Friday, August 17, 2012

Washington Post columnist's illogical attack on 'hate group' label and other Friday midday news briefs

Dana Milbank: Hateful speech on hate groups - Dana Milbank of the Washington Post writes an unbelievably bad argument for taking the "hate group" label away from the Family Research Council. His piece can be epitomized by the following passage:

I disagree with the Family Research Council’s views on gays and lesbians. But it’s absurd to put the group, as the law center does, in the same category as Aryan Nations, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, Stormfront and the Westboro Baptist Church. The center says the FRC “often makes false claims about the LGBT community based on discredited research and junk science.” Exhibit A in its dossier is a quote by an FRC official from 1999 (!) saying that “gaining access to children has been a long-term goal of the homosexual movement.” Offensive, certainly. But in the same category as the KKK? 

Excuse me? How is it that Milbank, a writer, refuses to recognize the power of words? He seems to be saying that simply because FRC doesn't use derogatory terms in its language or violence, that it's wrong to call this language hate, even though it is clearly geared to inflame the fear and hatred of others. I wonder how Milbank feels about the language of the Klan when it claims that black men are obsessed with raping white women.Words are power because they can inflame hatred and fear. And we all know that violence is always the next step after hatred and fear. Milbank's lazy column is indicative of the fact that the gay community has to combat not only religious right lies but a media so lazy and complacent that they are willing to play down how these lies affect the gay community.


What the Right Gets Wrong About the FRC Shooting - Adam Serwer of Mother Jones gets it:

. . .  if an organization were putting forth papers arguing that blacks, Latinos or Jews were inherently prone to committing certain crimes and recommended laws specifically tailored to restricting their behavior, would we call them a hate group? At the very least, the SPLC has evidence for its decision beyond simply disliking FRC's politics.
 Audio: Tony Perkins claiming heinous Uganda bill 'upholds moral conduct' - Remember that awful bill to imprison gays in Uganda? Here is what FRC said about it before scrubbing it from their website.

NOM Will Use FRC Shooting To Its Advantage - Surprising no one of course.

 Jury Orders Gay-Bashing Former Assistant AG Andrew Shirvell To Pay $4.5 Million To Victim - The man needs mental care.

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4 comments:

Lindoro Almaviva said...

I've been saying it for a while. What we need to do is to take a collection of quoted from the KKK, Aryan Nation, FRC, and NOM and do a little "Who Spewed the Hatred" game. After they can not tell one from the other, then they will realize that they all belong in the FRC list of hate groups

trog69 said...

This is wonderful news, and the fact that Mr. Shirvell is currently unemployed is perhaps a statement of just how despicable were his actions.

Mr. Shirvell is a prime example of religious beliefs frying too many brain cells.

Anonymous said...

I think that Dana Milbank's column may be worse than just "lazy." He alleged that the SPLC's "Exhibit A" for why the FRC is classified as a hate group comes from 1999, (mis)leading readers into believing that the SPLC has no more recent, or more important evidence. Yet, if you look at the SPLC's actual report on FRC, you see that it is detailed a chronological. I don't see how anybody could look at the report on a page, and then not be deliberately mischaracterizing it when they erroneously allege what constitutes its "Exhibit A" as coming from 1999. To me it appears that Milbank had a pre-set mission in writing this column and getting it published. The column certainly does not rely on facts to make its points.

John B. said...

Meanwhile, check out how NOM is capitalizing on this tragedy with some blatantly dishonest and defamatory claims about the SPLC in their blog post "SPLC Claimed No Difference Between FRC and KKK":

http://www.nomblog.com/27244