Unfair and Unbalanced..

If Fox News, self-purported to be “fair and balanced” while not being either fair or balanced, didn’t have such a large viewership/readership, I’d give their journalistic efforts no credibility and lump them in with World Net Daily and the other nutty news sources infesting the internet and radio waves. However, they do have viewers, listeners, and readers, which means there is an unfortunately large number of Americans who believe this network actually produces real news and relevant, thoughtful opinion when many times, they produce anything but.

For example, here’s two opinion gems fresh off the Fox News nuttery machine just today.

The first involves a broadcast that aired on September 4th. I didn’t see the original broadcast, but today I came across this piece from the Raw Story:

Fox News Host Tired of Atheists’ Demands For Freedom From Religion: ‘They Don’t Have To Live Here’

Basically, the short version of the story is that Fox News host Dana Perino finds it so abhorrent that a set of atheists parents would exercise their right to file suit to challenge policies they believe infringe on their childrens’ religious freedom rights that she suggests such people should leave the country. Rather than discuss the merits of this particular suit, which has supporters and detractors who hold a variety of points of view, her solution to the “problem” of atheists standing up for their rights is for the atheists to leave. Nice attitude there, Ms. Perino. I’d like to see you say that to the face of one of the thousands of atheist combat vets who risked everything so that you can speak out against a couple of parents exercising their rights.

The second is more anti-Christian conspiracy nonsense from Todd Starnes, who has made an entire career off the idea that the military, which is run by Christians who have always infused the military with Christian favoritism and privilege, is somehow systematically discriminating against Christians.

Air Force Cracking Down On Christians

At the heart of this story, once you whittle down all of Todd Starnes’ nonsense, you have a career Air Force Master Sergeant who wants the right to disobey lawful orders and to discriminate against the airmen under his care. Here’s a news flash, Master Sergeant: If you cannot continue to accept the fact that being in the service means following official policy and caring for the needs of those who serve under your leadership, than it’s time to go. The military is full of special privileges and rights for Christians and you have enjoyed the benefits of that for your entire career, but those rights don’t include the ability to discriminate against those who don’t believe as you do and they sure don’t give you the authority to decide which policies you will follow and which ones you won’t.

Come on Fox News, you don’t seriously thing your unbalanced favoritism of the privileged Christian perspective is fair, do you? If you do, shame on you..

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Lyra Belaqua

Hahaha from the Faux News article: “Monk tells me Christians are trading places with homosexuals.

“Christians have to go into the closet,” he said. “We are being robbed of our dignity and respect. We can’t be who we are.”

They need to add “but we have no problem forcing others to live that way because of our sky daddy.”
Susan_G1

This is a good post. I’m a Christian who believes Fox news is absolutely (and stupidly) biased in their reporting, and also one who believes in following the law. He has no business commanding an outfit. I sincerely hope none of Sgt. Monk’s sons are gay, for I do not think they will have a warm relationship with their dad if they come out, which is sad.

On the other hand, the comment about Christians in the closet has some merit. There are many cases being filed against Christians by gays, for not making a wedding cake, or not photographing their weddings. I thought gays were asking to live and let live. Though you may well vote for the gays in these cases, I find it sad.
Bullies are bullies, Christian, gay, atheist, whatever.
- John Lev
  
  Asking a business that serves the public to treat you the same as any other customer is not special rights. It’s the same principal as not being able to hang a “whites only” sign on your hardware store door even though you believe that blacks may be biblical cursed or “No Jews” because they “killed Jesus”. If you’re going to serve the public in such a capacity, you have to serve the entire public. That’s pretty much hardwired into law now.
  
  Also, it would be one thing if the bakers in question were “True Christians” (TM) who really stuck by their supposed christian principals but that’s hardly the case. As you’ll see below that their not as “christian” as they claimed to be. They discriminated based solely on hate. Nothing more. Otherwise, no one care that they’re “christian” so you can stop w/ the preconceived persecution.
  
  //two undercover reporters from Portland alternative weekly paper Willamette Week discovered the bakery operators were happy to bake goods for celebrations of other things conservatives traditionally scorn, including parties for divorce, a pagan solstice, and stem cell research.
  
  When one of the reporters called and asked if the business could make two identical cakes to help a friend celebrate the grant she received for cloning human stem cells, a Sweet Cakes employee simply laughed and said, “It’ll be $25.99 each, so about $50 to start.”
  
  A request for a cake to congratulate a friend on her divorce was also
  happily accepted, with a Sweet Cakes worker saying, “We can definitely do something like that.”
  
