A Few Minutes With a Reinstated Andy Rooney : Television: The ’60 Minutes’ commentator says he is ‘in the dark’ about CBS’ reasons for his suspension and for shortening it.

It’s two months now since Andy Rooney returned to work on “60 Minutes,” and he’s had time to think things over.

The dust has settled. His three-week suspension from the CBS Sunday series is history. And at age 70, he seems certain to ride out the TV career that suddenly was threatened with extinction when he became the center of a national controversy.

Rooney was thrust into the spotlight when a Los Angeles-based gay magazine, the Advocate, attributed to him remarks about blacks and homosexuals. He has apologized for statements about gays, made on a CBS special and in the magazine, where he wrote a letter saying that he did not consider homosexuality to be normal. But he denies ever telling the magazine that “blacks have watered down their genes because the less intelligent ones” have the most children.

“As far as I can tell,” Rooney told The Times in an interview this week, “I have almost lost any stigma that was attached to (the controversy). I suppose I might be the last to know, but I don’t see too much left.”

Just how much is left is, of course, uncertain. Rooney received overwhelming support for his return to “60 Minutes” in phone calls and letters from viewers, but some of his opinions about the gay lifestyle are still not likely to endear him to others.

However, the entire unfortunate episode did have the salutary effect of raising the issue of free speech, especially in the TV industry that employs Rooney.

Thus it is of special interest that Rooney will be at the Century Plaza Monday night to address the annual spring dinner of the Constitutional Rights Foundation, which describes itself as an “organization that seeks to instill in the nation’s youth a deeper understanding of citizenship through values expressed in the Constitution and its Bill of Rights.”

He will also give what he says will be a more informal talk on Tuesday to the Hollywood Radio and Television Society.

The subject of Rooney’s address to the Constitutional Rights Foundation, he said by phone from his CBS office in New York, will be “free speech and the reluctance of people to speak out in America about a lot of things. I just thought there was something important I wanted to say.”

How far does Rooney think free speech can go on TV?

“Well, we all admit there are limitations to almost everything. There is no question that free speech has to be abrogated at times when the good of the whole is about to be sacrificed for the good of one or two people.”

Would he say that such abrogation applied in the case of his suspension?

“No. I think it was more a matter of network timidity than a matter of free speech.”

But aren’t the points of network timidity and free speech interlocked?

“Yes. I think they are. Yes.”

When it comes to stigma, CBS News earned a good deal of its own in the Rooney case by never--to this day--stating frankly and specifically why the commentator was suspended, leaving people to wonder whether it was the alleged remarks about blacks or the ones about gays, or perhaps something else.

Nor has CBS News President David Burke ever said frankly and specifically why Rooney was reinstated after only three weeks of an original three-month suspension, thus leaving many to think it was because the ratings of “60 Minutes” dropped and the mail and phone calls were running heavily in favor of the newsman--meaning that principle and evidence were secondary.

Asked if he now knows exactly why he was suspended and then reinstated, Rooney says:

“I don’t know. Wouldn’t hesitate to tell you if I knew. Wouldn’t bother me a bit to tell you. I’ve been in the dark as much as you are about it. I think Mr. Burke was torn between letting me say what I could and feeling that he had some obligation to protect the network from the objections by minority groups.”

Why did Rooney accept the suspension rather than leave the network?

“What was going on in my mind was the danger that I would end up for the rest of my life being a racist bigot who was also homophobic, who was fired by CBS--and that would be the end of it for me. And I was determined that wouldn’t happen. I was reluctant to talk out, but I felt I had to. And I thought that the best vindication I could have would be to return to the air.

“There’s naturally a temptation to tell them to take the job and do what they might with it. I even thought of coming back for one week (on “60 Minutes”) and then leaving--but I like the phrase that ‘only amateurs stay mad.’ ”

It’s possible, says Rooney, that he was suspended for insubordination. Burke, he adds, “has suggested” just that--”and I have pointed out that I have worked for every president of CBS News there has ever been, and have been insubordinate to all of them, so that he’s not a special case. He shouldn’t have felt offended.”

But specifically what kind of insubordination might have offended Burke?

“Well,” says Rooney, “I think he thought I sent the copy of that letter to the Advocate. I did not.” He says he doesn’t know how it got there but adds: “There were about four or five copies around.”

Rooney says he “had left a copy on Burke’s desk. He said, ‘My God! Tell me you didn’t send this.’ ” Under the impression that his assistant had sent the letter on, as he “absolutely” intended, Rooney replied, “Well, I did.” But, he says, when CBS checked with the assistant, she said, “No, I never sent it. I thought Andy was going to redo it.”

In any case, doesn’t that story lend strong support to the belief that the letter about gays was as important in his suspension as the remarks about blacks that he denies making?

“Yeah. Yeah.”

Rooney says he, Burke, “my family, my friends” were all stunned by the huge outpouring of letters and phone calls in support of reinstating him.

The support “came from every political spectrum,” says Rooney. “It came from a lot of people whose support I do not want. There were lots of letters from gay-bashers, which I detest. There were lots of letters from racist bigots that I detest, in support of me. This was embarrassing.

“But also, for the most part, the letters were sensationally good, and I cannot get over the quality of the letters I got--the intellectual quality. I thought to myself, ‘My God, I’ve got more viewers who are smarter than I am than I could dream.’ ”

But besides this show of support, what about those who would consider him less than a hero for his views about gays?

“I would say that I have read a good deal more than I did before. You know, I grew up like every other red-blooded American boy, laughing at them and doing the poses, and I regret all that. I certainly have no negative feelings about the homosexual community whatsoever. It doesn’t come up in my mind. I have too many friends who are gay that I respect totally. I think they’ve got to be more careful about their sex habits. I would say that.

“But I am in complete sympathy with their movement, trying to gain more respect in the public eye. I think they’ve gotten a bad deal in many ways. And you see some of the vicious letters. Of course, I got a lot from them too--I got death threats. But you know, in that respect--the extreme of one side--the same kind of people are the extreme on the other.”

We know, at least, where Andy Rooney stands. Which is more than we can say about CBS News.