It’s the first hot day of 2008 in Los Angeles -- upward of 90 degrees, and it’s only April -- and I’m hiking in dusty Runyon Canyon in the Hollywood hills with Thomas Roberts, the former CNN anchor turned Insider correspondent. Halfway up a moderately rugged climb, both wheezing a bit, we spot a secluded ridge off the main path, safely removed from the dogs and owners and shirtless runners enjoying the late-afternoon sunshine. We stand still for a moment and take in the commanding view from downtown in the east to the Pacific in the west. The vast metropolis, bustling with kinetic dreams up close, lies before us in a state of startling clarity. The only thing moving is an airplane in the distance.
The peaceful tableau is a good match for the calm, confident demeanor of Roberts, a major talent who’s weathered some career turbulence of late. It started in 2006, when his appearance on a panel of gay broadcast journalists was picked up by a blog. The “news” quickly turned into a coming-out of the first order -- even though Roberts was already out at CNN. Never mind: He was now an official gay celebrity, and along with the affection came the opposite -- the rumors, innuendos, and downright trash talk hurled at anyone in the public eye these days. When Roberts left CNN a year ago this May, people speculated that the cable news behemoth parted ways with him because of his sexuality. Then, when he started on the air at The Insider a few months later, in September 2007, a blogger posted pictures that were purportedly from Roberts’s Manhunt profile -- a nasty hit that was splashed across the top of the New York Post gossip column “Page Six.”
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.
“It’s funny that people think I got fired from CNN,” he says, addressing the prevailing rumor about him. “I left CNN on my accord: I resigned from my contract because of personal reasons.” During his six years at the channel, he says, “I never dealt with anything but respect and kindness. There’s a great misconception.”
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.”
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The glaring absence of openly gay television anchors at the networks, on cable, and in local markets across the country is most obvious in the case of the CNN and 60 Minutes silver fox, who delivers the facts on everything except his sexuality. But when you turn your attention away from him and scan the ranks of America’s newsreaders, you notice Cooper has lots of company.
According to longtime industry talent agent Mendes J. Napoli, there are only two openly gay main news anchors currently working in the top 20 U.S. television markets: Randy Price at Boston’s WHDH and Craig Stevens at Miami’s WSVN. On cable news there’s one: Jason Bellini of CBS News on Logo. And on the networks? None.
In the correspondent and reporter corps, the numbers are higher -- NBC News’s John Yang and ABC News’s Jeffrey Kofman and Miguel Marquez are a few of the big names, though there are countless others at all levels of TV. (And -- let’s get this out of the way -- there’s CNN’s Richard Quest, recently busted on charges of loitering in Central Park after hours with meth in his pocket.)
Yet when it comes to being the face of a news division, the glass ceiling is barely smudged. “You can be a morning anchor, a weekend anchor, an afternoon anchor, a reporter -- they love gay reporters now because they’re so animated, they’re not stiff,” says Napoli, who represents Stevens. “But a primary male anchor who’s gay? It’s an issue.”
The reason, he says, is simple: The decision makers are middle-aged white men. “Ninety-nine percent of main anchor decisions end up on the desk of an older white male manager, who is not going to view gay men the same way other people might.” Plus, Napoli says, “There’s a fear that the audience will reject them.”
“It’s uncharted territory,” says “Jake,” an anchor in a major media market who, in exchange for anonymity, spoke to me candidly about his experience being gay but not out. “Maybe I should have the attitude of ‘I am gay -- take it or leave it.’ But in the back of your mind, there’s always that thing: the culture of the industry.” The business is rife with gay talent, from executives on down -- “tons,” according to Jake. But television is also a fundamentally conservative, risk-averse world. “It’s OK if they know within the company,” Jake says, “but you wouldn’t do a cover story with The Advocate without warning your media-relations person.”
Indeed, when I first inquired about an interview with Roberts before he started at The Insider, a spokesperson for the show instantly said no. When I followed up two months later, it was no dice again. Roberts says he doesn’t recall being contacted either time.
