ruin my career? But I came to the conclusion that I will not be scared anymore. I will not be scared of telling the truth because it might be uncomfortable for people to hear.

If this story compels even one person to seek help for being sexually abused, then it is all worth it. All it takes is telling one person. From there, strength grows and you can tell a second person and so on. Then you can finally have control of your life back.

Posted by Greg Hernandez at 9:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Anderson Cooper will speak with openly gay fellow CNN newsman Thomas Roberts on Monday, March 12th at 10:30 in an AC360 piece entitled "Sins of the Father," Towleroad.com reports. Roberts will discuss the sexual abuse he suffered at the hands of a priest between 1987 and 1989 when he was a student at Calvert Hall College High School, a Catholic school for boys.
Roberts, who was then anchoring an afternoon block of CNN Headline News but has since lost that gig, caused a stir when he publicly came out of the closet last year during a panel discussion at a National Gay and Lesbian Journalists Association conference in Miami. He expressed disappointment in December about a judge's decision to give Roman Catholic priest Jerome F. Toohey Jr., a more lenient sentence. Here are a few excerpts from the show obtained by Towleroad:
Roberts on the abuse: "It's probably the worst place you can be in your life. Because there's so much shame that goes along with this. There's secrecy. There's shame. There's self-hatred, self-doubt. Uh, every mixed up emotion you can have that you don't feel you can talk to anybody. It was the most twisted and turned-around environment that I could have ever have been in and coming from a place of struggle as a child and into a young boy. It was a prison. I mean it was like backing me into a corner with nowhere to go. I was robbed here. Of my self-respect, of my own image. You know part of my soul even. This place paralyzed me thinking I would die with this secret. I would die with this secret."

Andy Towle notes: No word on whether or not Anderson will ask him the question no doubt many would like to hear: how has coming out of the closet affected your news anchor career?

Posted by Greg Hernandez at 10:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I know this is kind of a silly item, spotted in the New York Post, but I'm gonna post it anyway because it's been a little bit of a slow news day:
-- ANDERSON Cooper, one of New York's most eligible men, appeals to both genders. When a lunch date with the CNN anchor went on the block at the Puck Building the other night at the benefit for Bailey House, which helps AIDS victims, British bachelor Oliver Hicks bid aggressively and won the date for $21,000. Hicks, who shuttles between New York and Los Angeles, runs production company North Six. "The invitation allows him to bring a companion, but I have a feeling he will go solo," said one source. "Anderson is cute," said Hicks. --
Now for my two-cents: I agree that Anderson is cute. Very cute. And smart. But $21,000 for lunch with him??? I. Don't. Think. So.

Posted by Greg Hernandez at 12:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The first time I laid eyes on CNN Headline News anchor Thomas Roberts, it wasn't on a television screen. It was poolside at the Lowes Hotel in Miami Beach. I was reading my New York Times and trying to get a little sun between sessions at the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association connvention last September. I just looked over and thought, "That guy is HOT!" As handsome as he appears on television, he's even better looking poolside in swimming trunks.
But I digress.
The next day, I was among the people sitting in on a panel of newscasters who were discussing being a gay on-air personality. The guy from the pool, Thomas Roberts, was on that panel. He was very articulate and honest and we were all v ery impressed. He was out at CNN but this panel, attended by dozens of journalists, made news because many of us went back and posted blog items about it (see related posts below).
At the time of the convention, Roberts had the plum slot of anchoring an afternoon broadcast. I wanted to interview him for The Advocate and we traded emails after the convention. In the end, CNN nixed it. The afternoon broadcast was cancelled soon after (apparently not due to Roberts' public disclosure) and he has not been as high profile since. The terrific Website GayBeacon.com points out this week that if you want to see this handsome and appealing anchor, you must do so in the wee hours or on weekends.
I wonder what gives...
Related Posts:
CNN Anchor Thomas Roberts Speaks Out Against Priest
Gay CNN Anchor Thomas Roberts Clears the Air
Out on the airwaves

