So Apple's new CEO is gay. Is that worth all the chatter?

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A single tweet on Tims Cook's sexuality set off a barrage of comment that shows no sign of going away

Tim Cook, the new CEO of Apple, is gay. He is therefore, on one accounting, the most powerful gay business leader in the world. And Felix Salmon, blogging for Reuters, no less, thinks this has to be newsworthy. Cook doesn't keep his sexuality secret. He just makes nothing of it, neither denying nor campaigning: a non-political gay, according to Salmon. So how does that fit in the mystic world of media morality?

Installing a woman as boss of Apple would clearly be instant symbolism, headlines, even triumphalism – just like seeing Obama made president of the US. No argument there. It's obvious. But when an FT correspondent mentioned Cook's sexuality in a single tweet he was instantly buried in criticism (of a kind that continues in the Columbia Journalism Review). Don't ask, don't tell, expect a barrel full of vitriol? Some papers (the Guardian for one) have reported the issue. Some have let it lie. Is achievement, out of the closet, something to celebrate? Or something business can still do without? Discuss – and don't expect to finish anytime soon.

• Newspapers & magazines
• Tim Cook
• Apple

Peter Preston

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Charles Arthur 04 Sep, 2011

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Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/sep/04/apple-tim-cook-gay
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