BBC to host lecture on AIDS journalist

Sam Smith / Editor-in-Chief

Jeffrey Schmalz’s work at the New York Times reporting the stories of the AIDS crisis of the early 1990s could have been lost after his death.

Schmalz, who worked at the Times from 1973 until his death in 1993, wrote profiles on people with HIV and AIDS, as well as reports on the disease itself near the end of his life.

“These articles he wrote were so significant when they came out and changed so much in American journalism … and yet, barely a generation later, much of that has been forgotten,” said Samuel G. Freedman, Columbia professor, author and former New York Times writer.

Freedman, who called Schmalz his mentor and friend, will host “Dying Words: The AIDS Reporting of Jeff Schmalz and How it Transformed the New York Times,” a lecture based on Freedman’s book of the same name, Tuesday, March 1 at 2 p.m. in BBC’s Academic Center One Room 194.

Radio producer and director of the Columbia radio program Kerry Donahue, who co-wrote the book and worked with Freedman to create a radio-documentary on the subject, will speak alongside him during the lecture.

The talk will cover Schmalz’s impact on the way AIDS was reported in a time when gay and lesbian reporters were pressured to stay “in the closet” to keep their jobs. Freedman said at the Times, in particular, then-editor Abraham Rosenthal’s homophobia prevented many LGBT reporters from “coming out.”

Schmalz was one of those.

“It’s important to bring young readers, both straight and gay, back to that time period and also be reminded of how many exceptionally talented, exceptionally gifted, exceptionally productive people – members of the media, the arts and business, all aspects of society – lost their lives to this disease at incredibly young ages,” said Freedman.

Schmalz was 39 when he died Nov. 6, 1993, three years after his own AIDS diagnosis.

Although Schmalz was open about his sexuality with Freedman, he discovered while writing the book with Donahue that was not so with everyone.

“The homophobia at the top of the paper was so toxic that Jeff was reluctant to come out to anyone who held his career in their hands,” Freedman said.

For the current generation, Freedman said it is likely difficult to imagine such circumstances.

“I think Jeff’s work really set the tone for the change in the coverage of AIDS in a way that’s hard to fathom today,” said Freedman.

Due to the internet age, Freedman said the news landscape has become much more widely spread. The Times’ influence in Schmalz’s day was, according to him, exponentially more.

“The Times amplified [the issue] tremendously – that also made such a big difference,” he said.

“It’s vital, especially for young journalists to know about that experience and to know who helped batter open some of those doors that are open now,” said Freedman.

[image from Flickr]