This January, though, he got involved directly, when I learned through a mutual contact that he was interested in talking. Yet when he ran the idea up the flagpole, he too was denied. Roberts won’t cite the reasons on the record, but he was clearly disappointed by the decision. When I asked him how he felt about it, there was a long pause while he considered his response. “I won’t attach a negative to it,” he finally said diplomatically, “but I will say that I was flattered by the offer and thought that it would be great to be included.” It wasn’t until this February, when his contract was unexpectedly optioned -- meaning he was cut from the show -- that he was free to talk.
Roberts doesn’t want to knock anyone. He’s not that kind of guy. “Quote me: I am flawed! I make mistakes! I do things that are stupid! Hopefully this interview won’t be one of them!” But he also knows he’s making a difference, as hackneyed as that sounds. “I heard this phrase the other night: You can always tell the pioneers by the number of arrows in their back,” he says, chuckling. “It’s not that I want to be a pioneer -- I’m certainly a reluctant role model -- but it’s like, Come out already. There’s just no reason not to.”
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“I can state unequivocally that we would be a thousand percent supportive of any employee who wanted to come out publicly,” says ABC News senior vice president Jeffrey Schneider, who is gay. And yet, none of the highest-profile gays on the air at ABC News (think Good Morning America, which is reportedly called “GayMA” by its rivals at Today) wanted to come out for this story, since they declined to be interviewed. Nevertheless, Schneider says, being openly gay isn’t a career breaker: “Are people good broadcasters? Are they aggressive and great journalists? How do they do their job? Those are the things that people talk about in terms of the on-air talent.”
For Roberts, 35, and Jake, who’s around the same age, it wasn’t always that way. “When I went into this business 14 years ago, I had the sense that coming out would probably hurt my career,” says Jake, who like many broadcast journalists got his start in a small market and worked his way up to a network. (He stepped down from that gig to take his current job at a prominent affiliate for another network, where he’s being groomed to return to the big league.) “There were no openly gay news anchors or reporters,” he says. “You don’t want to be judged before you’ve even had a career. You don’t know what the personal bias of a general manager or a news director is. I thought, It’s something I’ll feel more comfortable being open about down the road.”
Now he does: His colleagues, including his executive producer, all know he’s gay, and he assumes the executives who hired him know -- though they haven’t mentioned anything to him. “I know the people who hired me are not stupid. You can Google my name and stuff pops up all over the place.” It makes him a little paranoid. “I hate to bring up the ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ thing, but I’ve been hired by middle-aged, conservative, married men. You think, I know you accept the fact that I’m gay, but you don’t want me to be out. I’m just going to keep that private.”
What’s actually said is far more coded. “They’ll tell you, ‘You’re playing to Middle America. Our stories are going to be built around what a housewife in Wichita would want to see.’?” Translation: Don’t let it show.
Roberts too was skittish early in his career. For one thing, he wasn’t out at all. “I didn’t know how best to deal with that professionally, or personally for that matter,” he says, as flies buzz around us and the occasional dog trots by. “I thought it would be a roadblock -- or a brick wall -- to advancement.” So whenever he arrived in a new market, like San Diego or Lincoln, Neb., “I would automatically date a girl and have everyone at the station see it. We’d date for a little while and then I’d break up with them or do something to make them break up with me.” Later, when his friends would offer to set him up with another girl, Roberts would say he was “too hurt.” “That would get me out of the whole meet-my-sister thing.”
He didn’t make his first gay friend until he was almost 26 and working at WFTX in Fort Myers, Fla. The guy worked at a rival station, and Roberts met him through journalist friends. “It was great for me because I finally had somebody I could talk to or josh around with,” he says. “He knew that I wasn’t out and he made no big deal about it. He didn’t go blabbing. He respected the fact that I wasn’t in a place emotionally or psychologically” to come out.
That soon changed. “I was 26 -- you can only lie to yourself so long,” Roberts says. During his next stint, at Virginia Beach, Va.’s WAVY, he met his current partner, Patrick. Then, right before he was called up to CNN, he came out to his colleagues. “I had already come out to my family by that point, so the next logical step was work,” he says. And everyone was “so cool. They started to meet Patrick and they loved him. I mean, they’re some of my dearest friends still today.”
Former colleagues were next, a long list of people who had moved on to bigger and better things just as he did. “Broadcasting is a small world, and news travels quickly -- I wanted everyone to hear from me,” he says. “And I never lost a friend.”
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