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Fox, CNN and MSNBC Agree: ‘We’re for Gay Rights’

The “Code of Ethics” of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) says that the media should “avoid conflicts of interest, real or perceived.” But on the issue of homosexual rights, the media, from the left to the right, have taken a side. This includes the Fox News Channel, which many conservatives had hoped would stay true to its word of being “Fair & Balanced,” on the issue of gay rights.

The Fox News Channel is joining CBS News and CNN as “silver” sponsors of the upcoming National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association (NLGJA) 20th annual New York “Headlines & Headliners” fundraising event. Gold sponsors include ABC News and Comcast Universal, owner of NBC and MSNBC. Daytime talk-show host Meredith Vieira is the host of this year’s event.

The SPJ ethics code urges the media to “avoid political and other outside activities that may compromise integrity or impartiality, or may damage credibility.”

But apparently that ethical standard doesn’t apply to media involvement in the homosexual movement.

Meanwhile, the media-supported Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) is ecstatic that the ABC Family network show “The Fosters” has aired a kiss between two 13-year-old boys. The show features two lesbians as “parents” and includes a “transgender teen.”

Media sponsors of the 26th Annual GLAAD Media Awards include 21st Century Fox, the parent company of Fox News; Comcast/NBC Universal; Time Warner, parent of CNN; CBS Corporation; and Bloomberg.

Don’t expect the media to trumpet the news in any headlines or stories about their financial involvement in the homosexual movement. It is a secret that has to be kept hidden from the public because it constitutes a blatant violation of acceptable standards of journalistic behavior and media ethics.

The pro-gay bias in the media is not a big secret, of course. But the involvement of Fox News in the cause may come as a surprise to some. You can be sure Fox News will not admit on the air that the news channel has taken sides in the ongoing debate and that it financially supports the NLGJA.

We have tried over the years without success to get Fox News chief Roger Ailes to explain why his channel pours money into the NLGJA. He simply ignores our inquiries. Many conservatives in the media are reluctant to press the issue out of fear they could be blackballed from appearing on the channel.

The bias shows up in certain ways, such as when the channel forced anchor Bret Baier to pull out of a Catholic conference devoted to traditional marriage. Reputed homosexual and Fox News anchor Shepard Smith occasionally badmouths supporters of traditional values on the air.

The NLGJA fundraiser two years ago showed Smith posing for a selfie taken by CNN anchor Don Lemon. Others posing for the picture included CNN’s Ashleigh Banfield, MSNBC host Ronan Farrow, Fox News anchor Jamie Colby and ABC News correspondent Amy Robach.

Washington Blade Editor Kevin Naff claims to have “outed” Smith in 2005 “after Smith hit on him in a Manhattan bar,” according to the gay newspaper’s account.

As the Supreme Court prepares to rule in a case that could impose homosexual marriage on all 50 states, the pro-gay term “marriage equality” is being used more frequently by the media. It is supposed to imply that giving special status to a traditional marriage between a man and a woman is somehow discriminatory.

Bill O’Reilly of Fox News, supposedly the hard-right conservative on the channel, says that homosexuals have the most “compelling” argument, and that opponents only “thump the Bible.” The Bible condemns homosexual acts and declares that God’s plan for a family stems from a male-female union.

You can see from the list of “Special Guests” for this year’s NLGJA fundraiser that while outlets such as Fox News and MSNBC may disagree over some issues, on the matter of gay rights they are united. The list of “Special Guests” includes:

  • Brooke Baldwin, CNN
  • Ashleigh Banfield, CNN
  • Josh Barro, The New York Times & MSNBC
  • Jason Bellini, The Wall Street Journal
  • Gio Benitez, ABC News
  • Kate Bolduan, CNN
  • Malan Breton, Fashion Designer
  • Contessa Brewer, WNBC
  • Frank Bruni, The New York Times
  • Jason Carroll, CNN
  • Carol Costello, CNN
  • Jamie Colby, FOX News
  • Frank DiLella, NY1
  • Ronan Farrow, MSNBC
  • Melissa Francis, FOX Business
  • Kendis Gibson, ABC News
  • Stephanie Gosk, NBC News
  • LZ Granderson, ESPN & CNN
  • Kimberly Guilfoyle, FOX News
  • Sara Haines, ABC News
  • Patrick Healy, The New York Times
  • Simon Hobbs, CNBC
  • Joseph Kapsch, The Wrap
  • Randi Kaye, CNN
  • Don Lemon, CNN
  • Tom Llamas, ABC News
  • Miguel Marquez, CNN
  • Erin Moriarty, CBS News
  • Bryan Norcross, The Weather Channel
  • Soledad O’Brien, Al Jazeera America
  • Richard Quest, CNN
  • Trish Regan, FOX Business
  • Rick Reichmuth, FOX News
  • Amy Robach, ABC News
  • Thomas Roberts, MSNBC
  • Troy Roberts, CBS News
  • Christine Romans, CNN
  • Mara Schiavocampo, ABC News
  • Brian Stelter, CNN
  • Kris Van Cleave, CBS News
  • Cecilia Vega, ABC News
  • Ali Velshi, Al Jazeera America
  • Gerri Willis, FOX Business
  • Jenna Wolfe, NBC News

The participation of representatives from Al Jazeera, which is funded by the Middle Eastern government of Qatar, is surprising. In Qatar, according to the State Department:

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) persons faced discrimination under the law and in practice. The law prohibits same-sex sexual conduct between men but does not explicitly prohibit same-sex relations between women.

