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Knight Recalls ‘Tinky Winky’ Media Smear: ‘Getting a Kick out of Falwell’s Death’
May 21st, 2007Robert Knight is a hero in the culture wars and is director of the Culture and Media Institute, a division of the Media Research Center. Here he briefly lays out the truth behind the infamous “Tinky Winky” smear against Rev. Jerry Falwell. The “Tinky Winky” story is a textbook study in how the media discredits and ridicules religious conservatives:
Getting a Kick out of Falwell’s Death
By Robert Knight
Culture and Media Institute
May 18, 2007
In many of his talks to Liberty University students, the Rev. Jerry Falwell emphasized the importance of “finishing well.”
Last Tuesday, he was at the top of his game when he unexpectedly died in the college office where he was planning more expansions of the fast-growing university that he founded in 1971.
The Rev. Falwell did a lot of things well, ticking off liberals right up to the end. How else would he have garnered the kind of tribute from a major newspaper’s religion writer that was headlined, “Sigh of relief over Falwell death.”
To make sure no one mistook her, Chicago Sun-Times Religion Writer Cathleen Falsani’s May 18 column explains her reaction to the news about Dr. Falwell on May 15:
“…My very first thought upon hearing of the Rev. Falwell’s passing was: Good. And I didn’t mean ‘good’ in a oh-good-he’s-gone-to-be-home-with-the-Lord kind of way. I mean ‘good’ as in ‘Ding-dong, the witch is dead.’”
Falsani, who claims to be a Christian, learned of this apparent good news in the airport departure lounge in Key West, a place where Jerry is not held in great esteem.
She went on to compare the good reverend to the foul-mouthed TV mobster Tony Soprano, and accused Falwell of saying “insensitive, mean-spirited, sometimes downright hateful things …in the name of Christ.” She did do a bit of backing up, saying that maybe, in his own way, God used Jerry so that “lives were changed for the better by his ministry, his college, and the flip side of the endeavors he made in Jesus’ name.”
Meanwhile, she informed readers of her own apparent spiritual superiority, noting that “not all of us are that self-righteous, judgmental and holier than thou.”
I guess that openly enjoying the death of a fellow Christian and utterly distorting his Christian message into a caricature of hate is the mark of the nonjudgmental. I think it’s somewhere in the Sermon on the Mount.
Of course, Falsani is not the only journalist to use Rev. Falwell’s death as one more opportunity to cast fiery darts at him.
Virtually every major news outlet made sure that Falwell’s controversial comment following 9/11 and his notorious “outing” of the “gay Teletubby” Tinky Winky got ink and airtime.
The New York Times noted that it was an article in the National Liberty Journal, which Falwell published, that touched off the Teletubbies ruckus. But the article failed to mention that the Liberty Journal piece quoted The Washington Post’s outing of Tinky Winky, and that the gay press and several other mainstream outlets had cheered openly for a year that the boy in the purple suit, carrying a purse and bearing the homosexual symbol, an upside down triangle, on his head, was clearly the first openly “gay” character in a children’s program.
I recall faxing The Washington Post article to the National Liberty Journal back in February 1999. I had also faxed an article from a gay newspaper in which one of Teletubbies’ creators boasted openly that Tinky Winky’s character, which combines a deep daddy’s voice and mommy’s handbag, was a deliberate attempt to make children think differently about gender. The Liberty Journal editors decided to stick with the Washington Post as the main source, which seems like a wise thing to do. But in the end, it didn’t matter.
In the 10 years since, the press magnified and sustained the myth that Jerry Falwell “outed” Tinky Winky with no apparent evidence. He just did it for the heck of it, to be mean to gays. As smears go, it made him easy to ridicule. Try as they might, that was the best they could do, since they unearthed no hint of scandal involving his integrity. In March 1999, Liberty Journal Senior Editor J. M. Smith pointed out the media’s distortions, but the myth continued to gain strength. Dr. Falwell himself took it in stride, even placing a stuffed Tinky Winky on top of his computer as a joke. Given his own generous spirit and lack of vitriol, he didn’t seem to understand the damage that was done to his reputation.
Click HERE to read the rest of Bob Knight’s column on the Culture & Media Institute website
Chuck Norris on the Marketing of Atheism to Young People
May 21st, 2007The following excerpt is reprinted from Norris’ column in WorldNetDaily.com. Of all the evils that are being pushed on today’s young people, none is more sinister than the marketing of atheism:
“How to outlaw Christianity (Steps 2 & 3)
Posted: May 21, 2007
C.S. Lewis, the former atheist and famous Oxford scholar, once said “Atheism turns out to be too simple. If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning….”
