Blog ››› ››› LUKE BRINKER
After assuring a GLAAD official that she would challenge an anti-gay hate group leader on his history of extreme rhetoric, Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly welcomed Family Research Council president Tony Perkins to defend a Duck Dynasty star, never mentioning his nor FRC's anti-gay extremism and hate group designation.
Phil Robertson of A&E's popular Duck Dynasty show, made national headlines this week after calling homosexuality illogical and comparing it to bestiality during an interview with GQ magazine. Citing his remarks, on December 18 A&E announced it would be placing Robertson on indefinite hiatus.
During the following evening's edition of The Kelly File, Kelly invited on GLAAD's Jeremy Hooper followed by Family Research Council (FRC) president Tony Perkins to discuss Robertson's anti-gay comments.
Hooper challenged Kelly to hold Perkins accountable for his anti-gay record and vile rhetoric, to which Kelly promised, "What specifically? Because I'll ask him."
But Kelly never asked Perkins to explain his extreme stances against the gay community, nor did she acknowledge that the FRC is a designated hate group. Instead she merely identified FRC as "a group whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and culture from a Christian world view"--a description that continues Fox's trend of referring to anti-gay extremism as Christianity. Perkins went on to defend Robertson as upholding "biblical morality" and attack homosexuality as "sexual immorality."
It's no surprise that Perkins wasn't bothered by Robertson's comments. Perkins himself is notorious for spewing some of the most hateful anti-LGBT commentary in modern conservative politics. Perkins has called gay people "pawns" of the "enemy," said that gays will experience "eternal damnation," praised a Ugandan bill that would impose the death penalty for homosexuality, and declared that members of Congress who voted to repeal Don't Ask Don't Tell had the "blood of young Marines" on their hands. His organization has been labeled a "hate group" for routinely peddling the myth that gay men are more likely to be pedophiles than straight men. In addition to regularly spouting anti-LGBT rhetoric, Perkins has also been linked to white supremacist groups in his native Louisiana.
Perkins' support for Robertson's vicious remarks was a given, considering his own extensive history of anti-gay hate. What's unclear is why Kelly refused to confront an extremist "lunatic" who's never met an anti-gay smear he wasn't willing to defend.
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