Fox News Throws Catholic Group Legatus Under the Bus – Anchor Bret Baier Pulls Out as Speaker

Actor Gary Sinise, beer exec Pete Coors join Baier in withdrawing as speakers from Catholic businessmen’s group after homosexual blogger says Legatus is “very anti-gay”

Fox News’ pro-homosexual bias continues: A homosexual activist blogger charged the Catholic group Legatus with being “very anti-gay,” and within days Fox anchor Bret Baier pulled out as a speaker at a Legatus event scheduled for Jan. 28-29.  Did the “conservative” network push Baier to pull out? In contrast to Baier (and actor Gary Sinise, who also cancelled as a speaker), Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal ignored political correctness and is fulfilling his promise to speak at the same Catholic event. Call Fox News at 888-369-4762 (ext. #3); contact Baier HERE. Commend Gov. Jindal HERE (225-342-7015). And read Peter LaBarbera’s in-depth report on Fox News’ growing pro-homosexual bias HERE.

[Update: in an email sent to a subscriber to AFTAH’s e-newsletter, Bret Baier confirmed that his employer, Fox News, had asked him to pull out as a speaker at the Legatus summit. Baier said he agreed with the decision (story upcoming….)]

[Correction: we failed to note that Cardinal Timothy Dolan of the Archdiocese of New York joined Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal as among the original “big-name” speakers who did NOT pull out of the Legatus event.]

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TAKE ACTION: Liberty Is At Stake:

1) Contact Fox News and Bret Baier: Call 888-369-4762; hit ext. #3. Contact Page (no form) HERE. E-mail: comments@foxnewsinsider.com. Contact Bret Baier [web page HERE] at special@foxnews.com. Express your deep concern at Fox and Special Report anchor Baier buckling to pro-homosexual activists by pulling out of the Catholic businessmen’s group Legatus’ Jan. 28-29 conference following a homosexual activist blogger’s report that the group is “very anti-gay.” AFTAH is speculating that Fox News—which annually gives sizeable donations to a homosexual journalists association—pressured Baier to withdraw from the Legatus event.

2) Thank Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal: Call 225-342-7015 [Contact page form HERE.] Of the big-name [secular] speakers invited by Legatus, Jindal is the only one not to cave in to the “Gay Thought Police.” Commend him for honoring his commitment and not capitulating like the others:

3) Contact Gary Sinise through his foundation: [Click HERE; Sinise’s Facebook page is HERE.] Sinise does wonderful work raising support for America’s veterans and defending freedom—but what good is liberty if Americans cower before Political Correctness and morality-phobic (and often anti-Christian) “gay” activists?

4) Contact Pete Coors through Coors Brewing:  [Contact Page HERE] Coors was once known as the favorite beer of conservatives, but self-censorship and in the face of leftist pressure campaigns—rather than standing up for one’s beliefs–is hardly conservative.

5) Read my in-depth 2013 report on Fox News’ growing pro-“gay” bias – “Unfair, Unbalance & Afraid: Fox News Growing Pro-Homosexual Bias” –which I wrote for America’s Survival. The report documents Fox News’ troubling drift away from providing even balanced coverage on homosexual issues like —as well as the pro-homosexual remarks of Fox News contributors like Bernie Goldberg–who wrote an awful piece saying Jesus would probably support homosexual “marriage.” Read the report on PDF HERE and in standard web (HTML) format HERE.

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Fox News Throws Catholic Businessmen’s Group Legatus Under the Bus

By Peter LaBarbera; Twitter: @PeterLaBarbera

Dear AFTAH Readers,

It grieves me to report that Fox News “Special Report” anchor Bret Baier—of whom I am a fan–has pulled out of a speaking engagement for the conservative Catholic businessmen’s group Legatus–following a report by a homosexual activist blogger who labeled the organization “very anti-gay.”

Joining the Fox News “Special Report” anchor in withdrawing from the annual Legatus summit January 28-29 in Naples, Florida were conservative actor Gary Sinese and Coors Brewing Company Pete Coors. Louisiana Gov. Unlike these three men, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal is honoring his commitment to address the Legatus summit [thank Jindal HERE; call him at the Louisiana governor’s office at 225-342-7015].