There are a myriad of eminent scholars (like Lewis) who understand the folly of atheism. I will list a few others in this second part of my treatise to expose atheists’ agenda to ban Christianity from the courts of culture. In my last article I discussed “step 1” of their plan. In this discourse I will address steps 2 & 3.
Step two: target younger generations with atheism
Atheists are making a concerted effort to win the youth of America and the world. Hundreds of web sites and blogs on the Internet seek to convince and convert adolescents, endeavoring to remove any residue of theism from their minds and hearts by packaging atheism as the choice of a new generation. While you think your kids are innocently surfing the Web, secular progressives are intentionally preying on their innocence and naïveté.
What’s preposterous is that atheists are now advertising and soliciting on websites particularly created for teens. The London Telegraph noted that, “Groups including Atheists for Human Rights and Atheist Alliance International – ‘Call 1-866-HERETIC’ – are setting up summer camps and an internet recruiting campaign.”
Click HERE to read Norris entire column in WorldNetDaily.com
Chuck Baldwin: A Tribute To Jerry Falwell
May 19th, 2007By Chuck Baldwin; please visit Chuck’s web site at http://www.chuckbaldwinlive.com. This column is archived at http://www.chuckbaldwinlive.com/c2007/cbarchive_20070518.html
I first met Jerry Falwell when I was a Sophomore at Midwestern Baptist College in Pontiac, Michigan. The year was 1972. I can honestly say, hearing and meeting Dr. Falwell was a turning point in my life.
I was so impressed with Jerry’s vision, courage, and compassion that the very next year, 1973, I transferred from the Michigan school to Dr. Jerry’s Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia. The school was then called Lynchburg Baptist College.
Back in those days, there was no Liberty Mountain, no sprawling campus, no NCAA sports program, etc. It was a small school, meeting in make-shift classrooms spread out just about everywhere. We met in the facilities at Thomas Road Baptist Church, in refurbished buildings in downtown Lynchburg, and in facilities at the Treasure Island youth camp.
Read the rest of this article »
Chicago Sun-Times Writer Cathleen Falsani Needs Sensitivity Training after Comparing Jerry Falwell to Tony Soprano
May 18th, 2007UPDATE on this story: Chicago Sun-Times religion columnist Cathleen Falsani — author of a controversial column titled, “Sigh of Relief over Falwell’s Death” — contacted Americans For Truth late Friday afternoon for the sole purpose of requesting that we remove her copyrighted photo from our website (which we did). When AFTAH President Peter LaBarbera sought to engage Falsani in a discussion about her anti-Falwell column, she curtly said she was only calling for the “legal purpose” of removing the photo. “I’m not interested in engaging in dialogue with you,” she said.
When LaBarbera countered that this was odd since Falsani is a “reporter” who talks to people for a living, Falsani replied that she is not a reporter, but a columnist. (As you can read below, she was only recently relieved of her reporting duties at the Sun-Times.)
Said LaBarbera, “This story only gets weirder: a religion columnist cruelly trashes a conservative minister days after his death, then refuses to discuss her column with a critic. It seems Cathleen Falsani can dish it out but she can’t take it. We echo Illinois Review editor Fran Eaton’s call for Falsani to be fired as a Sun-Times religion columnist. As one who is obviously bigoted against Bible-believing religious traditionalists, she should not be writing on religion for a major metropolitan daily.”
Our original article follows:
__________________________
You can write Cathleen Falsani at cfalsani@suntimes.com; or write a letter to the Sun Times (phone: 312-321-3000) at letters@suntimes.com.
In fact, my very first thought upon hearing of the Rev. Falwell’s passing was: Good.
And I didn’t mean “good” in a oh-good-he’s-gone-home-to-be-with-the-Lord kind of way. I meant “good” as in “Ding-dong, the witch is dead.”
— Cathleen Falsani, “Sigh of Relief over Falwell’s Death,” May 18, Chicago Sun-Times
I wrote Cathleen Falsani to say how sad it is that a religion columnist would so cruelly denounce and defame a man shortly after his death. (More of that HERE.) The Religious Left — of which one could now safely say Falsani is a member — prides itself on its compassion, but when it comes down to it, they can be quite mean and guilty of the same harshness and “hate” of which they accuse others. It reminds me of the pro-abortion-rights liberals who fancy themselves as compassionate people who look out for the downtrodden (“the little guy”) — and yet can’t face their own hypocrisy in zealously defending the “right to choose” to kill society’s most helpless people: the unborn.
