Bryan Fischer, the chief policy analyst for the American Family Association, has said more than his fair share of unhinged stuff. But he may have outdone himself on Thursday’s edition of “Focal Point” on American Family Radio. He thinks that Shepard Smith condemned the rampant fear-mongering about Ebola because–wait for it–he’s not only liberal, but a gay liberal to boot.
Fischer said that while everyone thinks Smith is a conservative given his high-profile status on Fox News Channel, he’s actually a “card-carrying liberal.” Fischer also claimed that Smith has been outed as gay, and is “down with the entire homosexual agenda.” Fischer claims that as a result, Smith “skews pretty hard to the left,” and is an unabashed supporter of President Obama. He thinks that Smith’s rant on Wednesday was simply knee-jerk support for a president who “supports the homosexual agenda.”
There is so much wrong with this that I don’t even know where to start. Apparently Fischer was relying on a story Gawker ran in 2013 that claimed Smith was removed as anchor of “Fox Report” after Fox News executives refused to allow him to come out as gay. But that report is laden with inaccuracies. Most seriously, the story claims that Smith made the request at a Fourth of July picnic at which Smith brought his boyfriend, while contract negotiations were underway. But that is belied by the fact that Smith signed his new contract in June 2013. It also claimed that executive vice president Bill Shine was behind the decision to take Smith off primetime. However, Shine is not Smith’s immediate supervisor; he reports to Jay Wallace, the network’s senior vice president of news.
But even without this to consider, in what world is calling for basic decency and?calm a sign that you’re a librul? Apparently in a world where you can still keep your job after saying that Native Americans deserved to be wiped out for not accepting Jesus, that welfare goes to blacks who “rut like rabbits,” and that Muslim immigrants have to convert to Christianity if they want to be allowed into this country. While the AFA was able to edit out those offensive statements from Fischer’s blog posts, his outrageous smear of Smith has been preserved for all to see by People for the American Way. Then again, thanks in large part to Fischer and his religious right colleagues, a significant sector of our country has been led to believe that merely sitting and talking with those who think differently from you is verboten.
If there was any doubt that AFA is Christian in name only, this screed from Fischer eliminates it. Watch the video below.
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Darrell Lucus, also known as Christian Dem in NC at Daily Kos, is a radical-lefty Jesus-lover who has been blogging for change for a decade. Follow him on Twitter @DarrellLucus or connect with him on Facebook.
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