Marco Rubio’s “hate speech” comments during his CBN interview caught the attention of FOX News’ resident golem, Sean Hannity. The next evening, during?Hannity, the contents of the interview became a topic of FOX-style discussion (see: verbal jousting), as Hannity and two Fundamentalist Christians decided to gang up on American Atheists President David Silverman. In typical FOX News commentary, staying on topic quickly eroded into a propagandist diatribe in which they verbally assaulted Silverman.
Don’t take my word for it. Watch this tragedy of journalism for yourself.
Hannity’s allies in this battle of ideological idiocy include Dallas, Texas megachurch pastor Robert Jeffress, a man whose congregational message is anti-gay, anti-Catholic, anti-Islam, and anti-Mormon, and evangelical wunderkind Samuel Rodriguez, who serves on the Board of Directors for the National Association of Evangelicals.
If David Silverman was confident that rational discourse could have taken place, he didn’t stand a snowball’s chance in hell. You would think repeated visits to FOX News would have made Silverman painfully aware of that.
In this writer’s opinion, segments like what transpired on Hannity are at least part of the reason the right-leaning evangelical American populous believes all of the batshit crazy?“war on religion” rhetoric.
Consider what took place in panel. Hannity asked Silverman a convoluted, nonsensical question —
“Is it to the point where you, as an atheist, uh… would want… if somebody is practicing their faith and they don’t want to, as part of their faith, marry gays and lesbians? Would you be in favor or what?”
— to which Silverman, who somehow understood, started to give a calm, rational answer.
“There’s nobody out there whose saying that Christian preachers should be forced to marry people against their will.”
But, as is the business model for the network that makes millions off scaring evangelicals and old people, all hell broke loose. Hannity begins to interrupt Silverman, then gives the floor to Jeffress, and suddenly, the panel erupts in absurd rhetoric, while Silverman vainly insists bigotry is the real issue.
Jeffress incorrectly frames U.S. Solicitor General Donald Verilli’s Supreme Court testimony and insinuates that pastors will be prosecuted by the federal government if they refuse to marry same-sex couples. Rodriguez, intense through the entire discussion,?then chimes in with chart-topping fear-mongering, like:
“The moment in America, the moment in our nation, biblical truth stands defined as hate speech, America as we know it will cease to exist.”
And:
“There are two types of persecutions against Christians. Globally, an explicit one via ISIS. In America, and in other European nations, and in other nations around the world, legislative persecution. And the latter always precedes the former.”
And:
“I agree with my atheist friend. It is about bigotry, but bigotry against Christians.”
Yes, the Fox News panel is correct, marriage equality is about persecuting Christians. It’s also about ISIS, climate change, taxing the wealthy, and Benghazi.
Programming like what transpired on?Hannity?is the reason why FOX News is so popular. It’s gritty, arrogant, combative, and dramatic. FOX News is almost akin to watching?Duck Dynasty and about as informative. FOX News’ playbook is an embodiment of everything wrong with the media today, especially in the sense that rational, informative conversation takes a backseat to inflammatory rhetoric, misinformation, and Roger Ailes’ rampant misogyny.
Unfortunately for us all, FOX News, the journalistic equivalent of MTV, is America’s most-watched cable news network.
