Frank Bruni, the first openly gay op-ed columnist to work for The New York Times, discussed current events and national politics at a Q&A session in Syracuse University’s Joyce Hergenhan Auditorium on Tuesday.

About two dozen people attended the Q&A. Harriet Brown, a professor in the magazine department at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, led the discussion.

After working for both the New York Post and the Detroit Free Press, Bruni took a job with The New York Times in 1995 and became the organization’s first openly gay columnist. Bruni said there were openly gay and lesbian writers on the staff, but no op-ed columnists.

The newsroom’s lack of a gay columnists was not because of discrimination, he said.

“I never felt the least bit held back or disrespected,” Bruni said. “To me, (being gay is) one of the many things I am.”

He briefly talked about how the #MeToo movement has changed society. The columnist said that there’s now a much greater awareness of and sensitivity toward women, and that more people now recognize how important it is for women to be heard.

Bruni and Ross Douthat, another op-ed columnist for the Times, recently wrote an article about whether or not Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh should withdraw his nomination.

Bruni criticized articles about Kavanaugh on both sides.

“He is either ‘irredeemable drunken frat boy’ or is ‘wrongly tarnished angel,’” he said.  “People are a lot of different things at the same time. The writing about him does not do justice to how messy human beings are.”

Bruni said he believed journalists should not be always writing about President Donald Trump’s administration. He also said that people should consider whether they’re actually missing out on events or if they’re simply investing too much in “meaningless microscopic developments.”

When a member of the audience asked him who an ideal candidate for the 2020 presidential elections would be, he emphasized that the Democratic Party needs to nominate someone who isn’t too far to the left.

Another audience member asked if Bruni was worried about younger voter turnout in the midterm election.

“If you are 18 or 19 or 20, whatever mistakes the government is making right now, you’ll be living with the consequences for so much longer than I will,” Bruni said. “You have to get out there and vote. It’s your future you’re deciding.”

Published on September 25, 2018 at 9:33 pm

Contact Dakota: dapalmer@syr.edu