Will FOX News Balance Gift to Homosexual Journalists with Matching Grant to Pro-Family Group?

AN AMERICANS FOR TRUTH PRESS RELEASE

NAPERVILLE, Illinois—Americans for Truth is asking Fox News Channel to be “fair and balanced” by giving $10,000 to a conservative group to match its donation to a homosexual journalists’ organization whose leader recently compared pro-family critics of homosexuality to “white supremacists.”

In a letter sent today to Fox News Channel President Roger Ailes—following FOX’s $10,000 sponsorship gift to the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association (NLGJA) annual convention—AFT President Peter LaBarbera wrote:

“FOX News cannot claim to be ‘fair and balanced’ in its coverage of homosexuality while providing large grants to a special interest group like the [NLGJA] that demonizes religious conservatives and, worse, seeks to influence the media nationwide to exclude conservative critics of the homosexual political/cultural agenda from gay-related stories.

“A balancing grant to AFT or a like-minded pro-family organization would signal that Fox News Channel is committed to living up to its credo and not taking sides in the Culture War. It would also … show respect for the tens of millions of Americans who do not deserve to be likened to the KKK simply for adhering to historic Judeo-Christian beliefs.”

The NLGJA bills itself as merely a professional organization for journalists, yet over the years its members have repeatedly suggested that covering “both sides” of homosexuality-related issues is like quoting the KKK on stories about race—a preposterous analogy especially considering that African Americans poll stronger against “gay marriage” than whites.

NLGJA National President Eric Hegedus repeats the spurious white supremacist comparison on the NLGJA’s website:

“How appropriate is it to quote interviewees whose ideas could be considered homophobic? … Certainly, news organizations have written extensively about white supremacists and other hate groups… But I doubt that any journalist is adding them to a source contact list for bringing “balance” to future stories about reparations, interracial marriage, the Holocaust or immigration. That same ethic needs to extend to LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender] coverage, too.”

Wal-Mart Corporation is also listed among the $10,000 sponsors of the NLGJA convention, which began yesterday and runs through the weekend in Miami.