AP Portrayed Rudy Giuliani as Cross-Dressing and 'Gender-Bending' While Knocking Conservatives

Then the AP neatly buttonholed questions about whether what is being slyly portrayed as a bourgeoning alternative lifestyle “could damage his campaign” among conservatives and particularly Southerners. The secondary message is that Southerners and conservatives are homophobic and intolerant.

There’s another snide article about Rudy Giuliani in a dress. In the past, the media have gleefully reminded America that Rudy Giuliani has worn dresses during comedic performances such as the one on “Saturday Night Live,” but this April 14 AP article that appears on MSNBC took a different tone, one that leaves the reader with the impression that Giuliani is a transvestite. Along with a big picture of the former mayor “dressed in drag,” as the caption put it, the article elaborated in great giddy detail each time that Giuliani wore a dress or a costume like this:

It is difficult to shock New Yorkers, yet Rudy Giuliani teetered close to the line when he sauntered onto a stage wearing a platinum-blond wig, a face full of makeup, dainty white gloves and a frilly pink gown filled out in all the right places.

Shortly after winning re-election that year, Giuliani took his feminine side to a national audience. While hosting “Saturday Night Live,” he appeared in one skit as a bosomy, gray-haired Italian grandmother in lipstick and a flowered housedress, with stockings pulled halfway up his calves.

Instead of categorizing his dressing up for what they were, the AP portrayed those instances with a transvestite undertone that the article while making sure the reader knows the vaudeville bits “could significantly damage his chances” in the conservative primaries and in the South. The AP deliberately repackaged Giuliani’s comical performances into a sexually-charged coming out party through phrasing such as “dressed up like a girl,” “cavorting about in women’s wear,” “gender-bending gags,” “seeing him in drag” and descriptions like this:

Giuliani’s first drag appearance, in 1997, featured a breathy Marilyn Monroe impression that was followed by various other female alter-egos over the years, including one that shared a scene with Donald Trump, who groped Giuliani and buried his head between the mayoral breasts.

The AP portrayed the occasions as a gender-bending lifestyle commitment instead of a guy in a dress joking around at special events. Giuliani makes no secret his support of certain social issues and is not ashamed of his “cross-dressing.”

The AP used the "Hey, I'm just putting the facts out. I'm not responsible for how people interpret them," technique, that is popular in the media and is often used to send a message without having to say it outright. It is a safety mechanism that allows them to make people understand that message without actually having to say something. It's a sophisticated method of gossiping.

After over five paragraphs discussing his frilly frocks and electability, the AP finally just came out with part of it:

For conservatives who already are leery of backing Giuliani because of his support for abortion rights and other positions on social issues, the feminine clothing may also remind them of his support of gays while mayor — despite the fact that the majority of cross-dressers are not gay.

Still, a poison-pen mailer or e-mail could easily imply a connection, observers say.

“I’m imagining the negative ads — they could use this as sort of an oblique reference to all of those positions,” said Clemson University political scientist Dave Woodard.

So, “a poison-pen mailer or e-mail could easily imply a connection.” Or an AP article. Kudos to the AP for pretending to deliver an LGBT-positive piece that somehow managed to insinuate that there is something wrong with Giuliani.

I’m pro-choice. I’m pro-gay rights, Giuliani said. He was then asked whether he supports a ban on what critics call partial-birth abortions. “No, I have not supported that, and I don’t see my position on that changing,” he responded. Source: CNN.com, “Inside Politics” Dec 2, 1999 http://www.ontheissues.org/2008/Rudy_Giuliani_Abortion.htm
ANDERSON COOPER 360 DEGREES (November 14, 2006)

RUDY GIULIANI (R), FORMER MAYOR OF NEW YORK CITY: I'm pro- choice. I'm pro-gay rights.
KING: Giuliani supports a woman's right to an abortion, and back in 1999, he opposed a federal ban on late-term abortions.
GIULIANI: No, I have not supported that, and I don't see my position on that changing.
KING: Immigration could be another presidential landmine. Back in 1996, Mayor Giuliani went to federal court to challenge new federal laws requiring the city to inform the federal government about illegal immigrants.
JEFFREY: He took the side of illegal immigrants in New York City against the Republican Congress.
KING: Giuliani opposes same-sex marriage but as mayor, he supported civil unions and extending health and other benefits to gay couples. He also supported the assault weapons ban and other gun control measures opposed by the National Rifle Association.
GIULIANI: I'm in favor of gun control. I'm pro-choice.
Republican Big-Wigs Support Pro-Abortion Event in NY