The State Department says a man convicted of having same-sex sexual relations with a man 16-years-old or older in Qatar is subject to a sentence of seven years in prison, but that the number of such cases that came before this nation’s courts during 2013 was unknown.

In advance of the New York fundraiser, the NLGJA is hosting another event known as the LGBT Media Journalists Convening, as well as the NLGJA’s National Convention & 11th Annual LGBT Media Summit in San Francisco in September.

The theme for the latter event is “Coming Home,” a reference to San Francisco’s reputation as the “Gay Capital of the U.S.”

Originally posted at BarbWire.com.



Who Will Defend Free Speech in America?

In a story about Bret Baier’s withdrawal from a Catholic conference, where he was going to speak about his Catholic faith, the website known as Mediaite noted that Republican Governor Bobby Jindal (LA) was going to go through with his appearance at the event. But the website warned him about the consequences of offending the homosexual lobby. “Given the controversy that follows U.S. House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) more than a decade after he allegedly spoke before a group connected to white supremacists, Jindal, who has presidential ambitions of his own, must be giving his appearance some serious thought right about now,” it said.

Hence, the philosophy of white supremacism associated with the Ku Klux Klan and the Nazis is compared to Catholicism. That’s the message this so-called “respectable” source of news and information is sending. Jindal rejected that. The governor’s spokesman said, “Governor Jindal looks forward to addressing the summit and speaking about what faith means to him.”

The summit is sponsored by Legatus, a group that upholds the teachings of the Catholic Church on human sexuality and other matters.

If Baier was speaking at or attending a fundraiser for the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association (NLGJA), that would have been perfectly okay. After all, many Fox media stars, including Megyn Kelly, have done so in the past. In addition, Fox pours money directly into this important lobby in the homosexual movement, and it’s not even a controversy.

What’s fascinating in this case is that the attacks which forced Baier and actor Gary Sinise out of the Legatus conference do not involve opening fire on anybody’s editorial offices and murdering the offenders. These things are mostly done differently in America. I say “mostly” because of the terrorist attack on the Washington, D.C. offices of the Family Research Council (FRC) in 2012. That was inspired by a “hate map” posted by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) pinpointing the location of the FRC. A security guard was injured as he stopped a homosexual militant from trying to carry out a massacre in the FRC offices.

In most cases, however, the weapons of character assassination, distortion, and anti-Christian bigotry will suffice. The purpose is to intimidate and ostracize those who dare to associate with groups affirming traditional standards of morality. One of the new tactics, as used by Mediaite, is to associate Catholics with racial extremists. This is a smear that is beneath contempt, but the gay lobby and its fellow travelers will stop at nothing.

The message that the site was sending to Jindal is that he risks his political future by associating with a notorious hate group called the Catholic Church. It was a threat disguised as news.

The leftists have no quarrel with the views of the pope on economic matters. And they certainly won’t quibble with his encyclical on climate change when he issues that in March. But challenging the morality of the lifestyle of so many in Hollywood and the media is something else. Questioning the homosexual lifestyle simply cannot be tolerated.

Jindal, who is a Catholic, didn’t succumb to the pressure. He had the intestinal fortitude to remain true to his beliefs. He understood that the attacks on Legatus were an attack upon his own faith. He couldn’t back down and maintain his own principles. Jindal’s decision to stand up to the modern totalitarians in the gay rights movement has to be seen as courageous.

Backing out is especially troubling in the case of Bret Baier, since his speaking appearance at the Legatus summit was for the purpose of talking about his own Catholic faith expressed in his book, Special Heart: A Journey of Faith, Hope, Courage and LoveHe wasn’t there to talk about gay rights. Neither was Sinise, for that matter.

Baier, or his corporate bosses, have to take the blame for giving in to the pressure. We would have thought that the Fox News Channel would have stood firmly for freedom of expression and freedom of conscience. It sets a terrible precedent that a “conservative” news channel, which became successful by speaking for many without a traditional voice in the liberal media, should bow at the altar of political correctness. Why they buckled to the pressure is a story in itself.

As we have pointed out, Fox News anchor Shepard Smith is allowed to pontificate on the air, including on behalf of the gay rights cause. But a Bret Baier speech about his book at a Catholic event is supposed to be offensive. This is the state of our media today.

The tactics used by the homosexual lobby have been perfected by such groups as the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Council on American-Islamic Relations against their enemies. What’s new is that the official Catholic Church teachings on human sexuality are now labeled as so offensive that people can’t even be associated with a group that promotes them. This is the kind of religious discrimination we have seen in countries like France against the Jews.

Some in the media called the summit “anti-gay,” which is a complete lie. As Legatus Executive Director John Hunt said in a statement, “Legatus embraces all that the Catholic Church teaches—nothing more, nothing less. Of course, at the core of all that the Church teaches is Christ’s unconditional love for every man and woman. While the Church has and always will teach about the morality of certain behaviors, these teachings are always to be understood in the context of the value of and respect for every human person.”

Turning Christian love into “hate” is an indication of how a situation can be twisted into something it’s not. This is how political correctness, a form of cultural Marxism, works in practice. The homosexual lobby has perfected this tactic of intimidation.

Hunt said the group’s members are only asking for the freedom to exercise their religious beliefs, “which includes the ability to gather together and discuss their faith.”

That such a meeting has become controversial, to the point where major figures in the media and Hollywood can be forced to back out, is a terrible reflection on the condition of the First Amendment right to free speech in America today. The news organizations that are involved in this silencing of freedom of expression have shown they have no understanding of what “I am Charlie” is all about.


This article was originally posted at the Accuracy in Media website.