Dan Seligman, THE SCRAPBOOK'S favorite New York Times watcher, has a new addition to the list of articles at the paper of record that have ended up as ideological embarrassments. That would be the story of gay Marine Rich Merritt. As Seligman noted in his New York Post column last week, Merritt was "profiled anonymously last year in a Times Magazine article about the agonies undergone by gays in the military. The article depicted Merritt as a straight arrow, 'fiercely loyal to the Corps,' who was 'a Marine first and gay second.'
"It quoted him as stating: 'I know very little about gay culture,' and added that he found its hedonism 'wearying and empty.' It also said that he and his friends 'monitor themselves obsessively' so that nobody can possibly find out they're gay.
"And then it turned out that, while on active duty, the straight arrow had appeared in several gay pornographic movies. Trying to deal with this catastrophe, the Feb. 4 Times ran an article quoting Adam Moss, editor of the Magazine, as wishing he'd known about the films. But also as arguing that the news ultimately made no difference as 'this revelation doesn't alter the story's truths.' Whether its distortions and absurdities were in any way implicated he didn't exactly say."