Dan Cathy, President of Chick-fil-A, must be praising Jesus for the affirmation and free publicity that he received from Fox News. It was a win-win for Jesus' very own network in that it was able to burnish its creds with social conservatives by accusing those who oppose homophobia of being intolerant and opposed to freedom of speech. But Fox's concern for tolerance and First Amendment rights seems to be very selective. In the past few years, conservative Christians have engaged in the same type of opposition that Fox talkers claims is an attempt to hurt the business of Chick-fil-A. The Christian right's ongoing boycott of JC Penney, for their hiring of openly gay Ellen DeGeneres as their spokesperson, has been ignored by Fox with the exception of Bill O'Reilly who defended JC Penny to boycott supporter Sandy Rios. Fox didn't seem to have the same concern for businesses targeted by Christians. I guess not all boycotts are created equal!
Here's a list of business that were targeted by proponents of "family values" who, apparently, don't believe in the free speech of the business owners.
In 2008, the homophobic hate group, the American Family Association, promoted a boycott of McDonald's after the company's vice-president of communications joined the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce. This was seen as detrimental to the family and the "sanctity of marriage" by the AFA. The boycott ended when McDonald's caved. They disassociated themselves from the gay group and promised to remain neutral in the culture war. Here's the irony, the AFA said it wasn't because McDonald's discriminated but because McDonald's "attacking the moral foundations" of the country and trying to redefine marriage. Unlike Dan Cathy, the president of McDonald's made no statement about marriage and the group that McDonald's was assisting was a group dedicated to expanding LGBT economic opportunities. There was no outrage, from Fox, about free speech and and a threat to hurt America's favorite hamburger clown.
In 2011, Lowe's gave in to a far right Florida Christian group that was upset that Lowe's was advertising on a reality show that didn't portray America Muslims as radicals.
This year, the National Organization for Marriage, which lobbies in tandem with evangelical churches and the Catholic bishops against gay marriage, called for a boycott of Starbucks for its support of same sex marriage. No hissy fits from Fox on that one. No calls, from Mike Huckabee, for folks to drink more Starbucks.
And while Fox was silent on attempts by good Christians to put pressure on businesses with whom they disagreed, Fox & Friends got pro-active on behalf of the aggreived Christians. They provided a national media platform for a right wing minister's website that identified all those satanic businesses that don't say Merry Christmas. While it wasn't a boycott, the hate group, The American Family Association did call for one, last December against stores that don't pay sufficient attention to Christmas. No outrage from Fox about how this boycott could hurt the targeted businesses. And speaking of the patented Fox News "war on Christmas" meme, isn't that really all about harassing businesses that don't provide the requisite respect for saying "Merry Christmas" and as such, isn't that a free speech infringement?
So it appears that Fox has not lived up to its own standards for supporting the free speech of businesses that hold unpopular opinions for certain groups. While those who support gay rights were accused of trying to "hurt" Chick-fil-A, Fox doesn't seem to have the same concern about businesses targeted by Christians. I don't see Mike Huckabee and the other folks at Fox organizing a JC Penney appreciation day.
Got hypocrisy?
Paragraph 4 should read: Oh yeah, while some might not have taken IT as a serious boycott…
In the wake of this Chick-fil-a matter, I keep hearing conservatives say that they aren’t intolerant like those gay supporters who are boycotting Chick-fil-a. They claim that they are more open to people voicing their opinions than liberals are – that THEY respect free speech and the 1st ammendment more than liberals. Bwaaah! Uh, yeah, it’s amazingly dishonest how the talking heads on FOX “news” and right-wing talk radio just can’t seem to recall instances of when conservatives have called for boycotts.* Their selective amnesia must be such a comfort to them at troubling times like these. Pffft.
Speaking of BOR and boycotts, last week he once AGAIN denied that he called for the folks to stop buying the products of those he disagrees with.** He won’t admit that he’s basically done what some supporters of the gay community are doing to Chick-fil-a. He claimed that he was only talking about how he himself wouldn’t buy any Pepsi products. It looks like BOR thinks it doesn’t count if he didn’t actually say the words, “I’m calling for a boycott”. Apparently, in BOR’s bizarro world of denial, his stating, “I’m calling for all Americans to say, Hey, Pepsi, I’m not drinking your stuff. You want to hang around with Ludacris, you do that, I’m not hanging around with you” doesn’t count as a call for a product boycott. Um, BOR, your call went well beyond just your own behavior but, then, I think you know that and would just rather lie to the folks (who are probably too lazy to fact-check him).
Oh yeah, while some might not have taken off as a serious boycott, let’s not forget BOR’s hysterical attempt to get OLBERMANN taken off the air simply because BOR didn’t like what OLBERMANN had to say about him. LOL!
In addition to what Priscilla mentioned, there’s been conservative calls to boycott Ben & Jerry’s for their support of gay marriage and the Occupy Wall Street protesters. 1MM has an active boycott going on against Kraft Foods because of their gay-lovin’ rainbow Oreo and numerous other companies/TV networks because of ads, shows, policies, etc. that they deem anti-traditional family and/or pro-gay.
I guess it just slipped the conservative talkers’ minds that, in 1996, the American Family Association*** started a boycott against Disney because they “support the gay agenda” by giving health benefits to samesex partners of their employees and because they have a gay pride day at their theme parks. The Southern Baptist Convention and Focus on the Family joined in on the Disney boycott.
And, wtf, conservatives even boycotted Girl Scout cookies this year because of ties to Planned Parenthood and that a Colorado Girl Scout troop allows transgender children to join. There’s no doubt more conservative-led boycotts but these are just the ones I could think of off the top of my head.
After all of the right’s outcry over the Chick-fil-a boycott, it will be interesting to see if a “Boycott Amazon” movement starts since the owner just donated money to support gay rights. If they did, it would sure make the right look like big old hypocrites now, wouldn’t it? LOL! The Dixie Chicks must be shaking their heads.
- At least BOR did remember the 1MM boycott against Penneys for their hiring of Ellen. Right-wing radio talker, Leslie Gold (sitting in for the lame-ass John Gibson), was saying that the right-wing didn’t do this boycott stuff – that’s it’s something the left does. She was smug in her declaration until a caller reminded her about the boycott directed at Penneys because of Ellen. It was funny listening to her scrambling to recover and, in order for her not to sound like a hypocrite, she was forced to say that the boycott against Penneys wasn’t the right thing to do. LOL!
- BOR does admit that he called for a boycott against France.
- “White notes that â[Chick-fil-a] provided free meals for the police force in Aurora, Coloradoâ, what he fails to state is that Chick-fil-a also supports the American Family Associate (AFA). This is the same AFA that blamed the Aurora shooting on homosexuals and gay marriage.”
http://community.feministing.com/2012/07/31/to-eat-more-chicken-or-not-to-eat-more-chicken-is-that-really-the-question/
Protip: If I post it, bring a bucket.
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof (as long as that religion is God’s own Christian religion); or abridging the freedom of speech (provided the speech is acceptable to the Christian majority), or of the press* (provided the press is acceptable to the Christian majority); or the right of the people peaceably to assemble* (provided the people are God-fearing Christians and do not hold views that would offend God’s own people), and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances (although as long as the Government maintains its Christian perspective, no one should ever have a reason to feel aggrieved).”
And all references to “Christian” were amended (by voice vote) to “Judeo-Christian” sometime in the 1980s. Although many Jews believed this to be a positive thing that would end their persecution by American conservatives, it was merely a ruse designed to ensure the Jewish role in the forthcoming endtimes.
