Topic: Media Research Center
Brent Bozell went nuts -- even by the standard of typical right-wing outrage -- over the withdrawal of an invitation for Family Research Council president Tony Perkins to speak at a prayer luncheon at Andrews Air Force Base. From amarch 1 CNSNews.com article by Pete Winn and Karen Schuberg:
Conservative leaders like Brent Bozell, president of the Media Research Center (the parent organization of CNSNews.com), said it was “truly frightening” that Perkins, a former Marine officer and minister, had been “thrown off a military base, in effect, for expressing his Christian views.”
“This is beyond political correctness,” Bozell told CNSNews.com. “This is flat-out political censorship taking place. And I would wish that the White House would not only condemn it, but flat-out reverse this policy.”
Bozell said Rep. Kingston was correct that Perkins won’t be the only conservative to be censored for his views.
“Today, it’s Tony Perkins. Tomorrow, who is it? Is there someone who says something offensive to the Obama administration and the will of Congress and is told he can’t speak there? Is there somebody who says something that is unacceptable to the Obama administration so he can’t speak at the university?
“My God, this is fascism. This is not America. This is not the country that I grew up in. This is not the kind of ‘change we can believe in.’
Really? Withdrawing an invitation is "fascism"? If that's the standard, then Bozell himself is engaging in fascism by demanding that President Obama fire administration official Harry Knox -- that is, censoring Knox for his views.
In an interesting sidebar, both articles CNS has done on this issue -- the Winn-Schuberg article and a Feb. 26 article by Winn -- note that the disinvitation came after Perkins issued "his position on the military policy on homosexuality." Specifically, Winn wrote on Feb. 26, "the comments that got him in trouble were published on the FRC Web site on Jan. 27, after President Obama delivered his State of the Union address," during which he expressed his desire to repeal the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy regarding gays in the military. But neither article quoted what Perkins actually said:
"At a time of enormous economic challenge, two on-going wars in which Americans are fighting and increased terrorist threats to Americans at home, President Obama seems untethered from that reality as he called on Congress to force the military to allow open homosexuality. As a veteran of the Marine Corps, the timing of the President's call in the midst of two wars shows that he is willing to jeopardize our nation's security to advance the agenda of the radical homosexual lobby.
"The military is a warrior culture for a reason: Our service members wear the uniform to fight and win wars, not serve as liberal social policy guinea pigs. The sexual environment the President is seeking to impose upon the young men and women who serve this country is the antithesis of the successful warfighting culture and as such should be rejected.
So Perkins wasn't disinvited for merely expressing opposition to DADT; he engaged in a rant that willfully distorted the intention of Obama's words. Further, if supporting repeal of DADT is all it takes to be a member of "the radical homosexual lobby," as Perkins suggests, then Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, and even Dick Cheney are a part of it.
Is Perkins willing to condemn Mullen, Gates and (most especially) Cheney as harshly as he attacks Obama? We'll beleive it when we see it.