Posted by Greg Hernandez at 10:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Miguel Marquez called last week as he was preparing to depart for Bahgdad where he will spend roughly a month reporting for ABC News. We met at the holiday party thrown by the LA chapter of the National Gay & Lesbian Journalists Assn. last month and I, of course, asked him to give an interview to Out In Hollywood about his job as a Los Angeles-based national correspondent for the network and about being an openly gay man in the television news business.
"It's very important for people to know you can be gay and do anythng you want to in the world," he says. "We tend to discount how important it is to have role models when we live in cities where being gay is so accepted. To me, what I strive for is to be comfortable out without putting it in people's faces. As a reporter, I’m there to be fly on the wall and kind of absorb the story."
While he is in Bahgdad, Marquez is reporting for "ABC World News," "Good Morning America," "Nightline," ABC.com, ABC radio and for Canada's CBC. This is his fifth ("or maybe sixth") trip to Iraq since joining ABC in 2005 from CNN where he was also an L.A.-based correspondent.
"ABC was willing to put me overseas. I was there about 4-5 months when they called and I went. By the time I got there, it was already pretty much this tightrope situation that we're in now. Now I’m one of the people who they ask to go. There’s a list of correspondents who are willing to go and I’m one of the dumb ones [laughs]. It's my first war zone. My background is in politics."
But sometimes, politics comes to Bahgdad as they did when Secretary of State Condi Rice came for a visit during Marquez's watch: "It was her second visit to Baghdad. That is the biggest person I’ve ever interviewed. It was very stressful,. in the Green Zone in the U.S. Embassy compound."
Marquez, 39, came out as a gay man even before he entered television news. He was working in Washingtion D.C. as a legislative assistant for Bill Richardson, then a congressman from New Mexico's third district. (Marquez grew up in the small town of Santa Rosa, New Mexico).
"When I did it, I was only sorry I hadn't done it earlier," he says of coming out. “ABC has been very, very great. It's so comfortable here and CNN was also very comfortable with the whole gay thing. Every media company that l've worked with has been fine."
Marquez left Washington and politics behind to try his luck at producing television documentaries. He attended Columbia Journalism School and right out of school, got hired for a plum job on WNBC in New York, the station that launched Matt Lauer's career. But Marquez knew he was too green and barely kept his head above water during the year he was there. He then spent three years working at the FOX affiliate in Pheonix, Ariz. before CNN hired him.
He hasn't looked back.
"It's great to be on a big story," he says. "I really got bit by the bug."
Marquez has only given the rare interviews about himself ("I don't know how important it is to do tons") but has great respect for CNN Headline News' Thomas Roberts who got all kinds of attention last fall when he participated in a panel discussion at the NLGJA conference in Miami about being a gay anchor. Roberts was already out but the appearance made him far more public. In addition, Roberts had been on the enws for speaking out at the trial of a priest who had molested him as a child.
"He had a much different situation being much higher profile with that trial," Marquez says. "He’s comfortably out. He wasn't hiding. At the convention, there was a lot of coverage. It was the brave thing to do his part, to pursue that [case against the priest]. That put him in an awkward position to cover the news and become the news."
But being in television news these days requires a lot more than just doing television. Marquez has been a prolific presence on ABC.com, the network's webcast, and he's enthusiastic about it: “I try to do as much as possible ABC.com. It’s fun to do. ABC .com is very aggressive now. They want us filing for the Internet as much as possible. With television, you are often frustrated you don't get three-quarters of what you found on the air. It's a different animal now. I've shot my own pieces, I've blogged."

Well, from one reporter/blogger to another...THANK YOU!!!

Posted by Greg Hernandez at 9:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Matt Lauer celebrated 10 years as co-host of "The Today Show" this morning (he's my all-time fave co-host aside from Jane Pauley who was my first-ever girl crush) and among those who stopped by to congratulate him was his predecessor (and best friend) Bryant Gumbel. The men hugged hello and Bryant, who has never looked better, joined Lauer, Meredith Viera and Al Roker on the sofa. Then they showed a clip from 1997 - the day Gumbel handed over the co-hist baton to Lauer. As Gumbel unsuccessfully held back tears, Lauer said in the clip: "You've been my best friend over these past four years (Lauer was the show's news anchor) and I'll miss seeing each other every day but I know we'll see each other." Clearly moved, Gumbel patted his friend on the knee and choked back tears.
Back to the present. Viera, a wonderful smart-aleck, says: "Was that the scene they cut out of 'Brokeback Mountain'?"
Everyone breaks up.
Gumbel: "We did go see it together!"

Posted by Greg Hernandez at 1:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I can't imagine this happening in LA but I'm glad it happened in Boston where I hope loathsome former Gov. Mitt Romney is crying in his cornflakes: Popular newsanchor Randy Price and his long-time partner, Mark Steffen, will tie the knot on the steps of the State House today - one day after a measure to ban gay marriage advanced on Beacon Hill. They have already been together 30 years.
“Our timing couldn’t be better,� Price told the newspaper "Track" as he walked to Boston City Hall yesterday to file the paperwork. “But actually it’s pure coincidence since (today) is our 30th anniversary.� Price said he and Mark, who met on the Left Coast during one of Randy’s anchor stints, wanted to swap vows on the capitol steps for “symbolic reasons.�
“We’re certainly not defiant people, but we believe that we should have the right to marry like anyone else" he said. "Right now, it’s right for us. And we’ve got as good a track record with vows and commitment as anyone else.�
His station is certainly supportive, posting this on the web site today: 7News wants to congratulate an important part of our team. Randy Price got married today. Price and his longtime partner, Mark Steffen said, "I do" Wednesday in a simple ceremony in Boston. They've been together for 30 years.