Sometimes Christian-identified writers and reporters go overboard in attacking Biblical traditionalists to show their media peers that they’re not a tool of the stereotypical “religious right.” Maybe that’s what happened here. Whether or not that’s the case, it’s tragic that Falsani, a Wheaton College grad, has sunk to this level. This is an ugly and tacky piece of writing that exposes the hypocrisy of self-righteous liberals and the disdain of the media for traditionalist Christian leaders.
Like many in the Fourth Estate, Falsani needs sensitivity training and would surely benefit from a sabbatical at Falwell’s Liberty University. She should be removed as the Sun-Times’ religion columnist (at least she is no longer a religion reporter for the paper), but that won’t happen because most of the paper’s staff probably loved her column. Nothing like beating up on the ‘fundies,’ dead or alive, to burnish your credentials in the media. (Now, writing a fair column about a man or woman who has left homosexuality behind, through the power of the same Christ that Falsani professes to follow, that’s another story….)
Congratulations, Cathleen: you scored some more points with the Left, but you did so at the price of your own dignity, your Christian testimony, and to the detriment of your once noble profession.— Peter LaBarbera
The following is excerpted by Media Research Council’s “NewsBusters” blog, by Tim Graham (emphasis added). You can read Graham’s entire piece by clicking HERE, and Falsani’s nasty column HERE):
Chicago Sun-Times Writer: Jerry Falwell Was a Spiritual Bully, Like Tony Soprano
By Tim Graham, Newsbusters.org, May 18, 2007
It might not be surprising for liberal blog commenters or talk-radio callers to denounce Rev. Jerry Falwell upon his death, but it’s a little more surprising when it comes to a professed Christian who’s religion columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times. Cathleen Falsani reflected on her first reaction about hearing Falwell was “relief” and compared him to gangster TV character Tony Soprano:
Knowing I didn’t have a deadline to meet that day, my first thoughts were not of what to say or write.
In fact, my very first thought upon hearing of the Rev. Falwell’s passing was: Good.
And I didn’t mean “good” in a oh-good-he’s-gone-home-to-be-with-the-Lord kind of way. I meant “good” as in “Ding-dong, the witch is dead.”
But that thought — good riddance, I suppose — was not meant to be cruel or malicious. [!]After all, the faith that the Rev. Falwell and I share teaches us that he was, at that moment, in a far better place, with Jesus in heaven, and not roasting on a spit in Hell’s kitchen.
By shrugging off his mortal coil, the Rev. Falwell had ceased to suffer the pain of humanity.
Still, I’m not particularly proud of my knee-jerk reaction. But there it is….
My initial reaction to the Rev. Falwell’s death was, and remains, relief — not unlike the ease I felt when a particularly nasty bully who used to spit at me on the playground and threaten to beat me up after school moved to another town.
The Rev. Falwell was a spiritual bully. He was the Tony Soprano to Pat Robertson’s Paulie Walnuts.
How on Earth can a religion columnist compare a televangelist to a malicious mob boss and killer? We could understand the typical Elmer Gantry comparisons, but Tony Soprano? Including Robertson on the list suggested clearly that was Falsani believes is that conservatism and orthodoxy are “bullying” and that liberalism and relativism brings true spirituality and harmony with God.
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Pro-Family Tributes to Jerry Falwell
May 17th, 2007
The following statement was issued by Alan Chambers, President of Exodus International, the leading Christian ex-“gay” ministry group. Following that are several other statements from leading conservative, pro-family groups and leaders:
Exodus Mourns the Passing of Reverend Jerry Falwell
May 15, 2007
Orlando, FL- Alan Chambers, President of Exodus International, released the following statement today regarding the death of Reverend Jerry Falwell, Founder and President of Liberty University and founding pastor of Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Virginia:
“Exodus International is deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Reverend Jerry Falwell. He was a friend to Exodus, a passionate, sincere advocate for the Gospel and had a tremendous heart for young people.
“Rev. Falwell will be remembered for his consistent emphasis on the truth that Jesus Christ loves and offers salvation to every individual regardless of their past. No doubt, many have come to a personal relationship with Christ through his ministry. Our thoughts and prayers are with Rev. Falwell’s wife, Macel, their three children and his friends and colleagues in Lynchburg, Virginia.”
