Unsupported rumors that super conservative Texas Governor Rick Perry was gay have circulated for years.
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However, when Huffington Post writer Jason Cherkis threatened to publish an account about the Christian Republican’s homosexual encounters, Perry’s aide threatened to sue HuffPo’s mother company AOL.
A new ebook by Texas Tribune Reporter Jay Root details how the governor’s campaign staff sent a legal threat to the Huffington Post in regard to a proposal to talk about Perry’s sexuality.
According to Root, one of the conversations he had with Perry aide Ted Delisi about Cherkis went as follows:
Ted said Huffington Post reporter Jason Cherkis had e-mailed the campaign a list of questions about alleged gay liaisons. He said the reporter was going to name names, but there were serious questions as to the veracity of the allegations. Ted said that if the guy did publish something, Perry would sue. He said Perry would be owning a big chunk of AOL, the publicly traded company that owns HuffPo, if this came out. Ted seemed kind of pissed off at the media in general, saying that standards had obviously declined if this is what passes for news these days. Ted was clear that he thought the story was complete hogwash.
The story about the gay rumors was never published. Arianna Huffington said the Huffington Post decided to ditch the story because there was “simply no there there,” not because of the threat of a lawsuit.
SOURCE: Buzz Feed
