Amid allegations that Ted Haggard, president of the National Association of Evangelicals, had a three-year relationship with a gay male prostitute, James Dobson did what he has taken to doing frequently since the media began investigating reports of increasing voter disenchantment with the GOP even among the most conservative voters - and that is to blame the media for trying to keep so-called “values voters” from the polls next week.
"It is unconscionable that the legitimate news media would report a rumor like this based on nothing but one man's accusation. Ted Haggard is a friend of mine and it appears someone is trying to damage his reputation as a way of influencing the outcome of Tuesday's election -- especially the vote on Colorado's marriage-protection amendment -- which Ted strongly supports.”
Ever since the Mark Foley scandal broke, Dobson has been on a mission to blame every piece of news that might harm Republican turn-out at the polls as part of a conspiracy by the liberal media:
"What Mark Foley did was unconscionable. It was terrible," Dobson said. "... Thankfully he's gone. But tell me -- now that he's gone, why is it still with us? Why are they still talking about it? Why are they trying to blame somebody for it? It is because they are using that to suppress the values voters."
Dobson hammered away at this supposed conspiracy again just the other day on this radio program, according to FOF’s own “CitizenLink” news service
It is imperative, he said, for conservatives to be alert to what's at stake. Dobson asked [Gary] Bauer whether he's ever seen the media more biased and more determined to suppress conservative turnout. "I thought I had seen it all," Bauer said. "This has been unbelievable. It's not even camouflaged. Big, liberal media has been engaging in an all-out war on the Christian vote -- to suppress that vote, to discourage faith-based voters, to make them think through distorted polls that the election is already over."
Haggard was named in a TIME magazine cover story as one of the most influential evangelicals in the U.S. He was recently on the big screen in the highly acclaimed indie documentary “Jesus Camp” although he complained about the way he was “portrayed in the movie.” The film’s directors responded to Haggard’s complaints: saying
Perhaps Pastor Ted regrets how he comes off in the film and is expressing it by criticizing us, Becky, and the children in the film. What he calls “negative” and not “normative” we see as simply true and accurate.
Watch the clip here of Haggard in "Jesus Camp" joking
“I think I know what you did last night. If you give me a thousand dollars, I won’t tell your wife.”
UPDATE: A spokesperson for Haggard's church has acknowledged that "some of the accusations were true."
The acting senior pastor at New Life, Ross Parsley, told KKTV-TV of Colorado Springs that Haggard admitted that some of the accusations were true. "I just know that there has been some admission of indiscretion, not admission to all of the material that has been discussed but there is an admission of some guilt," Parsley told the station. He did not elaborate, and a telephone number for Parsley could not be found late Thursday.