Rev. Falwell spoke at the 2006 Exodus Freedom Conference and was dedicated to helping those who struggle with and desire freedom from unwanted same-sex attraction. Both Liberty University and Thomas Road Baptist Church have ministries to those wanting help with this issue in their lives.
Read the rest of this article »
Girls Face Felony ‘Hate Crimes’ Charge for Passing Out Anti-Homosexual Fliers
May 16th, 2007The following are two newspaper accounts of an alleged “hate crime” involving the distribution of anti-homosexuality-oriented fliers by two teenaged girls in Crystal Lake, Illinois. We have not seen the fliers (which were not made available by the police) and are trying to find out more about this case. Note the Tribune story, which reports that the girls face a felony “hate crimes” charge. Illinois’ “hate crimes” law includes “sexual orientation”:
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Chicago, Illinois, May 16, 2007
Teens face hate-crime charge for anti-gay flier
CRYSTAL LAKE — Two Crystal Lake girls were charged with a felony hate crime for making a flier with derogatory statements about homosexuality and distributing them at a school, authorities said Tuesday
The 16-year-olds were arrested by Crystal Lake police about 1:45 p.m. Friday after they distributed about 40 fliers in the student parking lot at Crystal Lake South High School, 1200 S. McHenry Ave., Crystal Lake.
The fliers had a photograph of two males kissing and included “words of an inflammatory nature,” said Police Chief Dave Linder. One male in the photo was identified, Linder said.
The girls were charged with a hate crime because the fliers “were not written for informational purposes but rather were to incite a breach of peace or cause injury to the person or persons the message was directed against,” said Thomas Carroll, McHenry County first assistant state’s attorney.
They were also charged with disorderly conduct and obstructing a police officer, and one teen faces an additional charge of resisting a police officer.
Read the rest of this article »
Homosexuals Savage Jerry Falwell, But He Loved Them with the Gospel Truth
May 16th, 2007 By Peter LaBarbera
On hearing of the death of Jerry Falwell (read pro-family tributes to him HERE), I was reminded of an incident that revealed his heart, as a Christian and as a human being. Homosexual activists heaped instantaneous (and horrifyingly wicked) scorn upon this man of God — in a way that only seems to confirm what he said about their movement.
Their sickening behavior also confirms what the Bible says about God giving up unrepentant homosexuals to a “reprobate” (also translated depraved and debased) mind (Romans 1:28).
But before we get into the homosexuals’ vicious response to Falwell’s death, a history lesson: conservative icon Richard Viguerie states in his tribute to the Moral Majority founder:
“With the death of Dr. Jerry Falwell, the conservative movement has lost one its founders and key leaders. Dr. Falwell was one of the main architects of the conservative movement in the 1970s and 1980s. His work and leadership played an indispensable role in the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980.
“For decades, the conservative movement stood on a two-legged stool and won few elections. But when Dr. Falwell became an integral part of the movement, he led tens of thousands of ministers, along with millions of their followers, into the voting booths to support vital conservative causes. This provided the third leg of the stool, which allowed conservatives to level the political playing field with the Left.
“Without Dr. Falwell, there would be no meaningful conservative movement. He was a true history-maker in our nation.”
And now, on to the “Immoral Minority’s” reaction:
John Aravosis, a homosexual blogger who certainly fits the bill, called Falwell a “hateful pig,” inspiring a slew of even nastier comments on his “Americablog” site. Said one: “Too bad [Falwell’s death] wasn’t more prolonged and painful.” Wrote another: “Now cross your fingers for Pat Robertson to join him in Heaven soon.” Many of the remarks are too vulgar to reprint here.
As is the trend on the Left these days, many of the anti-Falwell posters used religious condemnations to make their point: “The gates of hell swing open and Satan welcomes his beloved son,” wrote Amanda Marcotte, a “Pandagon” blogger who became a short news story herself after it was revealed that she had been hired by Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards — but who now, after being fired by Edwards, is once again free to spew her venom.
Homosexual activist Wayne Besen, the former spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign, the world’s largest “gay” lobby group, wrote on his site, next to an altered photo of Falwell (how mature, Wayne…): “Won’t the good preacher be shocked when he finds himself at the gates of Hell this morning! Man, I would love to post that video on YouTube. I must go now and mourn, as I can hardly contain my sorrow.”
Poor, pitiful Wayne. More proof that nobody hates like the Left in this country.
Some homosexual activists in San Francisco even held a public celebration of Falwell’s death — a spectacle that more savvy “gay” leaders warned would backfire.