  Sweet Cakes was even happy to take orders for cakes for a pagan summer solstice fete — complete with a green pentagram decoration — and celebrating babies born out of wedlock// – http://www.advocate.com/latest-news/2013/05/30/bakery-will-do-pagan-cloning-and-divorce-cakes-not-gay-weddings
  - Vicq_Ruiz
    
    The right to a wedding cake is inherent in the Constitution. Who knew? Guess I’ll go thumb through The Federalist and check this out.
    - Stev84
      
      It’s part of those states’ non-discrimination laws, which prohibit businesses from discriminating based on sexual orientation. The same laws that also prohibit discrimination based on things like age, gender, race, religion, ethnicity and disability. Stuff that has also been covered under federal law for a long time.
  - Susan_G1
    
    That story rings very true, doesn’t it? And I believe everything I read… no. It really sounds like nonsense. http://www.theblaze.com/
    stories/2013/05/31/economic-terrorism-bakery-that-refused-to-make-gay-couples-wedding-cake-gets-threats-could-close-down/comment-page-16/#comment-5448489
    
    Anyway, as I said, a bully is a bully. The cake case, I feel kind of ‘meh’ about; I think they should have made the cake. But, they chose not to, and instead of finding a gay baker or another shop, the gay customer started what has turned into an ugly sideshow. Sad.
    
    But the wedding, That one is different. I would not sue a photographer who preferred to photograph gay unions. Wedding
    photographers are artists whose job is to capture the feelings of the couple. Do they have a right not to capture (or partake in) something which they believe is a sin? I don’t support discrimination against gays. I support the legalization of SSM. I’ve tried to look at this as if the couple were a mixed race couple. If I were half of a mixed race couple refused by a
    photographer, I would be disgusted, but would I sue?
    
    Does seem a bit “I’m free from oppressive laws so now I’m going to use the law to crush you!”-ish, doesn’t it? Very sad. Like when you see a bullied person turn into a tormenter once their conditions improve.
    - John Lev
      
      //That story rings very true, doesn’t it? And I believe everything I read…no.// – I suspect that you believe a good deal of what you read or you wouldn’t believe in the bible. 6 day creation, worldwide flood, a man rising from the dead and flying into the air like superman, talking snakes and donkeys, hands popping out of thin air, the sun moving backwards in the sky, etc, etc…Hell, you even like “the Blaze” of all sources. Why would you doubt this?
      
      //Anyway, as I said, a bully is a bully.// – The difference here though is forvsocial justice. Were blacks being
      bullies when they fought for their rights to be served alongside whites? To play in the same sports as whites? To vote as whites do? To demand that they not be beaten to death for simply walking down the street? Sorry but I feel little sympathy for people who believe that gays, atheists, muslims, etc should be put in concentration camps until they die out, forcefully converted by torture if necessary, treated as 3rd class citizens, told I should leave the country since I don’t believe in god, etc…
      
      //The cake case, I feel kind of ‘meh’ about; I think they should have made the cake. But, they chose not to, and instead of finding a gay baker or another shop, the gay customer started what has turned into an ugly sideshow. Sad.// -Part of this I agree w/ however they simply
      don’t have the right to refuse service under this condition. As I pointed out businesses do not have the right to put whites only or no jews signs on their doors. I know this is a hard lesson for christians to learn but they have to share the country w/ the rest of us. I’d much rather not go back to the “good ‘ol days” when blacks had to carry green books on them to find which hotels they could stay at.
      
      //I would be disgusted, but would I sue?/ – Each person is different. But I would say if the photographer is actively
      trying to drum up business by advertising in yellowpages, word of mouth, business cards, bill and bulletin boards, etc…then no. He’s forfeited his rights to refuse on
      supposedly “moral” grounds. If he wants to keep gays out of it, he can cater exclusively to his church.
      
      //Does seem a bit “I’m free from oppressive laws so now I’m going to use the law to crush you!”-ish, doesn’t it? Very sad. Like when you see a bullied person turn into a tormenter once their conditions improve.// – That’s
      the way it always appears to the one that the tables have been turned on. To them, the entire paradigm has shifted from where they were the one’s in control to being forced to treat those who they considered beneath them as equals. In a way, it’s really not their fault as to them it was the norm which they saw nothing wrong with especially since they suffered no ill effects of the policies. Now that they are forced to treat people as equals (blacks, gays, atheists, pagans, jews, muslims, etc) believe it’s a personal attack on them.
      
      No one is telling christians that they can’t be christians but rather that if they wanna play on the playground, they have to be nice to everybody. It’s a basic lesson we enforce on schoolchildren that seems to have been lost.
    - Stev84
      
      If you want anyone to take you seriously, don’t link to or quote from The Blaze.

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Unfair and Unbalanced..