Ms. Kelly has made the point that interracial marriages were once banned. “Why is gay marriage any different?” she has said more than once.

Gawker seems sadly old-school by comparison. By covering the issue in the context of a throwdown with a waitress, Gawker backed into the reveal of what the item was really about, suggesting something was weird and spicy about it.

This is not one of those instances in which a public figure, in the course of doing his day job, has engaged in the hypocrisy of condemning in public what he actually practices in private. I have no certainty or interest in what Mr. Smith’s sexual orientation is, but I can say as an occasional viewer of his newscast that he plays it pretty much down the middle. Always has.

Gawker, which is run by Nick Denton, who is openly gay, seems to have a bit of a thing for homosexuality. Until Anderson Cooper of CNN decided to publicly announce that he is gay, the site pounded on him over and over, more or less demanding that he acknowledge it.

Eventually Mr. Cooper wrote an open letter saying he is gay, and there was a short burst of coverage, but nothing changed in terms of how he was seen, which suggests most people have moved on.

When I called Gawker to ask what was up with the sudden fixation on Mr. Smith’s love life, John Cook, the editor, sent me a number of links suggesting that last week’s item was just one in a series of posts about Mr. Smith’s sexuality. Which makes it weirder, really, not any more understandable.

The writer, Mr. Trotter, said on Thursday that the item was interesting in and of itself, but that it was also the kind of post that would lead to more incoming calls and specifics that could lead to more and better coverage. “Stay tuned,” he advised.