Fox News Channel is a right-wing propaganda machine masquerading as a news network. That hasn’t been a secret to us for awhile. The latest evidence came on yesterday morning’s edition of “Fox & Friends.” The gang on the curvy couch kicked and screamed over amendments to Indiana’s religious freedom law that were intended to prevent it from being used as a way for businesses to legally refuse service to LGBT customers. In the process, they admitted that the law’s original intent was indeed to give legal sanction to discrimination.
On Thursday, after a firestorm of criticism from both inside and outside Indiana–including from the state’s biggest newspaper, The Indianapolis Star–Governor Mike Pence signed an amendment to the Religious Freedom Restoration Act that bars businesses from using this law to turn away gay and lesbian customers. “Fox & Friends” hosts Brian Kilmeade, Elisabeth Hasselbeck, and Tucker Carlson were not happy with those changes at all. Media Matters got a clip.
Carlson was particularly displeased, saying that with these tweaks, “the law has been completely gutted.” The law was originally intended to shield businesses and individuals from being sued if they used their religious beliefs to justify denying service to someone. Carlson wanted to know–if the amended version partially closes off this defense, “what’s the point of the law in the first place?” Kilmeade didn’t like it either, saying that if you’re a Christian who doesn’t want to serve gays because of your religion, “you are now in violation of that law.”
I listened to this clip with my eyes closed–and I didn’t know better, I could have sworn I was hearing a clip from a religious right talk show. After all, this was almost identical to the talking points used by religious right leaders who insisted the law was intended to allow discrimination. What makes it even more breathtaking is that this isn’t coming from the likes of Sean Hannity or Bill O’Reilly. This is coming from the news half of Fox News.
Believe it or not, just three days earlier on the very same program, Steve Doocy (for whom Carlson was sitting in yesterday) stated exactly the opposite. Doocy said that the law was not intended to discriminate and had yet to be used as a defense by business owners who didn’t want to serve gays. It was part of a massive public relations campaign Fox News launched to defend the law after Pence made a fool of himself on last Sunday’s edition of “This Week.” The most benign interpretation is that now that Pence realizes he stepped in it, Fox News is throwing him overboard.
For all the teeth-gnashing from Carlson, Kilmeade and other right-wingers, the Indiana fix was only a cosmetic move. According to several Indiana legal experts, all the amendment Pence signed does is prevent RFRA from being used to undercut anti-discrimination ordinances that are already in place in 11 Indiana cities and counties–including such places as Indianapolis, South Bend, Bloomington, West Lafayette, Fort Wayne, and Evansville. However, since there is no statewide civil rights protection for LGBT residents, discrimination against gays isn’t explicitly prohibited in cities and counties where there isn’t an anti-discrimination ordinance.
It may be awhile before such protections do come. Indiana is easily the reddest state in the Rust Belt, and some parts of the state are as fundified as the most fundified areas of the South–including my state of North Carolina. Still, if even these meager changes caused heads to explode on the curvy couch, it’s a pretty tacit admission that the religious right wants to relegate gays to second-class citizens.