Legatus is a national Catholic businessmen’s organization with many local chapters across the nation, devoted to fostering “spiritual growth, formation and commitment” among its members. “Legatus” is the Latin word for “ambassador,” and the group seeks to help its members become “ambassadors for Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:20).

The Catholic Canadian pro-family website LifeSiteNews.com, which broke the story on the Fox News/Baier/Sinise capitulations, reported this about Legatus:

Legatus, which was begun by Domino’s Pizza founder Tom Monaghan in 1987 to network Catholic business leaders, is faithful to the Church’s Magisterium and therefore upholds the Church’s teachings on all moral matters including homosexuality.

But none of that mattered to New York City homosexual blogger and GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) writer Jeremy Hooper. What concerned Hooper as a professional “gay” activist is that Legatus upholds the longstanding Catholic teachings that homosexual behavior is “intrinsically disordered” and “contrary to the natural law.” The Catholic Church Catechism cites “Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity.” Such acts “do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity,” it states. “Under no circumstances can they be approved.” Regarding marriage: “Holy Scripture affirms that man and woman were created for one another.”

Hooper’s “Good As You” web post cites two Legatus writings: one opposing homosexual “civil unions,” the other defending ex-“gay” therapy for people trying to overcome homosexual feelings and temptations. Both of Hooper’s examples align with traditional Catholic teachings, and are reproduced at the bottom of this story.

Fox: Baier “unaware” of “controversy”

Fox News issued the following statement on behalf of Baier, as reported Tuesday by the website Raw Story (note the odd Raw Story headline intended to make the Legatus meeting look extreme):

“Bret Baier has withdrawn his participation as a speaker at the upcoming Legatus Summit due to the controversy surrounding some editorial stances in the organization’s magazine,” a statement from Fox News said. “Bret accepted the invitation to speak about his book, his faith, and his son’s congenital heart disease. He was unaware of these articles or the controversy surrounding them.”

Like many conservatives, I am an avid consumer of Fox News, and a fan of Baier’s evening show “Special Report,” with its “all star panel” including Charles Krauthammer—having watched easily over a thousand episodes. However, I have also exposed and documented the growing pro-homosexual bias at Fox News—in contradiction of its slogan (repeated nightly by Baier) to be “Fair, Balanced and Unafraid.” [See my report for America’s Survival HERE.]

Why would a professional journalist like Baier be “afraid” to honor his commitment to speak at a conservative Catholic event—especially since Baier himself is conservative and Catholic? And what do these latest capitulations say about the “Gay Thought Police’s” ability to intimidate people from living out their faith or moral worldview in the Public Square.

Did Fox News’ force Baier to cancel engagement?

I agree with my friend and Accuracy in Media writer Cliff Kincaid–a longtime observer of Fox News–that it is highly likely that the network pressured Baier to drop out of the Legatus event—or made the decision for him. Baier declined to answer my query via Twitter on this point yesterday:

To be sure, the idea that Baier pulled out from the Legatus summit because he was unaware of the group’s stance or writings on homosexuality is quite a stretch (call it Fox News’ questionable PR “spin “). Baier agreed to an interview with Legatus’ magazine and as a committed Catholic he surely was cognizant of Legatus’ reputation as a defender of Catholic orthodoxy–including its support of Church teachings on homosexuality.

Moreover, Baier is a professional journalist presumably well-trained in research. If he truly was unaware of Legatus’ orthodox beliefs on homosexuality—even after being interviewed by the group’s flagship publication–then he is not the solid reporter many have come to view him as on “Special Report.”

A more likely scenario is that Fox News’ executives drove Baier’s decision to abandon Legatus, hence his non-response on Twitter. Many social conservatives have speculated to this writer that Fox management officially pushes a pro-homosexual mindset on the network’s on-air talent, making it more difficult for anchors to fairly cover homosexual issues even if they wanted it.

“Baier is in a heckuva’ position here,“ Kincaid of Accuracy in Media told me. “He doesn’t want to criticize his bosses.” Kincaid writes that Fox News’ well-documented annual grants to the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association [see AFTAH story HERE and my Fox News bias report HERE]…

…are a form of hush money to keep the gay lobby from complaining too loudly about the conservative orientation of some Fox News programs and personalities.

