Why Does MSNBC Insist On Host Hate Group Heads?
Tony Perkins, the head of the certified anti-gay hate group Family Research Council appeared on MSNBC today in a segment with gay conservative Robert Traynham, a former senior aide to Rick Santorum.
This segment should be used in a journalism ethics 101 as evidence for everything journalists should not do.
First, credible news organizations do not host leaders of certified hate groups, unless perhaps they are discussing a court trial in which the hate group head is a defendant. Once you are the leader of a hate group, you have nothing to offer the American people; your opinion is automatically null and void, you have zero integrity.
It’s akin to having the head of the KKK debating the virtues of a Republican southern strategy. You just wouldn’t even consider it. Yet, MSNBC apparently believes that hate group leaders — as long as they are anti-gay, not KKK — are credible. They are not.
Second, Robert Traynham, in this segment, appearing as an MSNBC analyst, is ethically required to disclose that he worked for Santorum when discussing Santorum, and especially when, as he did here, pushing for a Perkins endorsement for Santorum.
Again, it’s ethically wrong.
What is wrong with MSNBC, which continues to ignore pleas from progressives that they not host hate group leaders?
It’s an affront to LGBT people, and to their own LGBT employees. And to journalism.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32545640
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