Subject: AIDS:  Better Silence Than Falsehoods
Date: Published: 6/12/87 119 lines
Source:  WALL STREET JOURNAL. Copyright Dow Jones & Co. Inc. 

   AIDS:  Better Silence Than Falsehoods
    ---
    By David Sanford

   The New York Times now reports Michael Bennett has AIDS. 
The Broadway director of "A Chorus Line" and "Dreamgirls,"
who choreographed "Company" and "Follies," is dying in
Tucson, Ariz.
   Unlike the scores of talented men whose deaths caused by
acquired immune deficiency syndrome are now well noted on
obituary pages, Mr. Bennett has joined the short list of
victims identified publicly while still alive.  Such publicity
was resisted by Rock Hudson and fought by Roy Cohn and
Liberace, and Mr. Bennett has shunned such attention, too, to
the point of actively misrepresenting his condition.
   The course of his illness has been extensively, though not
well, chronicled by the New York Times.  And the way the
stories have been told doesn't do much credit to a great
newspaper or to Mr. Bennett.
   On Jan. 23, 1986, a Times story noted that Mr. Bennett had
withdrawn as director of the London production of the new
musical "Chess."  He had done so, said the story, "reportedly
 because of an attack of angina."  The eight-time Tony winner
and recipient of the 1976 Pulitzer Prize for drama had chest
pains, palpitations and shortness of breath.  Or so said the
president of the Shubert Organization, producer of the show,
quoting Mr. Bennett's unnamed doctor.  Mr. Bennett himself
wasn't taking phone calls.
   The careful reader knows when a newspaper says someone is
"reportedly" suffering from angina that the writer (a) isn't
sure of the facts or (b) doesn't believe what he has been
told.
   The New York Times in stories about the late Mr. Cohn
found frequent occasion to mention that he said he was
 suffering from liver cancer.  It was an odd circumlocution;
either the lawyer had liver cancer or he didn't.  But Mr. 
Cohn's veracity was suspect, and the Times no doubt didn't
want to be sued by Mr. Cohn, who at the time was still hale
enough to be litigious.
   Last Oct. 2, a Times reporter named Jeremy Gerard wrote a
story about Michael Bennett's decision to sell a building he
owned in Manhattan that was his business address and also the
site of rehearsal halls and workshops dear to theater people.
The cited reason for the sale was not the $14.5 million Mr. 
Bennett stood to realize in disposing of a structure he had
purchased for $750,000.  Again it was Mr. Bennett's reported
heart ailment.  And an associate of his said that because of
his illness Mr. Bennett didn't expect to be working in the
theater anytime soon.  (Mr. Bennett wisely still wasn't
returning a reporter's phone calls.)  
   The Times publishes an internal newsletter called "Winners
and Sinners."  Last July, it was moved to explain to the
skeptical why the Times, virtually alone among newspapers,
had failed to detect that the fashion designer Perry Ellis
had died of AIDS:  "...  some suspect us of shrinking from
our duty to report on an epidemic.  In fact, we're frustrated
by close-mouthed survivors, doctors, hospitals and
undertakers."  Other publications, notably New York magazine,
managed to get the story.
   Last Nov. 2, the Times went beyond this extreme caution.
It published a lengthy article by Mr. Gerard headlined "Why
Michael Bennett Has Said Goodbye, for Now, to Broadway."  Mr. 
Bennett sat for an interview and posed, with his dog, for a
photograph.
   Said the article:  "Later this month, Mr. Bennett says, he
will undergo surgery for the angina that was responsible for
his withdrawal ...  from directing 'Chess.'" Mr. Bennett
said in the interview, "My doctor told me I have
exercise-induced angina ...  so I had to stop working or I
was going to die...  .  But I'm going to have this operation.
...  I think I'll be able to make my comeback without a
problem."
   That Sunday Arts and Leisure spread was quite a favor to
Mr. Bennett and to the impression he was seeking to convey
about what was wrong with him.
   After November, readers curious to know how the operation
turned out were kept hanging.  But, this past May 23, Mr. 
Gerard's stories changed course abruptly.  Michael Bennett, he
reported, was being sued by a former agent, and Mr. Bennett's
secretary had filed an affidavit with a Manhattan court
saying his employer has been treated for "a life-threatening
disease" since last December.  Mr. Bennett's lawyer "would not
identify the disease."
   Readers who take their news between the lines knew that
that story, saying not a word about angina or heart surgery,
meant something else was afoot.
   This week Mr. Gerard, redeeming himself, got the story at
last:  "Michael Bennett, one of the most influential Broadway
directors and choreographers of his generation, withdrew as
 director of the musical 'Chess' in January 1986 when,
according to information confirmed by The New York Times, he
was stricken with {AIDS}."  This time, there was no need to
use the word "reportedly," no need to lean on things said
about or by Mr. Bennett.  Mr. Gerard spoke with the authority
of the Times.
   It is terribly sad to see Mr. Bennett's talent stopped
short at the age of 44.  One would have to be very obtuse not
to understand why beyond commercial reasons Mr. Bennett
should want to keep his true illness a secret from friends,
family and newspaper readers.  This is, after all, the age of
homophobia, mandatory blood testing, lost jobs, denied
insurance and talk of quarantines.
   But it is also a shame when any part of the press lets the
public be deceived by a man who, jealous of his privacy,
shouldn't have spoken the first word about his health to a
reporter.
    ---
   Mr. Sanford is a senior special writer for page one of the
Journal.

[This article is made available here by Dow Jones Co. for the 
personal and non-commercial use of callers to this bbs, in the 
hope that it will be of some help to those who are suffering 
from the disease and others who are seeking to help them.]