Bryan Fischer
Media guilty of sloppy, slanderous reporting on Gov. Perry, Movie Gallery
By Bryan Fischer
Follow me on Twitter: @BryanJFischer, on Facebook at "Focal Point"
The media, including even the international press, has accused Texas Gov. Rick Perry of hypocrisy for holding stock in a company that the American Family Association was boycotting because it sold porn.
As background, the AFA sponsored "The Response," the August 6 day of prayer and fasting initiated by Gov. Perry at Houston's Reliant Stadium. This event was attended by 35,000 Americans deeply concerned about the spiritual health of this nation. The left naturally went into a veritable paroxysm of rage and angst that a public official would dare to imitate the example of the Founding Fathers and take prayer and fasting seriously.
Here are the facts with regard to the Movie Gallery story.
As the media has widely reported, Rick Perry purchased between $5,000 and $10,000 of stock in Movie Gallery in 1995. He sold his stock that same year.
The American Family Association only became aware of Movie Gallery's porn sales in the summer of 2000, and did not launch its boycott of Movie Gallery until November 11, 2000. Movie Gallery and its porn emporiums are now mercifully defunct.
This means that Mr. Perry had divested himself of Movie Galley stock long before its involvement in the sale of pornography was even on AFA's radar, and five years before AFA launched its public boycott.
The reporting here by the media is sloppy at best and a gross violation of journalistic ethics at worst. A simple phone call to AFA could have established a clear timeline here for anyone with even the remotest interest in reporting the objective truth.
As AFA's president Tim Wildmon said, this notoriously irresponsible reporting represents "a grossly unfair and gratuitous shot at Gov. Perry." He has called for every media outlet that ran this story to issue a retraction and an apology.
Two things are significant takeaways from this exercise in media malpractice. One, the out-of-the-mainstream media doesn't care about the truth when it comes to conservatives. They are interested only in "gotcha" journalism, and will play "gotcha" even when there is no "gotcha" to get, even when there's no there there, even when their reporting is wildly at variance with the facts. And they wonder why nobody is watching their news shows and reading their newspapers anymore!
The second thing this wild-eyed attack makes clear is that the left is scared to death of Gov. Perry. Wingers on the left will always let you know who the greatest threats are to the liberal agenda by whom they try hardest to kneecap. First it was Sarah Palin, then it was Michele Bachmann, now it is clearly Rick Perry. There is no one in the GOP field that threatens them and wigs them out like he does. They've forgotten, for instance, all about the submission issue with Ms. Bachmann. It's all Perry, all the time. Objective observers will be forgiven for surmising that this may be the most powerful endorsement Rick Perry will receive in this entire campaign.
(Unless otherwise noted, the opinions expressed are the author's and do not necessarily reflect the views of the American Family Association or American Family Radio.)
© Bryan Fischer
August 23, 2011
Follow me on Twitter: @BryanJFischer, on Facebook at "Focal Point"
The media, including even the international press, has accused Texas Gov. Rick Perry of hypocrisy for holding stock in a company that the American Family Association was boycotting because it sold porn.
As background, the AFA sponsored "The Response," the August 6 day of prayer and fasting initiated by Gov. Perry at Houston's Reliant Stadium. This event was attended by 35,000 Americans deeply concerned about the spiritual health of this nation. The left naturally went into a veritable paroxysm of rage and angst that a public official would dare to imitate the example of the Founding Fathers and take prayer and fasting seriously.
Here are the facts with regard to the Movie Gallery story.
As the media has widely reported, Rick Perry purchased between $5,000 and $10,000 of stock in Movie Gallery in 1995. He sold his stock that same year.
The American Family Association only became aware of Movie Gallery's porn sales in the summer of 2000, and did not launch its boycott of Movie Gallery until November 11, 2000. Movie Gallery and its porn emporiums are now mercifully defunct.
This means that Mr. Perry had divested himself of Movie Galley stock long before its involvement in the sale of pornography was even on AFA's radar, and five years before AFA launched its public boycott.
The reporting here by the media is sloppy at best and a gross violation of journalistic ethics at worst. A simple phone call to AFA could have established a clear timeline here for anyone with even the remotest interest in reporting the objective truth.
As AFA's president Tim Wildmon said, this notoriously irresponsible reporting represents "a grossly unfair and gratuitous shot at Gov. Perry." He has called for every media outlet that ran this story to issue a retraction and an apology.
Two things are significant takeaways from this exercise in media malpractice. One, the out-of-the-mainstream media doesn't care about the truth when it comes to conservatives. They are interested only in "gotcha" journalism, and will play "gotcha" even when there is no "gotcha" to get, even when there's no there there, even when their reporting is wildly at variance with the facts. And they wonder why nobody is watching their news shows and reading their newspapers anymore!
The second thing this wild-eyed attack makes clear is that the left is scared to death of Gov. Perry. Wingers on the left will always let you know who the greatest threats are to the liberal agenda by whom they try hardest to kneecap. First it was Sarah Palin, then it was Michele Bachmann, now it is clearly Rick Perry. There is no one in the GOP field that threatens them and wigs them out like he does. They've forgotten, for instance, all about the submission issue with Ms. Bachmann. It's all Perry, all the time. Objective observers will be forgiven for surmising that this may be the most powerful endorsement Rick Perry will receive in this entire campaign.
(Unless otherwise noted, the opinions expressed are the author's and do not necessarily reflect the views of the American Family Association or American Family Radio.)
© Bryan Fischer
The views expressed by RenewAmerica columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of RenewAmerica or its affiliates.
(See RenewAmerica's publishing standards.)
