Apple Inc Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook had big shoes to fill when former chief and founder Steve Jobs died to complications from pancreatic tumor. Cook stepped up his role and has been active in ensuring Jobs' and Apple's legacy as the top tech innovator in the century remains so.
But little has been said about his personal life. On the other hand, Cook, is passionate about human rights issues, and has been consistent with speaking for the LGBT community. Buzzfeed noted that Out Magazine took one step further by somewhat revealing Cook's sexual orientation when it named him the most powerful LGBT person on its power list last year.
However, a CNBC host appeared to have confirmed Cook's sexual orientation during a live "Squawk On The Street" today. Buzzfeed reported that in the CNBC segment, the panelists, including New York Times columnist James Stewart, discussed about the lack of openly-gay CEOS in mega-companies. Stewart, who wrote a column about former BP CEO John Browne, told the panel his struggle working on his article about gays in top executive positions,
He said, "There are gay CEOs in major companies, and I reached out to many of them. I got an extremely cool reception, not one would allow to be named at all."
CNBC co-anchor Simon Hobbs at one point in the discussion chimed in with this comment, "I think Tim Cook is open about the fact he's gay at the head of Apple, isn't he?"
Hobbs's statement managed to silence the desk, and then quickly realized his error and attempted to correct his statement.
However, Stewart somewhat corroborated Hobbs' comment. He then said, "I don't want to comment about anybody who might or might not be. I'm not going to out anybody."
Buzzfeed chief Los Angeles correspondent Kate Aurthur said in an interview on why the media still struggle on outing a public figure. She said about journalist Itay Hod's outing of Illinois Representative Aaron Schock, "I think it's been ingrained in journalists, particularly gay journalists, that outing is absolutely wrong. If Itay - whom I know and am friendly with, I should say - is shy about outing Schock, which I read as more of a rhetorical device than anything else, I wonder if it's because outing is seen as unacceptable. Like, an excommunicable offense."
