Monday, April 02, 2012

NOM faces 'headline' embarrassment at religious right publication

Jennifer Morse of NOM's Ruth Institute thinks that NOM's race-baiting is a good strategy.
How much in trouble is an organization if a piece written to help shield it from scandal actually brings more embarrassment on its head?

That's a question for the National Organization for Marriage.

This morning, the American Family Association's One News Now attempted to push a piece which I guess was supposed to help NOM quell the controversy started last week after secret documents revealed that the organization was attempting to "drive a wedge" between the gay and African-American community over the subject of marriage equality.

The piece was nonsense - simply the head of a NOM affiliated organization (Jennifer Morse of the Ruth Institute) whining that NOM's strategy was genius and that there was a "double standard" when it comes to criticizing tactics of those who support marriage equality and those who oppose it. Morse did not go into detail so to when have marriage equality supporters ever been caught admitting to playing communities like pawns and One News Now omitted the fact that her organization was affiliated with NOM.

In other words, it was standard b.s. - that is except for the headline of the piece, which raised quite a few eyebrows:

NOM Bigoted For Using 'Divide And Conquer'

Later in the day, One News Now changed the headline to read:

Left rips NOM for 'divide and conquer' tactic

Now we don't know for sure what exactly happened, but knowing how NOM likes to keep tight control on its product, I am sure that there was a very interesting phone conversation between the headquarters of NOM and that of One News Now.

And I bet a few words were said.

If that's true, I doubt that those words did any good because the new headline seems to convict NOM for its homophobic race-baiting as much as the old one did.

This being the case, it's an unusual thing we have just witnessed.

This is probably one of the few times in the history of journalism that a headline was changed because it revealed truth.

Related posts:

NOM continues sad attempt to quell 'race-baiting' scandal

Why has NOM's chairperson been silent during scandal?

'Maggie Gallagher fails to NOM's defend homophobic 'race-baiting' during interview' 

Civil rights legend calls out NOM for homophobic race-baiting
  
NOM's evasion of race-baiting scandal is as bad as the controversy itself

Maggie Gallagher offers another bad explanation for NOM's race-baiting

'What NOM implied about white gay men and black babies' and other ways it played divide and conquer game

NOM leaders express pride in sleazy divide and conquer strategy

NOM's deliberate manipulation of black, gay communities is nauseating

Court documents prove NOM's plan to divide black, gay communities


Bookmark and Share

'Homophobia hurts children' and other Monday midday news briefs

Watch: 15-year-old Bull City resident’s video of church members opposing Amendment One - Awesome video by the way:



In other news

Minn. for Marriage chooses 'cold and hungry' pic to illustrate cold and hurtful claims
- Don't you just love hate the way these so-called traditional marriage cartels imply nasty things about gay families?

On Being Gay In Medicine: A Leading Harvard Pediatrician’s Story -Stories of homophobia from a gay pediatrician.

Democrats Ask Boehner To Back Off His ‘Direct Assault’ On Gay Veterans - Stop defending DOMA, Boehner. It's going to embarrass you.

NCTE Releases Trans “Know Your Rights” Health Care Guide, Celebrates LGBT Health Awareness Week - Something we all should read.



Bookmark and Share

NOM continues sad attempt to quell 'race-baiting' scandal

Jennifer Morse
Editor's note - it's one of those two post mornings. After reading this piece, scroll down and read how NOM's 'Dump Starbucks' campaign is continuing to backfire on the organization.

Last Monday, confidential documents were released which revealed detailed plans by the National Organization for Marriage to "drive a wedge between blacks and gays."
In part, the document said:

 The strategic goal of this project is to drive a wedge between gays and blacks - two key democratic constituencies. We aim to find, equip, energize and connect African American spokespeople for marriage; to develop a media campaign around their objections to gay marriage as a civil right; and to provoke the gay marriage base into responding by denouncing these spokesmen and women as bigots. No politician wants to take up and push an issue that splits the base of the party.

Since that time, NOM has been attempting to  distance itself from the documents. Former NOM chair Maggie Gallagher said the following during a recent interview on MSNBC:

It’s insulting to suggest that these African-American or Latino leaders are standing up because NOM is manipulating them. Obviously the only reason anyone stands up for marriage at this point in this culture is out of principle because we believe it’s a good thing.[...]

We didn’t cause or create this, and frankly if we could get together with the gay community, and take the idea that it’s bigoted or discriminatory to stand up for marriage off the table for black people or for white people, we’d be happy to do it.[...]

But in a piece in American Family Association's One News Now, the head of an organization affiliated with NOM actually embraces the documents and whines about a "double standard."

NOM faces criticism over anti-Starbucks form letters

As a part of its sad anti-Starbucks campaign, the National Organization for Marriage has encouraged its supporters to write send letters to the editor of their respective newspapers.

But apparently some newspapers journalists are not appreciative of a certain aspect of these letters, i.e. the fact that these are form letters. Mike Kirby, editor of The Sun Chronicle  blasts NOM and those who send such letters:

. . . there has been a battle over same-sex marriage going on in Rhode Island, so it perhaps came from a group in opposition there - but there has been a national controversy over Starbucks.