06/5/15

“Happy Pride Month” From the Media

By: Cliff Kincaid
Accuracy in Media

The coming out of Bruce as Caitlyn Jenner is happening as various sexual minorities are celebrating “Pride Month.” It used to be “Gay Pride Month,” but the number of oppressed sexual minorities seems to be growing at an amazing pace. Without a scorecard, it is hard to keep up.

Sooner or later, pedophilia will emerge as just another orientation.

One of the leading enforcers of political correctness in the media, the site known as BuzzFeed, is coming down hard on “misgendering” by other outlets. It is not permissible, according to this way of thinking, to refer to “Bruce Jenner” anymore, or to call him a male.

The BuzzFeed literary editor has published a quiz titled, “How Transphobic Are You?” That’s right: “transphobia” is the new catchword, designed to silence those of us who still believe in the scientific, biological and traditional definitions of the sexes.

Publications such as BuzzFeed and The Huffington Post, as well as the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association (NLGJA), represent the forces of cultural Marxism, designed to highlight and affirm what seems like an endless stream of sexual minorities objecting to their oppression by pro-traditional forces in society.

In a similar vein to what the NLGJA has directed in terms of acceptable coverage of transgenders, the ACLU has gotten into the business of telling the media how to report and what to think. The Daily Caller refers to it as the ACLU going “full fascist,” though it would be more accurate to label it as a Marxist way of thinking.

In any case, ACLU official Casey Strangio has declared, “Words matter, and erasing the identity of trans people by calling them by their birth names and birth-assigned sex is an act of hatred—one that is inextricable from the brutal violence that so many trans people, particularly trans women of color, encounter just for existing in the world.”

Strangio goes on, “There is no need to mention what her name used to be or what sex she was assigned at birth. And as writer and activist Janet Mock brilliantly explained to Piers Morgan, neither Janet nor Caitlyn were ‘born boys.’ They were born babies and they are women—brave and fabulous women.”

This is really beyond the pale. Babies are not born male or female anymore, just babies? What’s more, we are supposed to wait years or decades, in order to determine what they are, or at least what they claim to be.

“Caitlyn Jenner still has her penis” is the headline over a Richard Johnson story in the New York Post. That seems to make him still a man, at least in my book.

What’s more, Jenner still has male DNA. He can never eliminate that.

Nevertheless, “Caitlyn Jenner” is being honored with the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at The 2015 ESPYS on ABC on July 15.

At the same time, CNN has announced that some “activists” are objecting to the “misgendering” of Caitlyn Jenner when people in the media label “her” as a “him.” These activists “say that when news anchors and commentators purposefully use a male pronoun for Jenner, such as ‘he,’ they are misgendering her, thereby insulting her and the transgender community more broadly,” CNN reports.

CNN adds, “News outlets are generally striving to be sensitive. Many journalists immediately adopted ‘she,’ and ‘her’ in articles and discussions.”

Count me a member of the “insensitive” group of journalists and commentators. I still believe in the science and biology of DNA.

The propaganda barrage comes as President Barack Obama has officially designated June as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Month.

Interestingly, however, the Defense Department is highlighting “the achievements and sacrifices of LGB service members and LGBT civilians.” That’s because transgenders cannot yet officially join the combat services.

DoD News reports that Air Force General Counsel Gordon O. Tanner, a gay attorney, said he plans to do two things in celebrating LGBT Pride Month—“set new mentoring goals to mentor more rising young LGB leaders, and visit the gravesite of former Air Force Tech Sgt. Leonard Matlovich in the Congressional Cemetery on Capitol Hill.”

“Sergeant Matlovich was the first to fight the ban on gays serving in the military,” Tanner told DoD News. “His picture was on the cover of Time Magazine in 1975; NBC made a movie about his life.”

Matlovich died of AIDS in 1988.

The Washington Blade reports that Tanner is the first-ever presidential appointee confirmed by the Senate who’s not only openly gay and married to a same-sex spouse, but also a military veteran. He was confirmed by the Senate by voice vote last September without any dissent.

Much has happened in the intervening years, to the point where the Council for Global Equality recently marked the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia (IDAHOT). I am not sure what “biphobia” is.

