A recent CNN flap has news organizations around the nation buzzing about Republican National Committee chair Ken Mehlman’s sexual orientation and CNN’s decision to censor his outing from its rebroadcast of the network’s “Larry King Live.”

As reported in The New York Times, New York Post and by myriad news junkies spanning the blogosphere, Bill Maher, comedian and host of “Real Time with Bill Maher,” appeared on CNN’s “Larry King Live” last Wednesday to deliver his signature brand of liberal political commentary following the Democrat’s sweep of Congress on Election Day. Among the factors contributing to the Democratic takeover, Maher said, was the scandal involving Congressmember Mark Foley, adding that the GOP is secretly run by hypocritical gays.

“A lot of chiefs of staff, the people who really run the underpinnings of the Republican Party, are gay. I don’t want to mention names, but I will on Friday night,” Maher said. “There’s a couple of big people, who I think everyone in Washington knows, who run the Republican Party.”

With a bit of prodding, Larry King got Maher to call Mehlman out by name, Maher saying: “Ken Mehlman, OK, there’s one I think people have talked about. I don’t think he’s denied it when people have suggested it.”

Mehlman has since announced he will step down as RNC chair at the end of the year. It is unsure whether his decision to step down is in any way connected to speculation about his sexual orientation.

The controversy continued when CNN edited out Maher’s comments when the program was aired in later time zones. The show’s transcript was edited as well, replacing Maher’s comments with: “A portion of this transcript has been removed.”

Maher’s unedited remarks were quickly made available in the blogosphere, showing up on Youtube.com, until CNN complained of copyright infringement and had it removed a day later.

A spokesperson for “Larry King Live” released a statement saying CNN was not responsible for Maher’s initial comments but could be held responsible for republishing them without further research.

“When someone says something potentially defamatory that we don’t expect them to say live on the air, we typically won’t be liable for it,” the spokesperson explained. “However, if we continue to rebroadcast it, without any reporting of our own or any comment from the subject of the accusation, we could be legally responsible for what that guest said.”

Citing someone’s sexual orientation as “defamatory” is reminiscent of the Mary Cheney brouhaha, when then-presidential hopeful Sen. John Kerry was crucified by the right for referring to Vice President Dick Cheney’s daughter as a lesbian. The fact that Mary is an out-and-proud lesbian didn’t deter the Bush administration from making the L-word shameful or the discussion around sexual orientation taboo at a time when same-sex marriage was the president’s wedge issue du jour.

But before you boycott CNN in favor of other offerings, such as “fair and balanced” FOX News, CNN has been progressive in terms of it’s representation of our community. Openly gay CNN journalist Thomas Roberts teamed with the popular “360” Anderson Cooper, who has yet to deny or confirm that he is gay, to anchor CNN’s midterm election coverage last Tuesday evening. Isn’t election night one of CNN’s highest rated evenings of the year and arguably the most important? Never would you see two, er, one-and-a-half gay men acting as the mouthpiece for the nation’s top news station. It seems all the well-spoken, pepper-gray, gay professionals in the world can’t seem to shake our nation’s obsession with gay-baiting as a weapon in American politics. And CNN played right into it.