SALON

Wednesday, Dec 26, 2012 8:50 PM UTC

Fox News thinks anti-gay protesters are “left-wing”

Only in the bizarro universe of Fox Nation can an organization that thinks Obama's the Antichrist be liberal

By

Topics: Fox News, Westboro Baptist Church, Homophobia, LGBT Rights, Newtown shooting, Sandy Hook Elementary Shooting,

Fox News thinks anti-gay protesters are (Credit: Reuters/Kevin Lamarque)

What do you call an organization that despises gay people, hates Muslims and thinks Barack Obama is the Antichrist? If you’re Fox Nation, the spinoff website that’s all Fox and none of the News, you call them “left-wing.” Or at least that’s what the site — best known for attacking Obama’s “Hip-Hop Barbecue” for creating no jobs (but featuring plenty of black people) – called the Westboro Baptist Church, the notorious cult that pickets the funeral services of fallen soldiers.

When Westboro members planned to protest the funerals of children killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, they were met by counter-protesters, including a group of bikers called the Patriot Guard Riders, which specifically organized to “shield the mourning family [of fallen servicemembers] and their friends from interruptions created by any protestor or group of protestors,” i.e., Westboro activists.

But in Fox Nation’s telling, it was “conservative bikers” versus the “Left-Wing Westboro Cult” and its  pastor, “Democrat Fred Phelps.” This was an aggregated blog post from the ever-reliable Jim Hoft, who blogs as Gateway Pundit. But even he didn’t call Westboro “left-wing,” and merely took issue with a local newspaper calling them “right-wing.”

The Patriot Guard Riders eschew any political ideology. And Phelps, while once a Democrat, damned the party in the 1990s for its support of gay rights, and picketed inaugural balls surrounding Bill Clinton’s second inauguration in 1996, shouting obscenities at Vice President Al Gore. Whether Phelps still calls himself a Democrat or not, he has nothing in common with the party today. And why should his party registration even be of relevance?

As Gawker’s Neetzan Zimmerman asks, “Here’s a question: How far to the right do you have to be that the Westboro Baptist Church is to your left?” It’s a good question for Fox Nation, whose views on homosexuality, Islam and Obama probably have more in common with Westboro’s than those of Democrats.

Alex Seitz-Wald

Alex Seitz-Wald is Salon's political reporter. Email him at aseitz-wald@salon.com, and follow him on Twitter @aseitzwald. More Alex Seitz-Wald.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 10 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

vote
FBI reportedly joins Bachmann campaign finance probe
202 points203 points | 7 comments
vote
Jon Karl makes things worse: He regrets “inaccurate” Benghazi email but says his story based on it “still entirely stands.” Really. ABC News?
165 points166 points | 27 comments
vote
Paul Krugman’s right: Austerity kills. "In an economy where we’re all in the same boat, one person’s spending is another person’s income. So when the government cuts spending, it reduces people’s income, leading to less business, more unemployment, and a vicious spiral of slowing down the economy."
126 points127 points | 65 comments
vote
“Jodorowsky’s Dune”: The sci-fi classic that never was.
72 points73 points | 15 comments
vote
Doug Henwood: Capitalism Thrives on Class Exploitation
42 points43 points | 5 comments

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations