GLAAD Announces New Project To Hold Anti-Gay Pundits Accountable
GLAAD this morning announced a much-needed new project designed to hold accountable the anti-gay pundits all too often invited to speak on cable and other news programs as purported “experts,” when their only real expertise is anti-LGBT hate. From Maggie Gallagher to Tony Perkins, from Bryan Fischer to Peter Sprigg, GLAAD’s Commentator Accountability Project (CAP) will track those whose real career is spreading falsehoods and anti-LGBT hate. CAP is now available to all who want to learn more about the pundits that show up on their living room TVs via cable news channels, and favorite news sites and blogs.
“Hate is not an expert opinion,†said GLAAD spokesperson Herndon Graddick in a statement. “In most cases, news outlets invite reputable experts to speak on the subject at hand, but when talking about LGBT issues, open hostility and anti-LGBT bias seems to be all the credibility required. This project holds these so-called ‘pundits’ accountable for the extreme anti-LGBT rhetoric they continue to spread.â€
The Commentator Accountability Project launches with a comprehensive set of online resources detailing the anti-LGBT, racist, and anti-woman sentiments of nearly three dozen anti-LGBT commentators who have appeared in local and national news. As more commentators engage in anti-LGBT rhetoric, new profiles will be added.
“These activists have the right to recite their anti-LGBT talking points, but it is important to expose the questionable and often hostile rhetoric that passes as punditry when so-called ‘experts’ speak out against the lives of LGBT people on the air or in print,” explained Graddick. “If networks are going to continue to invite those with incendiary anti-LGBT views on their programs, show runners should know the full picture of who these individuals really are so that critical context can be relayed to the audience.”
GLAAD is the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. They add:
Audiences need to be aware that when they’re not talking to the mainstream media, these voices are comparing the LGBT people to Nazi Germany, predicting that equal treatment of LGBT people will lead to the total collapse of society, and even making accusations of satanic influence.
The Commentator Accountability Project is bringing all of these statements to light, while calling attention to the sentiments behind them. We will show that the commentators who are most often asked to opine on issues like marriage equality or non-discrimination protections do not accurately represent the “other side” of those issues. They represent nothing but extreme animus towards the entire LGBT community.
We’re fortunate that Jeremy Hooper, who runs the excellent site Good As You, is working with GLAAD on this very important project. It’s great to see a major LGBT organization team up with a blogger — I’m sure both sides have benefitted from this exciting new working relationship.
GLAAD adds, “Have you seen these anti-LGBT voices in your local media? Let GLAAD know today.”
Here’s the inaugural list of pundits GLAAD’s Commentator Accountability Project is keeping track of:
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The Senate Rules Committee voted 14-1 to advance the Electoral Count Act, legislation designed to prevent another coup like the one led by defeated President Donald Trump, and Senators Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz, on January 6, 2021. Every Democrat and every Republican except the junior GOP Senator from Texas voted for the legislation.
The bill is even supported by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
But according to Sen. Cruz, who once bragged he was “leading the charge” to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, the bill is “all about” Donald Trump.
READ MORE: Trump Mocked for ‘Sidelining’ His New $3 Million Attorney: ‘Must Have Given Him Actual Legal Advice’
With so many stories published about the GOP’s efforts to keep Trump in the White House despite Joe Biden winning both the popular vote and the Electoral College by large margins, some may have missed The Washington Post‘s reporting back in March the shows “just how deeply” Sen. Cruz “was involved, working directly with Trump to concoct a plan that came closer than widely realized to keeping him in power.”
“As Cruz went to extraordinary lengths to court Trump’s base and lay the groundwork for his own potential 2024 presidential bid, he also alienated close allies and longtime friends who accused him of abandoning his principles,” the Post notes.
“Cruz’s efforts are of interest to the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, in particular whether Cruz was in contact with Trump lawyer John Eastman, a conservative attorney who has been his friend for decades and who wrote key legal memos aimed at denying Biden’s victory.”
On Tuesday Cruz railed against the Electoral Count Act, which would make the January 6 attempt to overturn the election at least more difficult, as his fellow Republicans seemed to ignore his outburst.
“This bill is all about Donald J. Trump,” Cruz declared, not realizing that he was indicting the former president by saying so. “And nobody in our lifetimes has driven Democrats in this body more out of their mind than President Trump.”
“This bill is a bad bill, this bill is bad law,” Cruz complained. “It’s bad policy and it’s bad for democracy,” he added, despite every other Republican on the committee voting for it and several Republicans voting for the House version.
What he did not say is that no Democrat has ever conspired to overturn an election and execute a coup.
Senator Angus King (I-ME) after Cruz’s rant, reminded the committee the bill does not “come out of the blue,” saying it is “a modification of a 150-year old law.”
“It’s not a new effort of Congress to intrude into the electoral process,” he said, taking a gentle swipe at Cruz.
