Zwecker wins Pulitzer for outing William F. Buckley, Jr.

Zwecker's scoop appeared in the April 10, 2009 edition of the newspaper, in which he only briefly mentioned the disclosure after noting that Buckley's son Christopher had just written a book about his parents' 57-year marriage that revealed quite a bit but did leave out things, according to Zwecker, "including his father's long-closeted dalliances with members of his own sex."

It wasn't immediately known why Zwecker closeted the stunning disclosure about such a well-known figure in the middle of a column that led with the latest trivia about Lindsay Lohan, but "we're glad the Pulitzer committee did some digging and found this nugget," said Darel Jevens, Sun-Times Showcase section editor.

A quick Google check of "Buckley gay" discloses nothing about Buckley's personal predilections, but there are  many articles Buckley wrote about gays, "which apparently are a case of protesting too loudly, I guess, " said Jevens. "Look, Mike North did a Google check of the guy (David Hernandez) who he went into business with and found nothing. Turns out the guy had a record and then victimized North in a Ponzi scheme. So Google means nothing."

There is no mention of Buckley being gay in his son's book, or in "Right Time, Right Place," by Richard Brookhiser, who chronicled the surrogate father-son relationship he had with Buckley.  "Yes, and Mackenzie Phillips didn't reveal that it wasn't just the mamas and the papas, but it was the baby bear, too, until now. So that means nothing," Jevens added.

Jevens said that he hoped that winning the prestigious Pulitzer would make Zwecker  an untouchable at the Sun-Times. New prospective owners are seeking to eliminate union protections, such as seniority. Zwecker has been with the paper since, oh, at least after gossip columnist Ann Gerber was fired for making unsubstantiated claims about Oprah Winfrey.

"I can't really comment on that, " said Jevens. "All I could conclude is what any reasonable person would. Oprah means something to this town. Who was William F. Buckley? Some gayrod reactionary."