Megyn Kelly to Feature Hate Group that Dubbed Her a ‘Dragon Lady’
Well, this should be interesting. Fox News’ Megyn Kelly is set to feature an organization on her show tonight that has described her as “resentful,” “angry,” “hostile” and “bitter.” What’s more, this group has dismissed her as a “harridan,” “feminist on steroids” and “dragon lady” who is driven by “angry feminist energy” and opposes the “Biblical view of roles in the home.” That seems like more than enough to get banned from a show for life, but what do I know.
It could be that Kelly’s producers have failed to do their homework on the group, the American Family Association (AFA), whose spokesman savaged Kelly after she criticized sexist comments by Erick Erickson. Here are the remarks from May by Bryan Fischer, AFA’s chief spokesman and head of public policy (courtesy of our friends at Right Wing Watch):
Kelly plans to feature AFA tonight because of a flawed report by her colleague Todd Starnes about AFA’s designation as a hate group – which it is. Starnes is a professional alarmist who routinely runs half-baked stories about Christians being under attack. His reporting is factually challenged, to say the least, and he’s prone to wild rhetoric, such as when he said “South Park” should be investigated by the government or that America under Obama is becoming like Germany in the 1930s. By the way, Starnes spoke last week at the AFA-sponsored Values Voter Summit but failed to disclose that in his report on AFA (you don’t have to when you only play a reporter on TV).
Starnes’ report, published yesterday on the Fox News website, expressed shock and horror that a “well-respected Christian ministry” like AFA would be depicted as a hate group – alongside the Nation of Islam, Westboro Baptist Church and Nation of Islam – during a briefing at Camp Shelby in Mississippi. While I can’t comment on the briefing itself (not without seeing a recording of what was said or reading the materials that were handed out), the thrust of Starnes’ article is fundamentally inaccurate.
AFA isn’t a “well-respected Christian ministry.” It’s a far-right broadcaster and political group known for outrageous and bigoted statements. Its founder, Don Wildmon, has railed against Jewish influence in the media for decades. More recently, he’s passed the torch to Fischer.
Fischer says, among other things, that: gays are to blame for the Holocaust; women have no place in the military or political leadership; homosexuality should be outlawed; gays are “ten times” more likely to molest children (when there’s no difference between straight and gay men); black people rut like rabbits; HIV was invented as the cause of AIDS to get research money; Muslims have no First Amendment rights; and Hispanics come to “plunder” the United States.
Fischer and his employer are obsessed with demonizing gays and lesbians. They’ve earned their designation as an anti-gay hate group, and it’s about time they own up to it.
