Washington Times Continues to Smear Jennings

In TheWashington Times'ninth editorial smearing Department of Education official Kevin Jennings, Media Matters reports, the conservative paper is now calling the president's appointee to the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools "Obama's buggery czar."

The article further perpetuates the now-debunked rumor that Jennings condoned statutory rape when he advised a 15-year-old student he knew to be having sex with an older man to "use a condom." The student, it has since been reported by Media Matters and The Advocate, was in fact 16 at the time of the incident, the age of consent in Massachusetts.

The Times has even previously accepted that the student was 16 at the time.

The latest article further attempts to smear Jennings, the founder of the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network, by saying he is an admirer of Harry Hay, "a notorious and extremely prominent supporter of the North American Man Boy Love Association."

All of this is done in services of what the Times says is the latest news to surface: "That Mr. Jennings not only thought there was nothing wrong with boys having sex with older men (or girls having sex with older women), but he also played a role in promoting such relationships." Its evidence: a selected list of reading material compiled by GLSEN while he was still with the organization that the paper claims "clearly promote homosexuality and promiscuity."

"In 2009, The Times has become -- a lot like Fox News -- sort of a hate outlet, a fringe publication, and so they're following this fringe conspiracy theory," Eric Boehlert, a senior fellow with watchdog group Media Matters, told The Advocate. "No serious news organization would take this stuff as legitimate because there are so many holes in it. It's an example of how the Times doesn't operate under the same standards and guidelines of mainstream journalism."

The Washington Times did not reply to a call for comment.