Tribune, it’s time to get serious…
Try some fact checking before publishing.
I don’t care what the Greeley Tribune says on its editorial page. The editorial board has a First Amendment right to voice its opinion. Most of the time I disagree with them, but really who cares? Well, I care when the editorial gets its facts so very wrong.
Today (Sunday, Feb 22) the Tribune published an editorial taking Weld County DA Ken Buck and my husband Weld County Sheriff John Cooke (both Repubicans) to task for T-shirts that brag about being sued by the ACLU. The front of the T-shirt reads “The ACLU Sued My District Attorney and Sheriff,” and the back: “Weld County Standing Up For Americans.”
According to the editorial, the Tribune is “ just a tad concerned that the Weld District Attorney’s Office is being a little too flippant — and perhaps a little too political — in its battle against the American Civil Liberties Union related to prosecution of identity theft suspects.” That’s fine. As I’ve said the Tribune has a right to its opinion.
The problem is when the Tribune tried to defend the ACLU. The editorial attempted to make the point that the ACLU defends the rights of all Americans — conservative and liberal. It mentioned the ACLU’s defense of Rush Limbaugh’s privacy concerning his medical records. The editorial should have stopped there but unfortunately it went on to insult conservative Christians by claiming that anti-gay bigot Fred Phelps is “the nation’s worst example of the sins of the Christian right.” The editorial said:
Here’s another interesting example: The ACLU once defended Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas, which is often cited as the nation’s worst example of the sins of the Christian right. Westboro travels across the country picketing in front of funerals for soldiers killed in the Iraq war, using the funerals as a soapbox to express its hatred of gays and lesbians. Church members came to Greeley in 2005 for the funeral of Tyler MacKenzie, a Greeley native who had died in the Iraq war.
A little fact checking would have shown that Phelps is not politically allied with the Christian right that predominantly votes Republican. According to a well cited Wikipedia entry, Phelps has publicly criticized two conservative Christian icons Ronald Reagan and Rev. Jerry Falwell. Furthermore, Phelps supported Al Gore in the 1988 Democrat primary for president and served as one of his delegates to the 1988 Democrat National Convention. Gore later fell out of favor with Phelps because of the Vice President’s support for gay rights.
In addition Phelps ran for the Democrat nomination for governor in Kansas in 1990, 1994 and 1998, losing all three times. He also ran for the Democrat nomination for US senate in 1992. He lost that as well.
My guess is that the Tribune assumed that Phelps was some sort of right wing nut job because of his anti-gay agenda, which underscores the Tribune’s own bias. As a conservative Christian who knows plenty of other conservative Christians, I can’t think of any that advocates in favor of Phelps’ position. The Tribune’s assumption was lazy, wrong and insulting. I’m going to assume that I and other conservative Christians won’t be seeing an apology any time soon, but I’m hoping my assumption is wrong.
To be honest, I’m not really all that offended, but once in a while it’s fun to take a page from the left’s handbook and feign being offended. However, it takes way too much energy to keep up the anger pretense.
Big thanks 1310 KFKA News Director Troy Coverdale for his research into this issue.
February 23rd, 2009 at 5:48 am
“Gore later fell out of favor with Phelps because of the Vice President’s support for gay rights.”
Amy, your argument begins to lose credibility with this point. So 10-20 years ago Fred was a Democrat? So what. Isn’t it obvious, Amy and Troy, that now he is a conservative? It’s certainly good to hear conservative Christians denounce Fred and his church. They have been silent about Fred far too long. It’s people like Fred who give conservatives a bad name, and more mainstream conservatives need to speak up about this nut job, as you describe him. I can understand trying to distance yourselves from Fred, but I don’t think the Trib is too far off with its main point — the ACLU has defended lots of conservative causes over the years (I notice you don’t have any defense for the Rush Limbaugh point) and if you dismiss the Fred Phelps case, what do you say about all the others in which the ACLU has defended conservatives in the name of defending the Constitution? And what do you say about the Trib’s overall point, that Cooke and Buck are being flippant and political with a serious Constitutional issue? If this Fred Phelps point is the only defense you have, apparently the Trib is right on point about the editorial overall.
February 23rd, 2009 at 6:57 am
George –
What makes it “obvious” that Phelps is a conservative? I see nothing in his past or present that is conservative. He is a crazy, lunatic.