Posted by Greg Hernandez at 11:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I love producing my "Out In Hollywood" more than anything else I do professionally. But I also love the satisfaction of producing more in-depth journalism for both the L.A. Daily News where I am a staff writer and for The Advocate, where I am a contributing writer.
So, in an act of shameless self-promotion, I'd like to point you to a story on gay bloggers that I wrote for the year-ened issue of The Advocate. I interviewed a lot of bloggers who I really admire including John Aravosis (AmericaBlog) and Andy Towle (Towleroad) as well as media experts, magazine editors and publicists on a story that focuses on the impact gay bloggers have had on the world in 2006. Of course, Perez Hilton and I also sat down and spoke for the article - one of countless ones this self-proclaimed "Queen of All Media" is featured in these days.
So, click onto Advocate.com then onto current newsstand issue to get to my story and others in the year-end issue.

Posted by Greg Hernandez at 12:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Thomas Roberts, an openly gay CNN reporter who used to anchor an afternoon segment of Headline News, spoke out on Monday against a judge's decision to allow a former Roman Catholic preist who molested Roberts and others to serve the rest of his sentence on home detention after just 18 months in jail.

A lawyer for Jerome F. Toohey Jr., known as Father Jeff, had asked the judge to release his client either on probation or home detention because the conditions of his confinement at the county jail are "extremely tough." The former chaplain of Calvert Hall College High School in Towson has been kept in solitary confinement 23 hours a day for his safety because of threats made against him.

Roberts, a former Calvert Hall College High School student whom Toohey was convicted of abusing in 1987 and 1988 after the then-teenager sought counseling from the priest, told the judge that dealing with the sexual abuse that began when he was a sophomore has been difficult for him as well.

"I was let down by a trusted system years ago," Roberts said of the Roman Catholic Church. "I fear today that I will be let down again. This was a lenient sentence."

Robert later called the judge's decision "disappointing."

Although the charges filed in May 2005 against Toohey covered alleged abuse between 1987 and 1989 when Roberts was a student at the Catholic boys' school, the charge to which the former priest pleaded guilty covered abuse only between September 1987 and March 1988. Charges involving later alleged abuse were dismissed as part of a plea agreement.

Posted by Greg Hernandez at 3:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Following his participation on a panel made up of openly-gay anchors at the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Assn. Convention last week, CNN Headline News anchor Thomas Roberts has gotten a heckuva lot of coverage in recent days (including an in-person interview with me for 'Out in Hollywood"). What wasn't discussed during his panel appearance in Miami was that Headline News would be shuffling its anchor positions and the time slot currently anchored by Roberts will be eliminated as of Oct. 6.

In the coverage of his appearance in Miami, there has been speculation that the anchor change was made because of his making such a high-profile appearance as a gay anchor at CNN and discussing what that has been like. Roberts gave an interview this week to the online site AfterElton.com post-Miami (for some reason, CNN nixed a request for him to do an interview this week with "The Advocate," the nation's most prominant LGBT magazine). Anyway, Roberts told AfterElton.com there was absolutely no connection and that the timing was purely coincidental.

“CNN has been a fantastic place to work,� Roberts said. “The management has been nothing but supportive and I'm very grateful to them.� In fact, he said, he appeared at the Headliners Gala this spring in New York City to present CNN's $100,000.00 donation to the NLGJA's first Leroy F. Aarons Scholarship Award. Roberts will continue to anchor Headline News on the weekend, as well as report during the week.

Roberts has this advise for young lesbian and gay journalists struggling with how open to be about their sexual orientation: “For younger journalists, there are lots of factors to consider,� he said. “There are all kinds of fears we accumulate through high school, college, even going back as far as grade school, that are carried into the adult years. That fear can really hold you back. It (coming out) has to be when people feel… they are ready for it. It's hard to live afraid…. Hopefully, everyone, gay or straight, journalists or doctors or otherwise, can overcome that obstacle, because it stands in the way of you being the best you can be, with your job, with your family, with everything, and not have to be afraid anymore.�

When asked if being in the closet compromised journalistic integrity and stood in the way of being the best you can be, Roberts replied, “Ask a closeted journalist.�

Posted by Greg Hernandez at 11:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Had the great pleasure of meeting Garrett Glaser in Miami last week and remembered him well from his days as a local LA newscaster then as a reporter on "Entertainment Tonight."

Glaser left his most recent broadcast job at CNBC last year where he had been since 1997 and is now in corporate communications. I cornered him for a chat. Here are some highlights:

On being out in the newsroom:
"I decided I couldn't be healthy and live that way (being closeted) so when I went to work in Detroit in 1979, I was out to everyone in the newsroom. Then I went to work in Miami and I was totally out. I couldn't live in the closet. There are some very big people who are still in the closet."

