Topic: WorldNetDaily
As the right-wing extremism of new House speaker Mike Johnson was being exposed, WorldNetDaily went into defense mode, attacking anyone who pointed it out. Peter LaBarbera spent an Oct. 25 article insisting there was nothing extreme about Johnson and portraying him as a victim:
Newly elected Speaker of the House Mike Johnson is a Christian, pro-Trump, pro-life social conservative who scores well on all Right-leaning Capitol Hill voting scorecards, which is one of the many reasons why he is being denounced by leftist groups – even as grassroots MAGA and conservative activists are celebrating Johnson's victory to become, as one put it, "the most conservative House speaker in decades."
Johnson, 51, a four-term congressman representing Louisiana's Fourth District, became the speaker Wednesday, receiving 220 votes and unanimous Republican support, after weeks of turmoil following conservative firebrand Matt Gaetz's bold move to force a vote to take down former Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
[...]
Johnson has a long list of conservative bona fides that have earned him respect from various sectors on the Right, while irking NeverTrumpers and Republican social liberals including Meghan McCain, who, after the vote, sent out an X post blasting Johnson as a "raging homophobe":
[...]
McCain might have chosen that particular Sexual Left smear-term because Johnson, a former Alliance Defending Freedom attorney, stands firmly against homosexual "marriage" and allowing schools to indoctrinate children in LGBT propaganda without their parents' knowledge.
LaBarbera is a professional homophobe himself -- he runs his own anti-gay group, Americans for Truth about Homosexuality, which is apparently not paying the bills, forcing him to moonlight as a WND reporter -- so he sees Johnson's anti-gay hatred as perfectly normal. Indeed, he went on to complain that the Human Rights Campaign called out Johnson's homophobia while adding his own:
The HRC X post lifts a past quote from Johnson in which he stated, apparently describing people who disagree morally and spiritually with homosexuality: "It's another perspective on the homosexual lifestyle, which many people people is morally wrong and physically dangerous."
Though it is decidedly politically incorrect these days to even discuss the health risks associated with homosexual behaviors (especially between men), CDC data and publications clearly show elevated and disproportionate STD (aka STI, or sexually transmitted infection) rates for "men who have sex with men."
LaBarbera further complained in an article the next day:
Democrats, leftists and media opposed to new House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., are using the notorious, far-left group Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and its discredited "hate" designation to tar Johnson as being affiliated with a supposed "hate group," which is actually a leading Christian conservative legal defense organization.
Johnson worked as an attorney for Alliance Defending Freedom, formerly the Alliance Defense Fund, which the SPLC has smeared as a "hate group" – mainly due to ADF's longstanding opposition to homosexuality and the transgender agenda.
[...]
SPLC's tactic of "designating" various conservative organizations as "hate groups" to advance the Left's political and cultural narratives has come under withering criticism in recent years as many millions of Americans who follow conservative media and social media were educated on the group's radicalism and highly political nature.
LaBarbera didn't actually prove the SPLC's analysis of ADF to be incorrect -- he just went on an extended tirade against the SPLC.Instead, he inserted an "editor's note" that "Years ago, this reporter's organization, Americans For Truth, which opposes the LGBT agenda, was one of the first pro-family, socially conservative groups to be mislabeled a 'hate' group by the SPLC." Note that he edited out "About Homosexuality" from the name of his group, and no, he did not explain how the SPLC "mislabled" it.
Bob Unruh touted Johnson's anti-gay stance, framing it as biblical, in an Oct. 27 article:
Amid the Washington, D.C., reign of Joe Biden, whose actions often target and try to punish Christians in America on issues he has chosen as his primary focal points, like abortion and transgenderism, the new House speaker bluntly has put himself in the opposition.
Rep. Mike Johnson, newly elected to the speaker's post after Rep. Kevin McCarthy was removed, said, "Go pick up a Bible off your shelf and read it – that's my worldview. That's what I believe, so I do not apologize for it."
He was being interviewed by Fox News' Sean Hannity, and was questioned about some of his work, and statements, while he was with the Alliance Defense Fund, now Alliance Defending Freedom, years ago.
He then described homosexuality as "sinful behavior" and said there was "no clear right to sodomy in the Constitution," during a time when it was his responsibility to defend, in court, various state laws regarding those lifestyle choices.
He also said, "I also genuinely love all people regardless of their lifestyle choices. This is not about the people themselves. I am a Bible-believing Christian."
As we've seen with fellow homophobe and WND columnist Michael Brown, it's fundamentally dishonest to claim that being anti-gay means you "genuinely love all people" and hate only their purported "lifestyle choices." Unruh went on to put 'same-sex "marriage"' in scare quotes and dishonestly claim that the Supreme Court moving to make it legal "was made during a time when several extremists in the LGBT ideology were on the court."
Unruh served up more dishonestly in an Oct. 30 article:
Ex-White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki openly has blasted new House Speaker Mike Johnson for his Christian faith, exhibiting what one commentator has described as "open discrimination based on his religious faith.'
Psaki's diatribe came as she told people what she thinks about Johnson this weekend:
Oddly, she targets his faith as she points out how reasonable he likely is.
"First glance, Mike Johnson does seem fine. Fine-ish. Conservative, yes. But he once started a civility caucus with a Democrat. And I mean, if nothing else, he wears a suit and has glasses. How threatening can this guy actually be?" she charges.
Then a clip of Johnson appears in which he states: "I am a Bible-believing Christian. Someone asked me today in the media, they said, well, it’s curious. People are curious, what does Mike Johnson think about any issue under the sun? I said, Well, go pick up a Bible off your shelf and read it. That’s my world view."
Psaki's editorializing?
"You heard that right. The Bible doesn’t just inform his worldview, it is his worldview."
And she claims that makes him "divisive."
Unruh offered no evidence that Johnson's hateful right-wing interpretation of the Bible is the only correct or permissible one.
When it was reported that Johnson uses "accountability" software with his teenage son that sends alerts when either party is allegedly viewing pornography online, Unruh falsely framed it in a Nov. 6 article as a confirmation that "Johnson doesn't watch porn." He was silent on the creepiness of the fact that Johnson's "accountability" partner is his teenage son.
