Fox News vs. The Westboro Baptist Church

Is this an example of your forum etiquette? I have not responded to your attempts to engage me in bitter exchanges. Let's just call it quits, you win if it makes you feel better. Have a wonderful evening.

Oh, I dunno... but I think I felt quite oppositly on this particular situation

LOL, are you kidding? *THAT* would have been one hell of a show!

Dictionary.com sucks.

Try www.merriam-webster.com, a dictionary with a real world history.

Briana Dawson

Also remember that those who camp dictionaries during arguments are also those who use a thesaurus to find synonyms that make them sound witty.


He's trying to use semantics to deflect people from noticing he's utterly clueless.

I believe in freedom of speech, but I also believe in rights and that one person's rights and where the other person's begins. By picketing a sign at someone's funeral, you're stepping all over that person's and family's rights.

Suppose I just didn't like someone because he bullied me at school eons ago. According to you and many others who shamelessly misuse their "freedom of speech", I should be allowed to gather some friends and set up a protest at his funeral - or wait, maybe his birthday party or at his wedding - and he'd have to just sap it up, because I've got "freedom of speech"?

No. I don't believe that should be possible.

If these people have something against the war, they should go protest at a public office... to the very people who make decisions. Oh, but maybe it's harder because they might get police confrontations - so it's easier to go hit the little people while they're grieving and just pour some vinegar on their already bloody wounds.

I respect everyone's right to HAVE any belief they wish, but I don't have to respect those beliefs.

This "church" (coughs) chooses to believe that God is punishing the American people for supporting the "sin" of homosexuality by killing off America's sons and daughters in a war that is completely unrelated to the issue of homosexuality.

*blinks and re-reads* Yep, doesn't make a whole lot of sense when you put it down that way but, yea thats what they said.

I respect their RIGHT to choose to believe this. But I do not respect them for believing it, nor the belief itself, nor their manner in which they are attempting to preach this belief.

This does not make me a bigot, this makes me a rational logical human being. (well most of the time )

Forum etiquette? I wasn't rude. I didn't call you any names. I just stated my belief that you don't respect other people's views. That's not bitter. It's just the way it is.

I disagree. I think that they have the right to gather and demonstrate and express their opinions. I also think that exercising that right in this context is evil. But the great thing about America is that we let our bigots spew their garbage out in the open where everyone can hear. It makes laughing at them so much easier.

Sometimes the best medicine is a small dose of poison.

If the Freddie and his WBC extremists make enough of an ass of themselves, maybe they'll scare off any folks that might be in mild agreement with their principles.

--
Why yes, I am an agnostic fundamentalist, with a bit of secular mysticism and humanism mixed in. Not to mention my dark history with heretical Catholicism and Phlogistic sectarianism.

(no thesauri were consulted or assaulted in the framing of this post)

Hmmm. Just to go back to the interview for a moment; is it just me, or does it strike others that the interview appeared to be a publicity stunt on the part of Fox news.

Glad somebody recognized the Fox anchor's behavior as a stunt, because that's precisely what it was - a deliberate attempt to create drama at the expense of a widely-unpopular group for the purposes of shoring up credibility with a number of different groups across the political spectrum.

Fox is the Midnight Globe of television, err, journalism - and does not really bend its docu-drama and editorialized reporting toward supporting a particular political point of view - that's a mistake many people make. Instead, Fox embraces a rabid, emotional, and inciting style of fictionalizing the news to draw ratings. It's the difference between PBS's P.O.V. documentary series and the Jerry Springer Show - one has a definite political point of view about its stories, and the other has no real purpose except to shock its fairly simple audience, pander to them, and allow them to feel better about themselves in comparison to others.

And that's what the Fox anchor was doing - pandering, inciting, and generally playing to a carefully-defined audience - with deliberate intent and the permission of her company. Fox is perhaps the world's most cynical "news" organization.

It's not just you, which is why I steered well clear of the discussion in this thread.

The Phelps family and their ilk are still maggots though.

Well, let me say, I didn't expect your comments from you. You know my views on religion, and will argue your stance on evolution any day of the week. But you appear to be supporting something that is pure evil. If I were religious I would say that woman speaks with the voice of Satan. Somehow I didn't see you as an apologist for Satan, Kevn.

What am I supporting that is pure evil? Freedom of speech? Or are you talking about the standards I expect of the interviewing reporter?

That's because he is Satan. (2 Corinthians 11:14)

That is my opinion as well. It was poor journalism at the very least. If Fox allows that kind of emotional outbursts from their reporters, they should get into drama instead of "fair and balanced" reporting.

Thank you, I feel blessed. Matthew 5:11

This thread topic needs to end. Billybob 9:40 (am)

Well yah. That's why I said it was entertaining. It wasn't enlightening. It wasn't journalism. I didn't learn anything I didn't already know and quite frankly, I think that Westboro picketing funerals is no longer news. The whole thing was kind of fun to watch cause I hate the WBC but another part of me wishes that they weren't being given publicity. I tend to think that the WBC is doing what they do to get publicity and if they didn't get it, they'd go away.

You find it amusing? I don't.

I find it amusing that those who demand tolerance are so intolerant.

You've yet to back that particular bit of libel up.

There is a difference between respecting the right for others to have their own beliefs, no matter how twisted I might think they are, and respecting the belief itself. I know that must have been said over and over again in this thread, just thought it was my turn to put in my $10L worth

P.S. When has Fox News ever lived up to the "fair and balanced" motto?

I think publicity is part of their plan... but not their motive.

They're fanatics... the more resistance they meet the more it fuels their zealotry. I wouldn't doubt that part of Freddy's grand plan is to actually push his congregation's message hard enough that someone attacks back. Lethally. So he can use the power of martyrdom to whip his brainwashed followers into even more extreme behavior.

It wouldn't surprise me to hear that Fred and his congregation don't believe they're going to heaven either, that they're damned with the rest of us.

What did kind of jump out in the rather sloppy Fox interviews (both the one in the OP and the one mentioned later) was that it sounded more awkward to me because of the religion vs. patriotism angle that seemed present. It was bad apples vs. oranges.

If it was a fox publicity stunt, it's a shame they didn't put more effort into coming up with sharper questions. I think it was mostly just filler for a slow day.

Unrelatedly... I saw a bumpersticker yesterday:
"I proudly pledge allegiance to the flag for one country under God."
next to "America Bless God". I don't care if people's patriotism exceeds their religion... but it seemed to me the message was "screw the rest of the world". Didn't seem neighborly or Christian to me.

--
"God Bless America" -- from some people, it sounds like a demand.