Media Matters - Civil and Human Rights

Media Matters - Civil and Human Rights http://mediamatters.org/tools/syndication/tag_rss/civil_and_human_rights This link is for use by RSS-enabled software to retrieve Media Matters items matching the term: Civil and Human Rights en-US Copyright 2008, Media Matters for America Quinn trivializes same-sex marriage effort, claiming: "[G]ays never wanted to get married until ... about five years ago" http://mediamatters.org/items/200811200013 Radio host Jim Quinn claimed that heterosexual opponents of Proposition 8 are "guilty straights" and suggested that "gays never wanted to get married until ... about five years ago." In fact, same-sex couples have brought court cases to overturn bans on same-sex marriage for decades. http://mediamatters.org/items/200811200013 Thu, 20 Nov 2008 18:35:16 EST O'Reilly suggested that without Prop 8, "a man can have 27 wives"; CA Supreme Court disagrees http://mediamatters.org/items/200811190017 While discussing the campaign for Proposition 8 to ban same-sex marriage in California, Bill O'Reilly asserted that if states allow same-sex couples to marry they would be required, "under equal protection," to allow polygamous marriages. In fact, the California Supreme Court explicitly stated that its May 15 decision that California's ban on same-sex marriage violated the state's constitution did not extend to polygamous marriages. http://mediamatters.org/items/200811190017 Wed, 19 Nov 2008 18:36:41 EST Savage: "[T]here's gonna be a wholesale firing of competent white men in the United States government" http://mediamatters.org/items/200811190016 On his radio show, Michael Savage said, "I am telling you that there's gonna be a wholesale firing of competent white men in the United States government up and down the line, in police departments, in fire departments. Everywhere in America, you're going to see an exchange that you've never seen in history, and it's not gonna be necessarily for the betterment of this country." http://mediamatters.org/items/200811190016 Wed, 19 Nov 2008 18:17:53 EST Baker: Media have "blood on their hands" for murder of transgender woman because they created "false sense of reality" http://mediamatters.org/items/200811180016 Discussing the murder of Moses Cannon, a transgender woman, Minneapolis radio host Chris Baker suggested that "some of the blame lie[s] with the American media who enables this fraud" and who "push this false reality." He also stated: "I believe the media and the rest of the enablers out there, they have this guy's blood on their hands because they create this false sense of reality and they enable people who need serious psychological counseling." http://mediamatters.org/items/200811180016 Tue, 18 Nov 2008 19:38:43 EST Newsweek publishes article on purported debate over whether "Obama [is] the Antichrist" http://mediamatters.org/items/200811180007 In a Newsweek article headlined "Is Obama the Antichrist?" senior editor Lisa Miller treated as newsworthy purported debate among some "conservative Christians" over whether President-elect Barack Obama is "the Antichrist." In doing so, she gave credibility to the views of RaptureReady.com editor and founder Todd Strandberg, who has, among other things, smeared gays and lesbians, Islam, progressives, Jehovah's Witnesses, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. http://mediamatters.org/items/200811180007 Tue, 18 Nov 2008 15:24:13 EST Gingrich: "[T]here is a gay and secular fascism in this country that wants to impose its will on the rest of us" http://mediamatters.org/items/200811170014 Discussing actions by individual protesters of Proposition 8, Newt Gingrich stated: "I think there is a gay and secular fascism in this country that wants to impose its will on the rest of us, is prepared to use violence, to use harassment. I think it is prepared to use the government if it can get control of it. I think that it is a very dangerous threat to anybody who believes in traditional religion." http://mediamatters.org/items/200811170014 Mon, 17 Nov 2008 14:26:03 EST Radio host Baker referred to Thomas Beatie as a "mutilated lesbian" http://mediamatters.org/items/200811170005 On his Minneapolis radio show, Chris Baker repeatedly referred to Thomas Beatie, a pregnant transgender man, as a "mutilated lesbian" and called Beatie a "freak." Baker also stated: "If a lesbian gets pregnant, I'm fine with it. I'm OK. Just stop alternating reality and trying to force me to buy into your psychosis." http://mediamatters.org/items/200811170005 Mon, 17 Nov 2008 11:01:15 EST Limbaugh's guest host is latest radio host to compare current policies or proposals to slavery http://mediamatters.org/items/200811170003 While discussing potential Republican outreach efforts toward African-Americans, Jason Lewis stated on The Rush Limbaugh Show: "[T]his whole notion of taxing -- taxing America's labor -- you know, I don't know how else you describe what this sordid experience of slavery was when you take away somebody's ability to engage in the marketplace with the fruits of their labor." Lewis later added: "We need to go into the African-American community there on cultural issues. And they