But that strategy went out the window with the Bret Baier fiasco involving Legatus, which is now making headlines across the country. “Bret Baier Withdraws from Legatus Summit” is one of many headlines resulting from the successful homosexual pressure campaign to force Baier out of the event.

Now the whole world can see that even the powerful Fox News Channel can be intimidated to toe the homosexual line. The thousands of dollars in payments to NLGJA did not keep the gay lobby at bay.

Crying “anti-gay” as a politically correct intimidation tactic

The supposedly extreme excerpt unearthed by homosexual blogger and activist Hooper—who has become a glorified tattletale of sorts for what I’m calling the “Gay Thought Police”—is in truth utterly consistent with Catholic teachings and particularly the Church’s outreach ministry to homosexuals, known as Courage.

Courage encourages men with homosexual attractions to remain chaste in accordance with Catholic teachings. More than a decade ago, I spoke at a Courage meeting in New York City at the invitation of Courage’s then-director, the late Father John Harvey (a great man). As one who wrote and spoke prolifically on the homosexual issue, Harvey taught that some men who struggle with homosexual “feelings” (what many call “sexual orientation”) can change through religious devotion and/or therapy and live contented heterosexual lives.

Remind Gary Sinise of what liberty is about

Actor Gary Sinise, who played “Lt. Dan” in the movie “Forrest Gump” and also had a starring role in the popular CBS crime show “CSI,” issued the following statement to explain his decision not to honor his commitment to speak at the Legatus summit:

“For me, faith has been a catalyst for my mission to honor the men and women who serve in our nation’s military. When I accepted the invitation to speak at the Legatus conference on Veterans issues and share my story, I was unaware of the controversy surrounding some of the participants, and their views on personal matters. I don’t want my mission—which is designed to be unifying—to be disrupted by these, or any controversies, and therefore have decided to withdraw.”

Contrast Sinise’s politically correct deference to “controversy”—which homosexual activists like Hooper are very good at ginning up–with the words of Jesus Christ Himself regarding His followers:

“And you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.” (Mark 13:13)

If we as Americans have freedom of speech and religion, what good are they if we censor ourselves out of a fear of being criticized by the Left or by secularists?

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Here are the Legatus writings cited by homosexual activist Jeremy Hooper as cited verbatim on his blog; parenthetic note is Hooper’s:

“It’s impossible to see homosexual unions as being in line with God’s intentions for marriage since the product of intercourse is not fruitful. Along with masturbation, fornication, and adultery, homosexuality is a selfish act that cannot fulfill the divinely ordained purpose of the reproductive powers. The Church teaches that God instituted the sacrament of Marriage, and only He has the authority to change the nature of marriage. Neither the Church nor the state has the competence to alter the substance of marriage or the family. Attempts by civil government or the courts to alter the law in favor of same-sex unions distort the true meaning of marriage, which has existed for thousands of years.

“The Church encourages people who suffer from the disorder of same-sex attraction to live a chaste and celibate life. Chastity is required of all people, no matter their state in life — single, married, or celibate. It is a virtue in which our thoughts, words, and actions are modest. Celibacy is a discipline by which one does not marry.”
What About Same-sex Unions? [Legatus]
(*Note: This column ran in the same issue as a profile of NOM president Brian Brown, who is a member of Legatus)

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“There are many reasons why people suffer from SSA disorder. Some “discover” this tendency within them. Others grow into it through pursuits of pleasure or experimentation. Some use it to punish themselves or others. Whether the disorder has some deep, unknown roots over which one has virtually no control, or whether it’s a developed disorder resulting from bad choices, it leaves an individual disposed toward activities and a lifestyle that are dangerous — physically, emotionally and spiritually.

“Fortunately there is hope for those who suffer from the disorder. The National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality reports that significant numbers of homosexual persons have undergone treatment and had their sexual drives properly ordered. These findings are a beacon of hope to those suffering from SSA, as well as for their family and friends who desire their happiness and good health. Finally, for those who for whatever reason cannot be cured, there is a support group known as Courage to help them live safe, moral, chaste lives. Those who continue to suffer from this disorder can find true help through an orientation toward their Savior and Redeemer, “the Orient from on High,” and the life that He offers them in Himself.”

Sexual ‘disorientation’ [Legatus]