Today Repeatedly Hypes Book Which Says Abraham Lincoln Was Gay (Couric OOPS! Clinton for Lincoln)

MRC ^ | Wednesday January 12, 2005 | BrentBaker, Geoff Dickens

[fight_truth_decay]

NBC's Today spent much of Tuesday's show incessantly plugging an upcoming story about a book by a gay advocate which claims that President Abraham Lincoln was gay. Katie Couric, for instance, contrasted Lincoln's image of honesty with the new charge: "He's famous, of course, as 'Honest Abe,' but was former President Abraham Lincoln not completely honest when it came to his sexuality?" Ann Curry set up the eventual story: "Now to an interesting question that has surfaced about one of this country's most revered Presidents nearly 150 years later. Was Abraham Lincoln gay?" That story included those who don't buy the idea, but also featured gay activist Larry Kramer who used the opportunity to trash modern Republicans: "Hateful people who hate us, who belong to his party will leave us alone now for awhile out of deference to their founder who is one of us now more than he is one of them."

Earlier, in delivering the eighth plug for the segment, and so maybe growing tired of it, Curry, to guffaws from the rest of the Today cast, had mistakenly asserted that the new book "claims that President Clinton may have been gay."

The NBC story aired on Today, by Bob Faw, featured a shot of what inspired it: A review of the book, The Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln, by the late C.A. Tripp, in Sunday's New York Times "Book Review" section. For that review, with a photo of Tripp: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/09/books/review/09BROOKHE.html

The cover of this week's Weekly Standard (January 17 issue) dismissed the book as "dishonest." Inside, Philip Nobile decided: "The Gay Lincoln Theory fails any historical test. 'Useful history' is always a dubious kind of scholarship. But in its attempt to be useful for gays today, The Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln reaches far beyond the merely dubious. The book is a hoax and a fraud: a historical hoax, because the inaccurate parts are all shaded toward a predetermined conclusion, and a literary fraud, because significant portions of the accurate parts are plagiarized..." For the review in full: http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/005/107koqzy.asp

Back to Tuesday's Today, the MRC's Geoff Dickens took down the program's series of teases for the story which eventually ran at about 9:45am:

-- 7:30am, Katie Couric: "And still ahead was Honest Abe hiding a big secret? A new book is making a very shocking claim about former President Lincoln, that he was actually gay. We'll have much more a little bit later including the impact that this might have on politics today."

-- Later in the half hour, Couric: "Still ahead we'll tell you about new speculation that former President Abraham Lincoln was gay."

-- 8am, Couric: "And later a new book claims Honest Abe Lincoln was hiding a big secret."

-- 8:25am, Couric: "And coming up in our next half hour was former President Lincoln gay? We're gonna find out what one author thinks but first your local news."

-- 8:30am, Couric outside with Lester Holt: "Coming up: He's famous, of course, as 'Honest Abe,' but was former President Abraham Lincoln not completely honest when it came to his sexuality? We're going to tell you about a shocking new book that speculates about a particular relationship Abraham Lincoln had with a gentleman."

-- 9am, Couric: "Plus we're going to be talking with the author of a new book that claims one past President may have led an alternative lifestyle."

Al Roker, mimicking a Seinfeld line: "Not that there's anything wrong with that."

Couric: "Exactly!"

-- A bit later, Couric: "And still to come this morning on Today."

Holt: "Was Abraham Lincoln actually gay? We'll open the book on the latest controversy."

-- 9:30am, entire Today crew on the couch: Curry: "Also ahead a controversial new book is out today that may be trying to re-write American history. In it sex researcher C.A. Tripp is, claims that President Clinton may have been gay."

Couric: "No, no, no, Lincoln."

Al Roker: "President Lincoln."

Curry: "Lincoln, President Lincoln!" [Laughter]

Roker: "Wow!"

Curry: "Never have a woman come back from, I am so jet lagged!"

Roker: "Wow!"

Curry: "President Lincoln may have been gay."

Couric: "Hillary's on the phone for you."