As for your other point about the editorial overall, I’m not arguing against it. The Tribune has a right to its opinion and you have a right to agree but labeling Fred Phelps as a right wing Christian conservative to bolster an argument that the ACLU defends conservatives is inaccurate. Rush Limbaugh does not a pattern make. Show me a list of all the other conservatives the ACLU has defended? If the ACLU is so concerned with privacy rights of all citizens, then why didn’t it rush to the defense of Joe the Plumber or Americans whose identity has been stolen? Why not a class action lawsuit against the federal government for enabling identity theft of Americans?
February 23rd, 2009 at 8:30 am
George, allow me for a moment to answer your questions regarding Phelps’ conservatism. I wouldn’t normally weigh in on this, save for the fact that I have watched from close up and now afar his family’s actions.
Fred and his family began picketing a local park and gay-run businesses in Topeka while before I was a teen, and I grew up in northeast Kansas. The Matthew Sheppard murder propelled Phelps into his national activism.
Phelps has been and likely will always be a registered Democrat. His beliefs on issues such as welfare and race relations are very much to the left. Part of his leanings come from wanting to distance himself as far as possible from well-known conservative Christians like Jerry Falwell. Most recently, one of his grandchildren ran as a Dem for the Topeka City Council in an attempt to remove the city’s first openly gay member of that board.
Yesterday’s editorial reference to Phelps as a conservative Christian lit me up immediately. The Trib is welcome to its opinion on the ACLU v. Buck case, but to claim that Phelps is conservative is way off base. At the very least, this was sloppy fact-checking. I want the truth about this man and his full history to be obvious, not obscured behind political claims that have no basis in truth.
February 23rd, 2009 at 11:00 am
ACLU “an argument that the ACLU defends conservatives is inaccurate,” eh, Mrs. Cooke? Wrong. If you want to debate the characterization of whether or not Phelps is a conservative, fine. But as usual you veer off into fantasyland when you make a gratuitous false claim about the ACLU. Try a few seconds of research next time before making such a hilariously false statement:
ACLU defends libertarian, conservative economics professor: http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2005/Feb-05-Sat-2005/news/25808494.html
ACLU defends Sen. Larry Craig: http://www.aclu.org/pdfs/freespeech/craig_v_minnesota_acluamicus.pdf
ACLU sides with Jerry Falwell: http://www.aclu.org/religion/frb/16040prs20020417.html
ACLU joins with conservative groups in supporting “5-11″ campaign: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5-11_Campaign
Conservatives Dick Armey, Bob Barr join ACLU: http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2002-11-24-aclu-usat_x.htm
February 23rd, 2009 at 11:23 am
Ah Bill –
So nice to see that you spend so much time on my blog! Perhaps enough time spent reading and you will begin to see the light!
Good job of selective editing — proving you are a master of misinformation! It’s nice to see you can craft a reality when it fits your job description. So many of us are inconvenienced by the truth. Thank you for making my point about Fred Phelps as a bad example of the ACLU defending conservatives. I assume you will demand that the Tribune not insult Fred Phelps by labeling him a Christian conservative!
As to the other cases you provide, I appreciate the time you took to provide them.
Cheers!
Amy
February 24th, 2009 at 6:40 am
Bill, thanks for doing Amy’s research for her. I don’t quite get it; you provided everything she asked for, in probably about three minutes of Google searching, and she goes off on you? Amy, perhaps it is you and Troy who need to do a little fact-checking before spouting off. Is it possible Amy and Troy also do selective editing? Heaven forbid …
Kettle, I’d like to introduce you to black pot, and black pot, this is kettle …
February 24th, 2009 at 11:06 am
George –
You still ignore the point of my post. Phelps is not a conservative and it is wrong to label him so just to defend the ACLU.
You said it was obvious that he is a conservative. I asked you how. You have not provided any proof. Changing the subject doesn’t change the fact that you have no proof.
As for the ACLU, I can cite and example where a state chapter defended a gun owner — that does not make the ACLU a pro-Second Amendment organization.
Keep talking, I’m having fun and it drives up my web traffic!
March 3rd, 2009 at 9:21 am
George, I’m going to make it clear–I did no selective editing in regards to notes about Phelps. I DID selectively edit my profanity that I normally direct his way. Phelps is a Dem, has always been a Dem and will continue to be a Dem until he shuffles off this mortal coil.
My points here have nothing to do with my opinion of the ACLU, or the Trib’s editorial point regarding it versus Buck.
I’m just pointing out the truth, having grown up 45 minutes from Phelps’ home base of Topeka. Republicans and conservative Christians have been his targets for years before he began his anti-homosexual crusade. Anything conservative is anathema to him–its why he dropped out of Bob Jones University.