should be there on taxes, because they know what it's like to have to work for free." http://mediamatters.org/items/200811170003 Mon, 17 Nov 2008 09:32:26 EST Savage asked why Obama visited grandmother "who suddenly and suspiciously died virtually the night before the election" http://mediamatters.org/items/200811140011 Discussing purported "questions about" President-elect Barack Obama "that the media won't answer," Michael Savage revived discredited rumors about Obama's birth certificate and asked: "Why in the world did he take time off from the campaign to visit the grandmother who then suddenly and suspiciously died virtually the night before the election?" Additionally, after a caller said that "[h]omosexuals and homosexual marriage is a choice," Savage declared: "[I]t's a lifestyle or a death-style choice, depending upon how you look at it." http://mediamatters.org/items/200811140011 Fri, 14 Nov 2008 16:34:10 EST Dennis Miller: "[W]omen on the left hate" Palin "because to me ... it appears that she has a great sex life" http://mediamatters.org/items/200811130013 On The O'Reilly Factor, Dennis Miller stated of Gov. Sarah Palin: "[M]ostly women on the left hate her, because to me, from outside in, it appears that she has a great sex life." He continued, "I think she has non-neurotic sex with that Todd Palin guy. I think most of the women on the Upper East Side, their husbands haven't been aroused since Mailer signed copy of The Executioner's Song at Rizzoli's back in the early '70s." http://mediamatters.org/items/200811130013 Thu, 13 Nov 2008 18:54:37 EST Hasselbeck, Shepherd still advance skewed View on California's Prop 8 http://mediamatters.org/items/200811120010 On ABC's The View, co-hosts Elisabeth Hasselbeck and Sherri Shepherd again promoted the falsehood that without the passage of Proposition 8, the California ballot initiative to amend the state constitution to ban same-sex marriage, members of the clergy could be jailed for refusing to perform same-sex marriages. In fact, neither Proposition 8 nor the California Supreme Court ruling that affirmed the constitutional right of same-sex couples to marry had anything to do with members of the clergy. http://mediamatters.org/items/200811120010 Wed, 12 Nov 2008 17:42:02 EST Responding to Media Matters item, Quinn defended comparison of welfare recipients to slaves http://mediamatters.org/items/200811100005 On The War Room, Jim Quinn addressed his prior comments comparing "slave[s] in the old South" to welfare recipients today. Quinn said: "Now, naturally, the point that I was making was that there are two forms of servitude: There's the servitude that you can be forced into, and there's the servitude you can be coerced into, I mean, the horrors of slavery notwithstanding -- naturally, that was my point." He later added: "[W]hen you think about it, the slave had more personal nobility than the welfare recipient, because he or she had no say in their station in life. The welfare recipient actually volunteers for it. It is the liberal plantation." http://mediamatters.org/items/200811100005 Mon, 10 Nov 2008 11:00:45 EST Absurd View: Hasselbeck, Shepherd suggest clergy could have been jailed without Prop 8 http://mediamatters.org/items/200811100003 On The View, Elisabeth Hasselbeck and Sherri Shepherd both suggested that without Proposition 8, a California ballot measure to amend the state constitution to reverse the California Supreme Court's ruling in favor of same-sex marriage, members of the clergy who refused to perform same-sex marriage ceremonies could have been prosecuted. In fact, as the court itself made clear, the ruling applied only to state officials, and "no religious officiant will be required to solemnize a marriage in contravention of his or her religious beliefs." http://mediamatters.org/items/200811100003 Mon, 10 Nov 2008 09:33:12 EST Quinn: "Gay sex produces AIDS"; "They should charge homosexuals more for their ... health insurance" http://mediamatters.org/items/200811070005 Discussing the passage of a California ballot initiative to amend the state constitution to ban same-sex marriage, radio host Jim Quinn asserted: "[G]ay marriage doesn't produce anything that the state has an interest in. Gay sex produces AIDS, which the state doesn't have -- or should have an interest in. They should charge homosexuals more for their -- for their health insurance than they charge the rest of us." http://mediamatters.org/items/200811070005 Fri, 7 Nov 2008 13:01:19 EST Quinn stated that unlike welfare recipients, slaves "had to work" for food, housing http://mediamatters.org/items/200811060012 On The War Room with Quinn & Rose, Jim Quinn said: "You know, if you were a slave in the old South, what did you get as a slave? You got free room and board, you got free money, and you got rewarded for having children because that was just, you know, tomorrow's slave. ... Can I ask a question? How's that different from welfare? You get a free house, you get free food, and you get rewarded for having children. Oh, wait a minute, hold on a second. There is a difference: The slave had to work for it." http://mediamatters.org/items/200811060012 Thu, 6 Nov 2008 17:47:26 EST