Pro-abortion Governor George Pataki and New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who also supports unrestricted abortion, are co-chairs of the 2000 Choice Award Presentation to be held on May 30 at the St. Regis Hotel in New York City. The event is sponsored by the Republican Pro-Choice Coalition, a group that is campaigning for the removal of the pro-life plank from the Republican National Platform.

http://www.nationalreview.com/murdock/murdock200503010743.asp

See http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1819090/posts?page=45#45

Disdain for the Constitution
Mayor Giuliani routinely disregarded the First Amendment as he rejected requests for information from news organizations and civic groups and opposed public access to city hall steps and parks for demonstrations. "Freedom is about authority," Giuliani said, responding to critics in 1998. "Freedom is about the willingness of every single human being to cede to lawful authority a great deal of discretion about what you do and how you do it."
Withholding Public Information
In a legally questionable transaction on December 24, 2001, just days before the end of the mayor's second term, Giuliani secretly moved all 2,100 boxes of mayoral files and videos from his eight years in office. The records, which by law were to become the property of the Municipal archives, were transferred to a gated private storage facility, and their control was transferred to the Rudolph W. Giuliani Center for Urban Affairs, a newly-established private nonprofit group controlled by Giuliani.
Angry archivists and historians denounced the unprecedented hijacking of public property to private hands. Tom Connors, of the Society of American Archivists, said the transfer seemed part of a movement to "create barriers to the American citizen's right to know what their governments are doing."
Profiting From His Hero Status
In February, 2002, Giuliani insisted upon transferring guardianship of the $100 million remaining in the city-run Twin Towers Fund to a private charity he controlled.
The families of the police and fire rescuers who died in the attack balked at Giuliani's plan to take up to a year to dole out the money, with his new organization billing $2.2 million in anticipated administrative expenses (including six-figure salaries for friends he appointed as officers). The families argued that the fire union had far more quickly distributed $111 million with an estimated administrative cost of just $30,000.
Under embarrassing pressure from the victims' families, unions and state Attorney General Elliot Spitzer, Giuliani backed down. He promised to distribute the money within 60 days and fund his overhead from new donations. The families of the deceased rescuers, the real heroes of the September 11 attacks, received a one-time benefit of about $230,000 each from the Giuliani-privatized fund in 2002. That year, the former mayor earned some $8 million in speaking fees alone, more than $650,000 per month.
Heather MacDonald, City Journal, January 14, 2004 (FrontPageMag.com)
Former mayor Rudolph Giuliani sued all the way up to the Supreme Court to defend the city’s sanctuary policy against a 1996 federal law decreeing that cities could not prohibit their employees from cooperating with the INS. Oh yeah? said Giuliani; just watch me. The INS, he claimed, with what turned out to be grotesque irony, only aims to “terrorize people.” Though he lost in court, he remained defiant to the end. On September 5, 2001, his handpicked charter-revision committee ruled that New York could still require that its employees keep immigration information confidential to preserve trust between immigrants and government. Six days later, several visa-overstayers participated in the most devastating attack on the city and the country in history.
New York conveniently forgot the 1996 federal ban on sanctuary laws until a gang of five Mexicans—four of them illegal—abducted and brutally raped a 42-year-old mother of two near some railroad tracks in Queens. The NYPD had already arrested three of the illegal aliens numerous times for such crimes as assault, attempted robbery, criminal trespass, illegal gun possession, and drug offenses. The department had never notified the INS.
On the issues: Liberal Party endorsement of Giuliani
National Review: Rockefeller quote
New York Observer: Reagan Republican quote
New York Observer: Republican convention quote
New York Observer: Goldwater quote
New York Observer: Clinton quote
New York Observer: 'Good hands' quote

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