Curry: "So sorry. Mr. Clinton I'm so sorry, purely mistaken, not being able to-"

Roker: "And suddenly we're not sure about Ulysses S. Grant either."

-- At the end of the first 9:30am half hour segment, Al Roker: "And coming up next a new political scandal? Who was Abraham Lincoln sleeping with? Ooh. We'll find out."

Finally, at about 9:45am, Today got to their much-plugged story. Ann Curry announced: "Now to an interesting question that has surfaced about one of this country's most revered Presidents nearly 150 years later. Was Abraham Lincoln gay? Here's NBC's Bob Faw."

Faw, over video of the Lincoln Memorial: "Majestic, revered, Abraham Lincoln was also gay or so argues a new book by the late sex researcher, C.A. Tripp, himself gay."

Jean Baker, Goucher College: "He's able to see things that perhaps straight historians couldn't or wouldn't, perhaps."

Faw: "Goucher College historian Jean Baker, who wrote the book's introduction, admits that Tripp's evidence is inferential. Example: Three documents written in Lincoln's time noting that when Mrs. Lincoln was away Lincoln shared his White House bed with his military guard Captain David Derrickson."

Baker: "One must say that there is no other President who has ever been found in bed with one of the guards. One of the, I suppose in our century, the Secret Service and wearing his nightshirt."

Faw: "Evidence: For four years Lincoln not only shared a bed in Springfield, Illinois with handsome store owner Joshua Speed, his letters to Speed gush."

Baker: "And he signs this letter, 'Yours forever.' That, that I think is quite compelling." [still shot of pictures of two men with "Dear Speed" and "Yours forever, A. Lincoln" on screen]

Faw: "But other historians say it is not compelling at all, that flowery language was customary back then and that men sleeping together is not quite what it seems."

Doris Kearns Goodwin, presidential historian: "Sharing a bed at that time was an absolutely common practice at a time when private quarters were really a rare luxury."

Faw, over shot of New York Times Book Review headline, "was Lincoln Gay?": "The book isn't just getting attention it's also energizing the gay rights movement."

Larry Kramer, Initiative for Lesbian and Gay Studies at Yale University: "Hateful people who hate us, who belong to his party will leave us alone now for awhile out of deference to their founder who is one of us now more than he is one of them."

Faw: "Historians agree the debate sheds new light on Lincoln's complex personality."

Baker: "It helps me understand how this package emerges that is A. Lincoln, our greatest President."

Faw: "Because of what Lincoln did, not who he was."

Goodwin: "What ever one thinks about Lincoln's sexuality it should have absolutely no effect on his place in history."

Faw: "19th century history with a new perspective from the 21st. For Today, Bob Faw, NBC News, Washington."

Amazon's page for The Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln published by the Free Press: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0743266390/qid=1105489564/s r=2-1/ref=pd_ka_b_2_1/102-9612105-1162526

[fight_truth_decay]

Hyenas defile the physical body, while humans defile the names of the dead. The hyenas do not care who the person was that is now food for them, much the same as a fallen soldier is forgotten by the world he died for. {Ruyard Kipling’s poem "The Hyenas"}-Alana Gerhart

I remembered Kipling's Hyenas:
.." it is not discovered to living men—

Only to God and to those

Who, being soulless, are free from shame,

Whatever meat [the hyenas] may find.

Nor do they defile the dead man’s name—

That is reserved for his kind (1893-1894).

[Dreagon]

Homorevisionism runs rampant in History Depts nowadays.

[coconutt2000]

As soon as Jimmy Carter is dead, we can accuse him of being homophobic... We can do the same to Clinton...

No, why wait? *rolling my eyes*

[coconutt2000]

By, "why wait" I meant that we don't have to wait for them to pass from natural causes before slapping them with unsupported, unsubstantiated allegations of homophobia.

We could probably accuse FDR, JFK, and other Democratic Presidents who are dead of homophobia and be right...

[OldFriend]

You mean you didn't know that JFK was gay?

