AP on Fred Phelps

In the lead paragraph, the AP insinuated both that Phelps is a liberal and that the counter-protesters are pro-gay. In the second paragraph they state that the arguments were "competing." That's not quite as blatant as saying that the arguments were opposing, but it still implies that the Freepers arguments were refuting those of Phelps such as "God hates fags."

Phelps is not a liberal. Liberals do not say things like this in their FAQs:

What do you think of the Religious Right?

In general, they are lukewarm cowards. Modern day Pharisees. People who have gone a whoring after strange gods. Self-righteous hypocrites. They spend more time harrassing people who are preaching the Gospel than anything else, just like the Pharisees did to Jesus. They are second in evil only to the modern day Saduccees (i.e., bleeding heart liberals).

And the Freepers are most certainly anti-gay. They publish about ten items per day on what they call the "homosexual agenda."

I say that the AP is doing better this time than last time mainly because when the Phelps klan was doing their "God hates fags" roadshow in Denver the AP didn't mention that they were anti-gay at all; instead they referred to them as "anti-war protesters."

So they may be getting incrementally better. But the AP (and everyone else) needs to get over the false left/right opposition dichotomy. It is in fact possible for two groups of right-wing homophobes to fight with one another, just as it is possible for a couple of peacenik lefty groups to fight with one another. In this article, the AP doesn't explicitly state that Phelps is a lefty--but it's certainly implied. And just as they don't identify the Freepers as pro-gay, they certainly imply that as well. Problem is that neither is true.

In a related article, AP insinuates again that the Free Republic people are pro-gay:

The FreeRepublic.com group was trying to counter demonstrations by the Kansas-based group, led by the Rev. Fred Phelps. He previously had organized protests against those who died of AIDS and gay murder victim Matthew Shepard.

While I applaud AP for mentioning what most news outlets have neglected (that Phelps has been picketing at the funerals of gay people for years), they again imply that the homophobic Freepers are protesting Phelps's anti-gay statements. The AP needs to get that the Freepers are just fine with "God hates fags." What they are protesting is "thank God for dead soldiers" and "God hates America." These are, of course, worthy things to protest--but that does not absolve the Freepers from their own vicious homophobia.