By 1986, Glaser had hit the big leagues when he was hired by WABC in New York then went to "Entertainment Tonight" in 1989. The show was supportive and even promoted a PBS "In the Life" show Glaser was hosting by stating it was "the first gay and lesbian newsmagazine and our own Garrett Glaser is the host."

In 1993, the LA Times did a big article on Glaser being openly gay after he introduced a segment on the Elizabeth Glaser AIDS fundraiser by saying, "As a gay man who has lost many friends to AIDS..." After that, he says he got plenty of hate calls.

On whether a newscaster should be out:
"I think people who are wondering how out to be, they need to honestly say to themselves: 'Am I good enough that news management would invest in me as a brand if I'm gay?' If you come out, at least up to now, they're not going to can you but you're not going to be a star. Once you are a bigger name, then you have more power."

Posted by Greg Hernandez at 2:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I've caught Anderson Cooper doing a wonderful job on CNN this week. I think he is such a solid journalist who puts a lot of heart and a lot of interest in the stories he reports from around the world. But here in Miami, where I have been since Wednesday for the annual convention of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Assn., there has been a definite anti-Anderson Cooper sentiment. It came up during a panel discussion a few days ago during a lively session called "Off Camera: The Challenges for LGBT TV Anchors." CNN Headline News anchor Thomas Roberts (see previous post, below) talked at-length about his own career and life as a gay anchor but was too classy (or savvy) to address comments about the silver-haired Cooper who is probably the networks' biggest star if you don't count Larry King, and I really don't want to count Larry King.

"Anderson used to be more out, before they decided to make him THE GUY," one local anchor sniffed during the session.

Cooper has declined to discuss his private life in interviews, something that was often broached when he was doing publicity for his recent best-selling memoir. This is what has a lot of his fellow journalists peeved: that he would write such a deeply personal book and omit any reference to his sexuality. At the last official party last night at Miami's Loews Hotel, footage of Cooper anchoring New Year's Eve coverage a few years ago and making some comments about some drag queens was shown amid knowing snickers etc. At dinner later, some of my fellow attendees were bagging on him as well.

I am turned off by all of this Anderson-bashing because I think it's his damned business and he should handle it however he wants to handle it. He's focusing on his work and any journalist, gay or straight, should be proud. I spent more than a decade as a reporter for the Los Angeles Times and I never felt comfortable being out to my bosses and didn't want my sexuality to interfere with my work. Of course, now I feel differently about it all and have put it in the forefront of virtually everything I do professionally. But that is my choice and I came to it in my own time.

Maybe Anderson Cooper will too, maybe not. Either way, I wish him only the best.

Posted by Greg Hernandez at 7:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

CNN Headline News anchor Thomas Roberts did a really brave thing here in Miami at the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Assn. convention: he appeared on a panel to discuss what it's like to be a gay anchor. Although he hadn't been in the closet at the cable network, it was a major step toward becoming more public about who he is.

Roberts, 33, has been at CNN for five years, is out to his bosses and his newsroom, and takes his partner to social events and introduces him as such. There is no hiding. Roberts said he did enough of that in his 20s when he worked at local stations in Florida and Virginia where he'd even date women, each one briefly, in order to "buy time" and avoid scrutiny. He said for years he was "very, very buttoned up."
"I wasted way too much time worrying about this and I didn't want to do it anymore," he said to his audience of fellow journalists. "There's no more time to lie."

What gave Roberts the courage to be out to be out from the beginning at CNN was a change in priorities and the realization that living a double life, even for a very promising career, isn't really living.
"My personal life is much more important to me than the professional," he said. "It switched for me in my late 20s."
So when he was interviewing at CNN, he asked the recruiter if it was going to be a safe environment for him, a gay man, even though he wasn't asked if he was gay or not during that or any other interview.
"When you hold something back, that's all anybody wants to know...and it becomes bigger than it is."

At CNN, Roberts co-anchored the network's coverage of the Columbia Space Shuttle tragedyin 2003 as well as the war in Iraq. He also reported from New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina and also covered the 2004 presidential election. He was nominated for an Emmy Award in 2002, the year after he won the prestigious Edward R. Murrow Award.

With his movie star looks, Roberts was approached by People Magazine to appear in its 50 hottest bachelor issues. He briefly wanted to do it because, "Hey! It's People Magazine." His partner nixed the idea because, gay or straight, he's not really a bachelor!
"I do hope that for younger journalists and people coming up, that they can have an example out there of people who have found a safe haven and have had success because he's a scary business," Roberts told me later. "CNN was extremely supportive of me."

Posted by Greg Hernandez at 1:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)