Since Proposition 8 was ruled unconstitutional in a U.S. District Court last week a great deal of the media discussion surrounding the ruling has centered on the purported sexual orientation of Vaughn Walker -- the judge who ruled in the case.

As Media Matters has noted:

• Ridiculous attack: Prop 8 judge should have recused himself because he is gay
• Wash Times: “Nero, like Judge Vaughn, wanted the community to embrace his unnatural way of life”
• Fox's Trotta suggests Prop. 8 judge had “vested interest” in case because of his sexual orientation
• Family Research Council's Tony Perkins attacks Prop. 8 judge for being “openly homosexual”
• Heilemann: Judge Walker being gay “has become a big thing on Fox News”

It should be noted that judicial ethics experts have said that the attacks on the verdict using Walker's presumed sexual orientation are without merit.

Now, not all of the cable news chatter has agreed that Walker should have recused himself because he is purportedly gay and in a same-sex relationship but the discussion in general points to a major media double standard.

Radio host Michelangelo Signorile notes that, despite all of the media attention, no one has actually confirmed that Walker is gay. He then goes on to lambast the media for its glaring double standard when it comes to reporting on the sexual orientation of public figures.

Signorile writes:

Judge Walker has not ever confirmed to anyone in the media what sexual orientation he may be. And yet most major media organizations, from the New York Times and ABC News to the Washington Post and National Public Radio, have reported on him as gay or had commentators saying it. (Fox was the first out of the gate, not surprisingly, shortly before the ruling came down. Most quoted the San Francisco Chronicle as the source, and often in the context of reporting on the attacks on Walker coming from the right-wing extremists who now claim his sexual orientation biased his decision.

So what exactly did the Chronicle say on the matter back in February? That it was an “open secret” that Walker was gay.

That's it, folks. No sourcing of any kind -- no witnesses, no former or current boyfriend, no person who Walker confided in, no comment from Walker. Just an “open secret.” Gee, there are many Hollywood celebrities and Washington politicians -- Senator Lindsay Graham and Senator Mitch McConnell come to mind -- about whom we've always heard about an “open secret,” but I don't see the New York Times reporting on them ever.

The Times and most other major news organizations have strict and simple standards for reporting on an individuals' sexual orientation: Basically, if the person doesn't state it himself or herself, they don't report it, no matter what another news organization has reported. That is, obviously, unless right-wing smear artists are claiming someone is “openly gay.” Then it appears perfectly okay to report on it.

[...]

But the outrageous hypocrisy here on the part of the corporate media -- and one that shows how they are manipulated by the right -- is the fact that, even with proof and evidence, news organizations refuse to report on the secretly gay sexual orientation of conservative, anti-gay politicians and public figures when the argument for their exposure is made from the left. When Kirby Dick's much-discussed documentary Outrage hit theaters in 2009, and later premiered on HBO (for which the film has now been nominated for an Emmy), many media organizations wouldn't report on the conservative Republican politicians who were claimed to be gay in the film, like Florida Governor Charlie Crist or California Congressman David Dreier, though there was a plethora of sources and witnesses in the film -- far beyond just “open secret” reporting.

I've written about the media double standard on outing in the past, including a post about Outrage in which I noted:

In early May, National Public Radio, a supposed bastion of liberal media bias, found itself in the crosshairs of the lesbian and gay community over an online review of Outrage, a documentary chronicling the hypocrisy of prominent, purportedly closeted politicians with staunchly anti-gay voting records.

What sparked the controversy was not the documentary itself, but the fact that NPR's review failed to name names. In fact, while Nathan Lee, the review's initial author, had included the identities of those fingered in the film, NPR editors took it upon themselves to censor the review prior to publication.

Would a review of a film exposing the hypocrisy of politicians on any other subject fail to identify the politicians in question? Not likely.

Of course, when it comes to the Proposition 8 decision, it doesn't matter if Walker is gay. By the same warped standard used by the conservative media and its allies, heterosexual judges should be barred from ever hearing cases related to LGBT people lest their own personal bias as heterosexuals rear its ugly head.

The argument is bonkers just like the media double standard when it comes to outing.