The Council for Global Equality was a recent co-sponsor of the “Conference to Advance the Human Rights of and Promote Inclusive Development for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Intersex (LGBTI) Persons.” The term “intersex” is apparently another new addition to the list of politically correct gender identity categories. I’m not really sure what it means, either.

What’s important, of course, is that in addition to the Obama administration, a lot of big liberal money is backing this international campaign for new “rights” for various sexual minorities.

The Council reports that it has been “generously funded” primarily by the Arcus Foundation, Sigrid Rausing Trust, the Open Society Foundations, Ford Foundation, and an anonymous source.

The executive director of the Arcus Foundation is Kevin Jennings, the former Assistant Deputy Secretary of Education in the Obama administration, while the Open Society Foundations are funded by billionaire hedge fund operator George Soros.

You may recall that Jennings’ activism was “inspired” by Harry Hay, the Communist Party member and “Radical Faerie,” who believed in the power of the occult. Hay was also a supporter of the North American Man-Boy Love Association (NAMBLA).

Now that Robert Gates, the former defense secretary and current president of Boy Scouts of America, has called for the organization to open itself to homosexual Scoutmasters, can the acceptance of pedophilia as just another sexual orientation be far behind?

NAMBLA operates in the open, with a website devoted to “the benevolent aspects of man/boy love” and advocating “sexual liberation and youth liberation.”

In the past, the ACLU has defended NAMBLA, saying it goes to bat for “unpopular organizations” and believes in “robust freedom of speech for everyone.”

On the other hand, if you call Bruce/Caitlyn Jenner a he, which is how he was born, you are denounced by the ACLU as being guilty of hatred and possibly provoking violence. That’s enough to intimidate most of the media.

This is how a society spirals out of control, with the media afraid or unwilling to tell the truth any longer. Young people are clearly being singled out as the next victims, with sexual abuse being defined as love.

You might think, based on the media’s preoccupation with the terrible sexual abuse that has been documented in the Duggar family, that the media would oppose the sexual exploitation of children. But this scandal seems to be a convenient way for many in the media to make fun of the Duggars’ professed Christianity.

Our media have no principled objection to making children into sex objects. Otherwise, they would campaign to close down NAMBLA and expose the evil campaign to make sexual exploitation into just another sexual orientation.

The next phase of this sick campaign will be to present kids claiming to benefit from having sex with adults. If you object, you will be labeled as insensitive.

06/3/15

DNA Denier Bruce/Caitlyn Jenner is a Big Media Star

By: Cliff Kincaid
Accuracy in Media

As the next phase in the Kardashian campaign for big bucks from reality TV gets underway, with former Olympic athlete Bruce Jenner declaring himself “Caitlyn,” the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association (NLGJA) went into action. The gay lobby quickly issued an “Open Letter to Our Colleagues” on how to “accurately” cover “Caitlyn Jenner.”

The verdict from this special interest lobby is that Bruce Jenner can call himself anything he/she wants to, and the media are obligated to go along with whatever or whoever he says he wants to be.

There is no evidence that Jenner has changed his male DNA or even that his name has been legally changed to Caitlyn. Nevertheless, the NLGJA declared that “Now that Jenner has publicly announced a gender identity, the best practice is to refer to Caitlyn Jenner by the name she announced.”

On this basis, journalists are supposed to disregard reality and accept whatever various sexual minorities or psychologically disturbed individuals claim to be the case.

This flies in the face of normal rules of objective reporting, which require that things be covered in the way they are, not as people wish them to be.

By this standard, Jenner can claim to be a man one day and a woman the next, and the media are supposed to adjust their coverage accordingly.

The major problem with the NLGJA’s instruction to the media is that “Caitlyn Jenner” is still a “he.” There is no evidence that “he” has actually become a “she” in any physical or biological sense.

What’s more, there’s no way a “he” can actually become a “she,” since DNA determines whether a person is male or female. One is born a male or female and this information is recorded on a birth certificate.

“Today,” the NLGJA said in its Monday “open letter” to the media, “the person we have previously known as Bruce Jenner revealed preferred pronouns, and her new name, Caitlyn.”

So that’s it. A man wants to be called a woman and the media are supposed to fall in line.

