Because someone’s missing spouse is apparently an opportunity to show off your ignorance.

While George Smitherman has broken down barriers as one of the first openly gay big-name politicians in Toronto and Ontario it is sad to see that so little has changed over the years, namely the media’s inability to cover the story of his husbands two day disappearance without improperly using the term “partner” instead of “husband” and trying to dig out some sort of drama or scandal from the parents of a missing man.

To title a story on any missing person as being about their so-called ‘on-again off-again relationship‘ — which, in the frame of the article, refers to their relationship before getting serious a decade ago — is so utterly tasteless , tabloid, and would most likely not be the case if this story were about a straight couple.

One basic rule to identify news from simple events is to spot the unusual. If a dog bites a man, it isn’t news. If a man bites a dog, however, it is. What is increasingly evident with the coverage surrounding Christopher Peloso’s disappearance is that the media coverage surrounding it from the start was due to the fact that George Smitherman was once the second in command of this province and almost held the top spot in Toronto, but that that continued coverage was due to the news media and the newsreading public having a sick hard on for the drama surrounding the personal lives of a gay family.

The fact that this is a gay couple and a gay family and a gay person missing is what makes the story a ‘man-bites-dog’ and that is totally unacceptable.

To the mainstream media: Trying not to be offensive and failing at it is still offensive.

On top of all that professional incompetence comes the deluge of hate filled tweets directed at a man and his family who, at the time these were posted, were most likely experiencing the most harrowing moment of their lives.

Read on to lose faith in humanity.

 

 

 

 

 

Follow Travis on Twitter at @TravMyers.

 

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