[kingu]

Gay or straight, does it even matter? Oh, yeah, it does to gays. Must generate heroes to have our young look up to so that it's even more acceptable to be gay.

Recruitment 101. That's what ticks me off about this.

[Soul Seeker]

150 years from now someone will pick up Kitty Kelly's book and use it to proclaim proof G.W. was gay.

Abraham Lincoln, imo, was our greatest President. I have no reason to believe he was gay, and every reason to suspect the agenda of the people trying to align themselves with our greatest public servant. His legacy outlived his critics, and it will outlive those today trying to elevate themselves on his shoulders.

[longtermmemmory]

We need to demand that telivision programing be encoded with an "H" rating for homosexual content.

This will allow homosexuals to produce whatever TV programs they want but parents and consumers can feel free to program their televisions to erase it from the surfing dial.

[mowkeka]

Thank goodness for the MRC. Without them, I might have to actually watch Couric and the rest of them.

[longtermmemmory]

Its about basing the conservative or individualistic icons. See such and such a leader was a loner because he was a homosexual, a diverse society requires all to live harmoneous within the village.

The pink swastika rides again...

[GVnana]

Well said.

[steplock]

Lincoln was GAY most of his life - he enjoyed and was PROUD to be GAY in America! To be GAY in the 19th century was to be happy and glad.

If Lincoln were alive today, he would be demanding HONOR from these piglets at 20 paces. Watch them run away squealing for their HOMOSEXUAL heroes/heroines -- or is it heroin clintons.

[ditto h]

In the 50's and early 60's , I slept with my brothers. Sometimes you have to.

[little jeremiah]

Homosexual Agenda Ping.

There have been many threads on FR, and quite a few recently, about this book and articles trying to make the claim that Abraham Lincoln was homosexual. Anyone wanting to read the details can do a search; the myth (or sick fantasy) has been completely taken apart elsewhere.

This article is noteworthy because of the Today Show support of the crap. Does anyone still watch it?

Let me and DirtyHarryY2K know if anyone wants on/off this list.

[Shortstop7]

Good Lord........have these people gone totally insane?

The Libs are totally losing it.

[weegee]

Media Schadenfreude and Media Shenanigans PING

-- 9:30am, entire Today crew on the couch: Curry: "Also ahead a controversial new book is out today that may be trying to re-write American history. In it sex researcher C.A. Tripp is, claims that President Clinton may have been gay."

Couric: "No, no, no, Lincoln."

THIS after Al Roker had already said "Not that there's anything wrong with that" (about homosexuality, stealing a line from Seinfeld.

Homosexuality - okay for Abe Lincoln, but not Bill Clinton ("no, no, no" sounds adamant in rejecting the notion).

[weegee]

Media Schadenfreude and Media Shenanigans PING

-- 9:30am, entire Today crew on the couch: Curry: "Also ahead a controversial new book is out today that may be trying to re-write American history. In it sex researcher C.A. Tripp is, claims that President Clinton may have been gay."

Couric: "No, no, no, Lincoln."

THIS after Al Roker had already said "Not that there's anything wrong with that" (about homosexuality, stealing a line from Seinfeld.

Homosexuality - okay for Abe Lincoln, but not Bill Clinton ("no, no, no" sounds adamant in rejecting the notion).

[TigersEye]

Couric: "Hillary's on the phone for you."

Curry: "So sorry. Mr. Clinton I'm so sorry, purely mistaken, not being able to-"

What's she sorry for? Potentially degrading Sick Willy's image in the eyes of evil homophobic Republicans?

Being gay isn't much compared to almost everything Clinton really is.

[Duke Nukum]

WHen I used to read Weekly Word News, every few years they had the same story that Lincoln may have been a witch, according to an author.

The proof was he had warts and he died after wishing he could see Jeruslam, and witches aren't allowed in the Holy City so that was the whole reason for the assassniation.

Now, I suppose it will be that Boothe was a jilted lover, or somesuch.

Of course, a lot of pagans are gay and a lot of gays are pagen, so if Lincoln was a witch, that would be proof he was gay.