Rep. Foxx: It Was Wrong Then And It’s Wrong Now

Matthew Shepard ABC News 20/20 Story Was Discredited The Day It Aired

 

Journalism, like milk, should come with freshness dates. Then, when it starts to smell bad and offend your senses, you’ll know it’s expired.

In researching the political fallout in North Carolina after Virginia Foxx’s now infamous comment about the murder of Matthew Shepard, I came across a blog post in the News & Record, Greensboro, North Carolina’s online version of its local daily newspaper. The paper’s own editorial writer, Doug Clark, offers this piece: “ABC News report supports Foxx’s statement“, in which he writes, “But the long-accepted account, that Shepard’s killing was an anti-gay hate crime, was credibly challenged in this well-reported ABC News story all the way back in 2004.”

Wow. As a journalist, Clark isn’t even bothering to subscribe to the tenets of his industry: Check the facts. Had he, he would have known that the 20/20 story he refers to was just that, a story, widely discredited by the time it even aired. In fact, Glaad produced a “Viewer’s Guide” and released it the day the story aired. Refuting the “facts” in the piece, Glaad’s Executive Director said of 20/20’s piece, “this simply is not a credible piece of journalism“. Too bad Clark didn’t bother to delve deep enough into the history surrounding the Shepard murder or the ABC News 20/20 story, “New Details Emerge in Matthew Shepard Murder“.

The 20/20 story is based on ideas that Shepard’s murder was not a hate crime, that it occurred not because of hatred of gays, but, as Rep. Foxx said, was “in the commitment of a robbery”, with drugs being the central cause. People like Virginia Foxx and her ilk want you to believe that Matthew Shepard’s murder wasn’t a hate crime. Deep down, they want to believe that there is no such thing as a hate crime, as they think hate crime legislation is a “1984” concept in which Big Brother can monitor your thoughts. They’re wrong, because they don’t understand the meaning of “hate crime” and can’t see, as Kathleen Parker wrote this week, why a hate crime is even more despicable, because a hate crime “is really two crimes — one against the individual and another against the group to which he belongs. By that definition, Shepard’s murder may be viewed as a terrorist act against all gays, who would have felt more fearful as a result.”

Speaking of “terrorist acts”, in November, 1999, five years before the ABC News 20/20 piece, Dave Cullen of Salon interviewed Sgt. Rob DeBree, the chief investigator in the case, who said, “They knew damn well he was gay. […] It started out as a robbery and burglary, and I sincerely believe the other activity was because he was gay. […] That is one thousand percent torture, what occurred to that boy.” Cullen also wrote, in the 1999 piece, “A just-unsealed confession demolishes the “gay panic” defense. Too bad the media wasn’t around to hear it.” 

But the media wasn’t around later, in 2004, either, when the ABC News 20/20 piece aired, nor again, last week, when Clark wrote his story. And the damage has been done. How do we know? Read some of the comments from Clark’s blog, evidence of misinformed Americans too happy in their hatred to challenge someone who speaks to their values:

“Shepard’s murder has become an urban legend and a rallying point for gays to demand special treatment, regardless of the fact that it’s been misrepresented as a hate crime.
The Dems/libs can’t afford to have the truth thrown up in their face.”

“This revelation is not new. I heard about it years ago, but of course the ideological liberal media played it down as they always do when it goes against their agenda. And Puleeze don’t tell me they have no agenda.”

“Why wasn’t it [a story in that paper discussing the Foxx story] headlined, “Rep. Foxx exposes truth in Shepard case” or “Foxx discloses facts on Gay lie?””

Then, Clark himself responds to some of the comments:

“I found the ABC report well-researched and credible, but I can’t say for sure that it represents the truth about the case. And if I can’t be sure what the truth is, I also can’t say absolutely what’s a lie. I would be surprised if you can be any more certain than I am.”

Those who have done their research, Mr. Clark, indeed can be more ertain of what’s truth and what’s not. Like, Moisés Kaufman, author of The Laramie Project, who according to Glaad, “interviewed more than 200 residents of Laramie in 1998 and 1999″. Let’s try to undo some of this damage. Because there are many who have researched both the Shepard murder and the ABC 20/20 story. And, thanks to them, we do know the truth.

 

Please take a moment to join our Facebook group, FireFoxx, dedicated to the resignation of Virginia Foxx.
    

For more on the Matthew Shepard story, read:

Still bashing Matthew Shepard
Matthew Shepard and hate crimes
Rewriting the Motives Behind Matthew Shepard’s Murder