Religious Right pundits have been up in arms since GLAAD publicized many of their most vitriolic anti-gay statements as part of their Commentator Accountability Project, comparing GLAAD to the Irish Republican Army and calling the group a tool of Satan. Peter LaBarbera of Americans For Truth About Homosexuality took his pity party to The Janet Mefferd Show yesterday, where he said that conservatives have been “a little too tolerant of the media bias” and that “activist-minded homosexuals” in the media are “leading a lot of other journalists to not bring both sides.” LaBarbera also defended Ron Paul’s writings about a “federal-homosexual coverup on AIDS,” saying they are not “homophobic” and no one should use that term anyway because it is “homosexual activist rhetoric.”
“You don’t see any Christians or any pro-family advocates, at least any that I’m aware of,” Mefferd said, “organizing any sort of accountability project to keep gay activists off the air.” Actually, the radio host didn’t have to look so far as LaBarbera himself, who who repeatedly tried to get Grove City College to fire professor Warren Throckmorton for his opposition to Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill.
Mefferd: Here’s what is interesting too, because you don’t see any Christians or any pro-family advocates, at least any that I’m aware of, organizing any sort of accountability project to keep gay activists off the air. I mean, this doesn’t go both ways. I actually think the Christians and the pro-family leaders are awfully, awfully tolerant of activists and what they have to say and what kind of media coverage they get.
LaBarbera: I think we’re a little too tolerant of the media bias, you’re absolutely right. You read a typical AP story these days, you won’t find another point of view.
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LaBarbera: Then there’s lots of openly, I would call them, activist-minded homosexuals in the newsroom and I think they are leading a lot of other journalists to not bring both sides.
Mefferd: That’s true.
LaBarbera: And you do have gay journalists, openly gay journalists, covering stories and they might not be fair because maybe they’re too close to the story because they are activist-minded homosexuals themselves.
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Mefferd: Tell both sides and stop calling it hate because I’ve never seen a Christian or a pro-family person ever exhibit hate toward a homosexual.
LaBarbera: Yes and stop using tendentious words like ‘homophobe,’ I remember Chris Wallace on Fox ran a story on Ron Paul, he described Ron Paul’s past writings as homophobic, I think it was ‘blatantly homophobic,’ and I read them and I said, look, this is Ron Paul’s point of view, these were not fearful, this is just a point of view about homosexuality and AIDS and something I don’t recall but we can’t use homosexual activist rhetoric in telling these stories.