“I watched this,” NPR’s Peter Sagal said of Cruz’s remarks, “and what’s remarkable is to the extent to which all the other Senators (with the exception of a mild correction from Sen King) simply ignore him.”
READ MORE: Ted Cruz Says He’s Opposed to Same-Sex Marriage Protection Bill for ‘Religious Liberty’ Reasons
He went on to note the bill “merely intended to clarify” the existing law, “which virtually everyone … has agreed is archaic and confusing.”
Despite all his bravado, the bill did advance out of committee almost unanimously, with the exception of Cruz’s lone no vote.
Watch below or at this link.
Ted Cruz just became the only republican on the Rules committee to vote against the Electoral Count Act, which puts guard rails in place to prevent future coup attempts.
Cruz led the charge in the Senate to overturn the last election for Donald Trump. pic.twitter.com/IY7ZZPavow
— Sawyer Hackett (@SawyerHackett) September 27, 2022
Wednesday’s highly-anticipated hearing of the U.S. House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack, the first one since July, and possibly the final publicly-televised event, will likely be postponed due to Hurricane Ian which is ravaging Florida.
The Washington Post’s Jacqueline Alemany and Josh Dawsey were the first to report the postponement. MSNBC has confirmed the likely postponement.
No new date has been scheduled yet.
This is a breaking news and developing story. Details may change.
RIGHT WING EXTREMISM
‘Yes’: GOP Nominee Mastriano Supports Charging Women With Murder if They Have an Abortion After a 6 Week Ban (Audio)
Pennsylvania’s GOP nominee for governor, state Senator Doug Mastriano, in 2019 said women who violate a bill he sponsored that would ban abortion after six weeks should be charged with murder.
“OK, let’s go back to the basic question there,” Mastriano told Pennsylvania radio station WITF, as NBC News reports. “Is that a human being? Is that a little boy or girl? If it is, it deserves equal protection under the law.”
“Asked if he was saying yes, they should be charged with murder, Mastriano responded: ‘Yes, I am.'”
Mastriano is a conspiracy theorist, election denier, and white Christian nationalist with ties to Gab founder Andrew Torba, an antisemitic Christian nationalist and white supremacist.
Mastriano’s bill would have barred abortions once a so-called “fetal heartbeat” could be detected, NBC News adds, “usually around six weeks,” generally before most women even know they are pregnant.
Mastriano, when confronted, falsely attempted to downplay the ability of a governor to shape laws.
“My views are kind of irrelevant because I cannot rule by fiat or edict or executive order on the issue of life,” Mastriano told the conservative network Real America’s Voice, NBC adds. “It’s up to the people of Pennsylvania. So if Pennsylvanians want exceptions, if they want to limit the number of weeks, it’s going to have to come from your legislative body and then to my desk.”
Mastriano, endorsed by Trump, is facing Democrat Josh Shapiro, who is leading in the polls.
The New York Times reports Mastriano’s campaign is “sputtering,” and says he “is being heavily outspent by his Democratic rival, has had no television ads on the air since May, has chosen not to interact with the state’s news media in ways that would push his agenda, and trails by double digits in reputable public polling and most private surveys.”
Earlier this month Rolling Stone just days before the January 6 insurrection Mastriano “was video taped leading a group in prayer, asking God that the MAGA movement would overthrow the federal government, praying they would ‘seize the power’ and ‘rise up’ on January 6.”
Listen below or at this link:
Wow. NBC obtained a 2019 interview with Republican nominee for Pennsylvania governor Doug Mastriano.
Q: Are you saying that a woman who decided to have an abortion [under your proposed bill] should be charged with murder?
A: “Yes, I am.” https://t.co/ffuPrzoWiR pic.twitter.com/78HEuxX8cJ
— Sawyer Hackett (@SawyerHackett) September 27, 2022
Embattled Trump-Appointed DHS Inspector Was Given Phones of Secret Service Agents in July, Raising ‘New Questions’: Report
‘Bright-Red, Ear-Splitting Alarm Bell’: Former Top GOP Congressman Blasted for ‘Normalization’ of Fascism (Video)
Trump Mocked for ‘Sidelining’ His New $3 Million Attorney: ‘Must Have Given Him Actual Legal Advice’
DOJ Demands Return of Emails Peter Navarro Sent From Private Account for Government Business
Highly-Anticipated J6 Committee Hearing Likely Postponed
Watch: Cruz Only ‘No’ Vote After Railing Against Bipartisan Bill to Prevent Another Coup
Highly-Anticipated J6 Committee Hearing Likely Postponed
‘Yes’: GOP Nominee Mastriano Supports Charging Women With Murder if They Have an Abortion After a 6 Week Ban (Audio)
Trump Mocked for ‘Sidelining’ His New $3 Million Attorney: ‘Must Have Given Him Actual Legal Advice’
‘Bright-Red, Ear-Splitting Alarm Bell’: Former Top GOP Congressman Blasted for ‘Normalization’ of Fascism (Video)
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