The latter were right. As libertarian Bill Barnwell writes in a piece titled, “Celebrating the Death of Jerry Falwell”: “I cannot recall a time I read about Falwell making statements where he laughed off or celebrated the death of a gay person.”
Besen, Aravosis and their ilk hate in the name of their twisted version of “tolerance,” but Falwell was no hater — as most Christians who disagree with the homosexual cause are not haters but good people simply trying to follow God’s unchanging moral law.
The real Falwell: hugging homosexuals
Back in 1999, under the threat of a large protest from from Mel White — founder of the “gay” group Soulforce and an evangelical writer who left his wife and family to pursue a sexual relationship with a man — Falwell agreed to host a joint media event with White at his famous Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Virginia. There was a contingent of mostly homosexual students and activists there to cheer on White, and a corresponding crowd of Liberty University students and pro-family advocates, including myself, backing Falwell’s position.
After the media event, the main participants and the “gay” Soulforce activists and kids went to unwind at a banquet room where pastries and drinks were served. And that is where the stereotype of Jerry Falwell as “homophobe” and “hatemonger” fizzled before everyone’s eyes, but especially those of the young “gay” activists.
In the corner of the room, Mel White conferred with his strategists — probably upset that the event did not turn out to be as useful a “gay” propaganda event as he had hoped. White nervously looked over at Falwell in the center of the room, but the contrast between the two men’s demeanors could not have been more pronounced. For there was the gregarious Falwell, wearing a huge smile and laughing, putting his big arms around the Soulforce kids as he posed for one souvenir “celebrity” photo after another.
This was not just a show for the crowd — the media weren’t even present — this was the real deal. Falwell was like a big teddy bear having a genuine good time playing host and showing Christian love to the confused Soulforce kids who, I’m sure, were experiencing a bit of cognitive dissonance.
I did not know Jerry Falwall personally, but from my experience that day at his church, I don’t think there was a hateful bone in his body. As Tony Perkins of Family Research Council said yesterday, Falwell was “a very, very loving, friendly, happy guy,” much loved by the students at the Liberty University, which he founded.
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If This Were an Anti-War Rally, You’d Know About it: 1.5 Million Italians Rally against Homosexual ‘Civil Unions’
May 15th, 2007
The following is excerpted from LifeSiteNews.com, a must “go-to” site for pro-family advocates and citizens no matter what country you live in. Needless to say, you would have heard a lot more about this huge Italian rally had it been an “anti-Bush” protest against the war, or maybe a pro-“gay marriage” protest. The people “get it” regarding marriage and family; the secular media are obsessed with political correctness. One wonders how the political/cultural equation over homosexuality would be different if the media’s coverage were anything close to being fair rather than overwhelmingly pro-“gay”-activist as it is in most of the West today.— Peter LaBarbera
By Gudrun Schultz, LifeSiteNews.com
ROME, Italy, May 14, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Italians from across the country poured into Rome May 12 to join in a demonstration against a law that would give legal recognition to homosexual couples–reports showed up to 1.7 million people overflowed the St. John Lateran piazza. Organizers initially expected to draw about 100,000.
The proposed legislation would give homosexual couples–and unmarried heterosexual couples–similar rights to those of married couples, stopping just short of legalizing homosexual marriage.
“Living together is not family,” protester Anna Manara told the Associated Press.
“A commitment such as marriage cements the bond, while other models make it easier to be together and therefore end up making it less valuable.”
While the pro-family demonstration was backed by the Vatican and Italy’s Catholic bishops, it was organized by lay people independently of the Church. The “mind-blowing” success of the event is an outstanding example of the power held by ordinary citizens when sufficiently mobilized in support of traditional values, said Fr. John Zuhlsdorf, a priest in Rome who is the moderator of the Catholic Online Forum (see blogsite: http://wdtprs.com/blog/2007/05/winners-and-losers).
“The importance of this event is not merely that when left to their own devices the Italian people will support traditional values in great numbers, giving the lie to the script presented by the intellectuals in the press. It also means in concrete terms that the traditional values laity can organize and achieve results.”
“The success of “Family Day” also highlights a now deeply entrenched trend not only in Italy, but in the West: the marginalization of the Church from the public square,” Fr. Zuhlsdorf said. “Nearly everywhere the Church’s is being denied its right to speak freely. Committed Catholic and other religious politicians and public figures are pressured never to make reference to their religious convictions. The constant mantra is that religion should be a purely private matter than has no influence on public policy. Be religious, fine. But you may never act outwardly on your interior opinions.”
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