WND EXCLUSIVE
CBS ATTACK ON PERKINS CALLED 'INEXCUSABLY TERRIBLE JOURNALISM'
Family Research Council chief confronted with bizarre claims from terror-tied group
CBS host Bob Schieffer are being called out for “inexcusably terrible journalism” for a weekend interview in which he confronted Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council with claims by the Southern Law Poverty Center that FRC is a “hate” group.
What Schieffer left out was the fact that SPLC was named by a convicted domestic terrorist as the source of his information for what was intended to be a mass murder attack on FRC.
The exchange between Schieffer and Perkins on the same-sex marriage case before the U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday is here:
Schieffer said,: “I’m going to start with probably the most vocal opponent of same-sex marriage, and that is Tony Perkins. He is the president of the Family Research Council. And, Mr. Perkins, I’m going to say this to you upfront. You and your group have been so strong in coming out against this – and against gay marriage that the Southern Poverty Law Center has branded the Family Research Council an anti-gay hate group. We have been inundated by people who say we should not even let you appear because they, in their view, quote, ‘You don’t speak for Christians.’ Do you think you have taken this too far?”
Perkins calmly responded that the Supreme Court opinion “is not going to settle this issue.”
“The courts are … to interpret the Constitution and the constitutionality of laws, not create public policy.”
On Monday, he wrote in his Washington Update dispatch that “discrimination isn’t what LGBT activists fear most. Debate is.”
“Not only do they want to force Christians to participate in an event that violates their beliefs – they want to punish and silence any dissenting thought,” he said.
He cited the case of the young owners of Sweet Cakes by Melissa, the Kleins, who were penalized $135,000 in Oregon for declining to produce a same-sex wedding cake.
A GoFundMe campaign raised more than $100,000 to help them, but it suddenly was shut down by GoFundMe.
“With amazing ferocity, LGBT activists targeted the GoFundMe site for daring to help a family for standing up for their faith. Faster than you can say ‘religious discrimination,’ the site pulled the plug on the campaign – outraging thousands of Americans who simply wanted to show their support for the First Amendment rights the government was denying them,” Perkins said.
About his interview with Schieffer, Perkins said: “It was disappointing to see that any media outlet would rely on a group like SPLC that has actually been linked to domestic terrorism in federal court and traffics in politically motivated, inaccurate, and biased claims. After taking a deeper look at the SPLC’s motives, the FBI removed links to the SPLC from its ‘hate crimes resources’ page and the Department of Defense, along with the U.S. Army, have distanced themselves from SPLC’s materials.”
He noted, too, that although the evidence had been presented earlier, Schieffer again questioned whether same-sex marriage would lead to discrimination against Christians.
“I pointed to the Kleins, and now, thanks to FRC’s brand-new site FreeToBelieve.com, we can point to several more Americans who are being persecuted – and in some cases prosecuted – for holding a view that, until three years ago, President Obama shared,” Perkins said.
WND has assembled the “Big List of Christian Coercion” about cases in which Christians have been required to violate their religious beliefs.
Mark Hemingway at the Weekly Standard called out Schieffer for his bias.
“To reiterate: the SPLC’s charges that Perkins’s organization is a ‘hate group,’ when SPLC’s irresponsible rhetoric very nearly got people at his organization killed, and without providing any context about the SPLC’s own questionable politics or the back story on how this accusation affected Perkins’s organization – well, that is inexcusably terrible journalism.”
It was just a few weeks ago that WND reported the gun used in the attack in 2012 on the FRC was put into the Domestic Terrorism and Hate Crimes exhibit at the Crime Museum in Washington.
It joined the yellowed “eyes” of the Volkswagen Beetle that serial killer Ted Bundy used to kidnap his victims, the Unabomber’s letters, a noose from a Ku Klux Klan lynching and rubble from 9/11.
Homosexual activist Floyd Lee Corkins in the Aug. 15, 2012, attack walked into FRC headquarters in Washington armed with a semi-automatic pistol, 95 bullets and a sack of Chick-fil-A sandwiches with the intent, he later confessed, of killing “as many people as I could.”
He managed to shoot and injure just one person, facilities manager Leo Johnson, who is credited with heroically stopping the attack.
Corkins admitted he picked FRC, which promotes traditional Judeo-Christian beliefs about family and sexuality, because the organization was listed as an “anti-gay” hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center on its website.
Corkins, a former volunteer at an LGBT community center, pleaded guilty to terrorism following the FRC attack and was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Corkins fingered the SPLC as his inspiration for the attack during an interview with the FBI.
Asked how he picked the FRC to attack, Corkins stated, “It was a, uh, Southern Poverty Law, lists, uh, anti-gay groups. I found them online. I did a little bit of research, went to the website, stuff like that.”
He said he spotted the FRC on the SPLC’s “hate map.”
The FBI interview with Corkins included this exchange:
FBI: “What was your intention … you’re … a political activist you said?”
Corkins: “Yeah, I wanted to kill the people in the building and then smear a Chicken-fil-A sandwich on their face.”
FBI: “And you, what was your intention when you went in there with the gun?”
Corkins: “Uh, it was to kill as many people as I could.”
At the time of the shooting, Chick-fil-A was in the headlines because of its president’s opposition to “gay marriage.”
The SPLC still lists the FRC as a “hate group” on its “hate map.”
In the Schieffer interview, the show host noted that surveys show more than half of Americans “favor gay marriage.”
Perkins noted that while 37 states recognize “gay marriage,” it’s been enacted through the wishes of voters in only three states.
“The vast majority of the others, it’s been imposed on them by the courts. And for those who would say there is a global consensus, that’s not true either. Only 17 of the 193 member states of the United Nations have redefined a marriage,” Perkins explained.
He also told Schieffer, “In our system of government, the courts are not the final say on issues.”
Added Hemingway: “In recent years, the SPLC has been fairly loose in its designation of ‘hate groups,’ and has applied the label to groups in ways that are baffling (e.g. Catholics who go to Latin mass). It has also applied the label to groups that are distasteful but perhaps not what one thinks of then they think of ‘hate groups’ (e.g. pick-up artists). One may not like what the Family Research Council stands for, but there is no serious argument that it is a ‘hate group,’ let alone an organization that does not represent the views of very significant number of Americans.
“That CBS News would lend credence to the accusations of the Southern Poverty Law Center – a once noble organization that has destroyed its credibility in all sorts of ways in recent years – is questionably enough.”
Related stories:
Related column:
Why I will defy recognition of same-sex ‘marriage’ by Rick Scarborough
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2015/04/cbs-attack-on-perkins-called-inexcusably-terrible-journalism/#TzcstaQ2uSgTTl1w.99
My comments: God Almighty has already had the FINAL SAY on so called "gay marriage." It is an Abomination to Him. It matters NOT whether the whole Nation approves of it. This Rebellion against God and His Word will bring the WRATH of God upon the Nation.
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