A co-anchor on CNBC committed a faux-paus during a program when he made some comments that seemed to out Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook.
According to Us Weekly, Simon Hobbs was talking with other anchors as they interviewed a columnist for the New York Times, James Stewart. He was discussing major companies and their CEOs who were gay. He mentioned that none of the people he spoke to were willing to be named.
This caused Hobbs to say, “I think Tim Cook is open about the fact he’s gay at the head of Apple, isn’t he?”
Stewart simply shook his head, causing Hobbs to say he was under the impression that Cook was open about his sexuality.
Apple Insider reported the discussion in the Squawk on the Street segment centered on Stewart’s column about the former CEO of BP, John Browne, who resigned from the oil company after he was outed by a tabloid magazine in 2007. Stewart’s column focused on the stigma that seemed to exist in the business world at high levels regardless of the advances in civil rights.
Browne appears to be the first executive to ever openly express their sexuality.
Hobbs tried to recover after his error, having thought Cook was open. There has been no comment made about the incident by Cook.
Cook has shown support for LGBT rights, even tweeting on June 17 after the White House had decided to ban discrimination by federal contractors.