The NLGJA informs the media that “Transgender people should be referred to by the name and gender with which they identify. Some transgender people choose to take hormones or have medical procedures, but that’s not what determines the right name and pronoun to use. It is stating one’s gender identity that is what should guide word use. Jenner should be referred to as she and her.”

How does growing one’s hair long and wearing a dress make Bruce Jenner into a woman? Some might say it makes him appear to be crazy, a pervert or a lunatic.

The issue of Vanity Fair featuring the photos of “Caitlyn Jenner” has not yet hit newsstands, but the photos are appearing everywhere in the media, including on the Fox News Channel, where Megyn Kelly declared “Caitlyn Jenner” to be a “courageous” figure.

The rest of the media are also falling into line. “She has finally made her debut,” reported CNN. “Caitlyn Jenner, Formerly Bruce, Introduces Herself in Vanity Fair” was the headline in The New York Times. The paper now calls her “Ms. Jenner.”

But where is the evidence that this is anything but a hoax?

“To get special early access to the revealing story and stunning photographs now, before it hits newsstands on June 9, subscribe to Vanity Fair’s digital edition on the iPhone or iPad,” the magazine’s website declares.

Hence, Vanity Fair is financially exploiting the “transgender” figure in the same way that he/she is doing, in preparation for a new reality show about Jenner declaring himself as somehow becoming a new gender.

Jenner has been a character in the E! reality series “Keeping Up with the Kardashians,” along with wife Kris Jenner. A new show on the channel will feature Jenner in the “transition” to being a woman.

All the advance publicity guarantees curiosity seekers tuning in to see how strange the show is going to get. It means big bucks from advertisers.

The photos in Vanity Fair that have been released publicly seem to be heavily doctored or airbrushed, in order to make Jenner appear to be more feminine than he really is.

Rather than be skeptical of this publicity stunt, the major media are following the instructions of the NLGJA and taking the whole thing seriously.

The NLGJA, a group funded by all of the major media organizations, works to manipulate news coverage on behalf of various self-declared sexual minorities, the latest being so-called transgendered individuals. “We are not an advocacy group,” NLGJA claims. “Our mission is to ensure fair and accurate coverage of issues that affect the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) communities.”

This is nonsense, of course. The NLGJA is a major component of the gay rights lobby.

As AIM reported earlier this year, the NLGJA held a New York City fundraiser featuring day-time talk show host Meredith Vieira, who described pushing acceptance of so-called transgenders as the next phase of the gay rights campaign. “The transgender community continues to make strides to gain greater acceptance with more portrayals in the mainstream media,” she said.

Vieira referred to Jenner’s April 24 interview with Diane Sawyer as an important phase in the campaign.

The Vanity Fair photos and a video are the next phase.

“In this exclusive video filmed at our Annie Leibovitz photo shoot,” Vanity Fair proclaims, “the Olympic champion discusses her inspirations and how she hopes to encourage others.”

But rather than “encourage” others, the effect of the coverage could very likely be to confuse young people into thinking that one’s gender can, or should, be changed.

While we expect the liberal media to trumpet this new progression in the never-ending campaign for new rights for sexual minorities, it is troubling that conservative media personalities have jumped on the bandwagon, contributing to the idea that one’s sexual identity can be decided on a whim, from day to day, depending on the circumstances or how someone feels.

During a period when America desperately needs strong families grounded in the traditional male-female relationship, this message of sexual confusion can have an extremely damaging impact on young people who may be going through challenging periods in their lives.

But for reporters to even consider this possibility runs the risk of being declared “homophobic,” or somehow biased against sexual minorities.

It is way past time for the major media, including such outlets as CNN, NBC and Fox News, to stop pouring money into the NLGJA. This funding represents a major conflict of interest for the media. Why not start covering this issue of “sexual identity” in a manner that begins to approach objectivity by letting the viewers and readers know that there is at least a controversy over people choosing their sexual identities and disregarding science?

The truth is that the media have already bought into this hoax and are too far gone, and the United States may be on the inevitable decline as well.

The “courage” we really need is that which stands up to this decline and affirms the traditional relationships based on America’s founding values. But it appears it is just too much to ask for this kind of courage from the media.

America’s families will pay the price. The nation may not survive, as it becomes a laughingstock before self-destructing or becoming easy pickings for a determined foreign adversary.