Most conservative media outlets decry what conservatives see as the liberal media's bias-tactics of misrepresentation and non-journalistic balance. Believing that liberals have employed those two methods so frequently, conservatives now label anyone as a "liberal" who uses such tactics.
In the Spring of 2004, many conservative Christians were excited about a new movie, titled, "The Passion of the Christ." Yet much of the liberal media re-iterated an obvious misrepresentation about it. They repeatedly suggested that the movie was somehow anti-Semitic.
Conservative Christians and others who actually saw the movie were dumbfounded by the distortion. After all, "The Passion" was obviously not against the Jewish people any differently than another famous movie, "Schindler's List," was obviously not against the German people.
As well, not only did the liberal media know that their repeated misrepresentation was false, but they also would typically do so without allowing any qualified conservative to rebut it. This was an obvious misrepresentation with no journalistic balance - on purpose.
Conservatives identified such unrebutted misrepresentation by the liberal media as another defining example of being "liberal" itself.
Yet, when it comes to reporting or commenting about the topic of polygamy, conservative media outlets turn out to be such "liberals" too.
On February 8, 2005, CEO and founder of the conservative WorldNetDaily.com, Joseph Farah, wrote, "The fact that I predicted legalized polygamy would be ushered in by the same gymnastics of illogic that brought us same-sex marriage gives me no comfort." In that same article, titled, "Marriage - the final domino," Farah claimed that the "real downfall of marriage" would be with the coming de-criminalization of polygamy. He said that the final "domino to fall to the confused, relativistic mind is the institution of marriage."
In equating polygamy activism with liberal, relativistic thinking, Farah knowingly misrepresented the facts. As he already knew, most polygamists are actually quite conservative in their thinking.
Almost 2 years previously, on July 4, 2003, Farah's WorldNetDaily.com reported an interview with TruthBearer.org about the (non-Mormon) Christian Polygamy movement and its reaction to the Lawrence v. Texas decision. A second similar interview and report with that same organization occurred a month later, in the August 2003 issue of WorldNetDaily's "Whistleblower magazine."
In both of those reports, TruthBearer.org made it clear that Christian Polygamy is more conservative, more constitutional, more Bible-based, and more pro-woman than most any other conservative Christians.
Over the nearly two years afterward, both WorldNetDaily.com -- and Joseph Farah, himself - regularly received the polygamy movement's op-eds and press releases, sent from Pro-Polygamy.com. While WorldNetDaily.com published unqualified pieces from even liberals and minors, they still always chose to never publish any of the professionally-written conservative pro-polygamy articles.
Accordingly, Farah knew the facts about the polygamy movement, when writing his article on February 8, 2005, and he has allowed no qualified, current rebuttal. This was an obvious misrepresentation with no journalistic balance - on purpose.
But this situation is not an isolated matter. Other conservative media have also done the same thing.
Bill O'Reilly is the conservative host of the Fox News show, "The O'Reilly Factor." On February 9, 2005, O'Reilly invited anti-polygamy author, Andrea Moore-Emmett, as a guest to promote her new book, "God's Brothel."
The show clearly was lacking research. Indeed, they did not even go to the web-site www.GodsBrothel.com to therein discover that author's lack of credibility.
Instead, the web-page for O'Reilly's show simply parroted Moore-Emmett's anti-polygamy propaganda: "It's an inside look at the world of polygamy, including stories of children forced into marriage, and accounts of rape and incest. What really goes on inside these secret societies? Now women who escaped are breaking their silence in a new book."
A "world of polygamy?" That assertion is as absurd a misrepresentation as that of calling 18 anecdotal examples of non-polygamous domestic violence a "world of monogamy."
Most normal pro-polygamists are not part of some "secret society" and they vehemently oppose abuse too. O'Reilly's show has also received the pro-polygamy movement's press releases, informing them of that reality.
Accordingly, "The O'Reilly Factor" knew these facts about the polygamy movement when airing their show on February 9, 2005. Yet, no one from the TruthBearer.org organization was ever invited to rebut Moore-Emmett's anecdotal distortions. This was an obvious misrepresentation with no journalistic balance - on purpose.
These examples demonstrate that, in the same way that liberals knowingly misrepresented "The Passion" without journalistic balance, conservatives knowingly do likewise toward conservative pro-polygamists.
That fact betrays true conservatives. According to the conservative definition itself, therefore, the conservative media acts "liberal" too.
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Bibliographic URLs:
http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=42749
http://www.creators.com/opinion_Shell.cfm?pg=biography.html&columnsname=jfa
http://www.truthbearer.org/media/worldnetdaily/
http://www.truthbearer.org/media/whistleblower/
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,146975,00.html
http://www.creators.com/opinion_Shell.cfm?pg=biography.html&columnsname=bor
