Derek Conway certainly thinks so. The disgraced MP has hit out at press coverage of his son Henry, one of the family members Conway paid a generous salary to for doing what would appear to be no work.
As soon as the story broke jounalists showed an unhealthy interest in Henry. He promotes a club night at a venue the Royal Princes like to go to. That's gold dust to the Daily Mail.
He is gay, out and by all accounts camp. The Sun loved that.
He has a Facebook profile - perfect "research" for the lazy journalists, who stole pictures and wrote shit 'profiles' of Henry with the crappy scraps of information they found online.
Even The Times and The Independent found time to comment on Henry's sexuality.
Is that homophobia? Well, it is hard to tell.
If the Conway child had been a female socialite, with a reputation as one of the best connected young people in London, who ran club nights in trendy venues, it is likely that would have got just as much coverage.
"MP pays socialite daughter" is perfectly plausible, especially if this fictitious creature was attractive.
However, there is something nasty about the newspapers' reporting on Henry. The smell of old -style homophobia that the British press used to be notorious for.
Even if Henry worked as a vicar in an inner London parish and gave all the money to the poor, the tabs and even the "respectable" papers would have mentioned his homosexuality.
Today his father hit out.
"One newspaper even tried to suggest that he'd had a sex-change on the NHS," he said.
"It is complete rubbish. These homophobic clowns think every gay wants to be a woman.
"Why should he be pilloried for being gay? He's my son."
Now while that is particularly low, and probably homophobic, it strikes me as no less serious than the shit everyone else unlucky enough to be ripped apart by the tabloids has to endure.
The way Henry has been treated is probably homophobic.
The way lots of other people are treated in ways that do not have a handy label, but are just as despicable. The conclusion we should draw is not that the British tabloids are homophobic.
They are complete bastards to everyone.
And as for Mr Conway, this quote caught my eye and stuck in my throat:
"He (Henry) goes out as normal people go to bed. It is portrayed as a gay lad bouncing round London; drink, drugs, whatever.
"It is hard to watch when you know he has committed no crime. "
No, you are the one who has committed the crime and caused your whole family to be thrust into the limelight.
The aspect of this whole sorry incident that most upsets me is the arrogance of Conway.
After more than 20 years in Parliament, he obviously has no respect for it or for his party or constituents.
He actually conceived this scheme and thought he would get away with it. No-one would know or care.
The other thing he may have done is stop MPs employing their wives - this is a grave mistake, as well as an insult to the many women who do an outstanding and dedicated job for not very much reward.
Will Conway have to resign before the next election?
My gut instinct is no - the worst of the storm is over, he has promised not to seek re-election and the last thing the Tories want now is a by-election just before the London Mayoral elections.
