When a Muslim parent objected to a possible First Amendment violation involving a public school promotion of an Easter egg hunt, at a Christian church, Fox treated his complaint with derision. But a parent who thinks his First Amendment rights have been violated because his behavior at a school board meeting resulted in his arrest is being given hero status on Fox News. William Baer's case has become a cause célèbre in the dark netherworld of the public school hating right wing, so it's not surprising that Fox would give him a national platform from which to whine about his unfair treatment at the hands of a school system that permits high school students to read about, gasp, sex. Megyn Kelly was so outraged that she covered this on two shows. I suspect that if the parent had been Muslim and had objected to, uh, anything, the story would be treated quite differently...
Backstory - NH attorney William Baer was very, very upset that his ninth grade daughter had been assigned Jodi Picault's "Nineteen Minutes" because it included a graphic, violent sex scene. In past years, parents have been notified that this book would be included in the honors program; but this year, none was sent. According to a local paper, Baer, during Monday night's school board meeting, exceeded the two minute limit on comments, challenged the board to read the sex scene, and then interrupted a parent who spoke out in favor of the book. When a policeman asked him to leave, Baer approached him and asked if he was under arrest at which point he was cuffed and taken to the police station where he was charged with disorderly conduct. The school has apologized for not sending out the notice about the book which has been part of the curriculum since 2007. According to the NH Tea Party, support for Baer is "pouring in from coast to coast."
Tuesday night, Kelly immediately started spinning. She reported that when a father complained about what he felt was a "pornographic homework assignment, police decided the father went too far." She didn't mention that Baer was not in compliance with the rules of the meeting. She tossed to Trace Gallagher who spoke about the controversial sex scene and tantalized the audience by reading a section. He played video which showed some of Baer's comments, at the meeting, and Baer being arrested and complaining about his arm being "messed up." Gallagher then read a statement from the school about how they will revamp their policy about the book assignment. After Gallagher advised parents to read the sex scene, he said that he highly "doubted that you will read this to your children." Kelly said "that's incredible, a parent trying to raise his objections arrested for going over the two minute mark." Of course, she didn't mention his interruption of another speaker.
Last night, Kelly interviewed Baer. She started with video of Baer's daughter, after he was arrested, expressing her outrage about his arrest, to the school board meeting. Kelly informed us that Baier was arrested (Her voice got sharper and louder) for "speaking out against a book that he calls pornographic and trust us, it is very explicit." She immediately showed her sympathy for Baer who "was dragged out in handcuffs." She acknowledged that she had read the passage and felt it was appropriate for a 21 year old. (In Foxworld, teens shouldn't be exposed to dirty sex!) She asked him to explain his situation and he obliged her. He claimed that he was arrested because he exceeded the two limits, which Kelly felt was "ridiculous." No mention was made about his having interrupted, at some length, another parent. He spoke about how he wanted the board to read the text in question which, of course, wasn't part of the agenda. Kelly provided further validation: "It's unbelievable."
Baer noted that his daughter won't be reading the now optional book. He claimed that he only found out about the bad stuff when a visiting friend just "happened" to open at the bad page. (ahem) Kelly, who was obviously a clean teen, said that the page is "jawdropping" Baer whined about how the one page scene is "graphic" and "violent." He whined about being prosecuted and that his family "has been violated." Kelly said that Fox would follow his story "if, indeed they pursue these crazy charges."
So uh, if say, somebody from "Occupy" disrupted a public meeting and got arrested, do ya think that Megyn would be supporting them? But Baer told a right wing "education" group that "the nation's public education system is indoctrinating children with moral relativism and that politicians and educators running the public school system want to undermine the family unit and undermine traditional morality" - a message straight out of the Fox/right wing playbook. Obviously, for certain people, rules are made to be broken?
Check out the raw video of Baer mouthing off and let me know if Kelly was being "fair & balanced?"
6/2/18 update: the raw video of Baer is no longer available.
Methinks I’ll be using that one in future. Thanks.
“How strange.”
Ah shucks, Rose. Save your bile for a real reason. Civil posts such as yours are welcome even though we may not agree. Personally, if the rules of a meeting are that everybody and anybody has 2 minutes to speak, I can’t claim otherwise for myself. That attorney was out of bounds and – this is pure speculation on my part – I suspect that he was arrested for insulting the police officer after being told to tone it down. Cops simply don’t like to be ignored or insulted, not even by an attorney.
@aria: RWingers never actually read the books or see the movies before launching a crusade. The Pope finally decided to see Jesus Christ Superstart for himself and decided (for himself) that it was actually a very spiritual take on the story.
Rose, there’s no denying that the passage is controversial- I got a copy of the book to read it, in my edition, it’s on page 313. For those of you without the book, here’s the passage being read on The Young Turks:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGgJhaphAtg
Now, here’s the version conservatives are putting up:
http://theconservativetreehouse.com/2014/05/06/all-your-children-are-belong-to-us-dad-arrested-for-questioning-new-hampshire-school-board-about-sexually-explicit-book-page-313-included/
It’s not rough sex, it’s sexual assault. She tried to get him off of her a few times, he just kept going until she clawed at his back, which he took as “I got her warm, let’s go!”. And it’s actually something that’s relevant to the plot, because one of the major plot twists is that Josie knew Peter was going to shoot up the school, and used that as cover to kill Matt, believing Peter would be blamed. It’s even implied that she would have done her own shooting to get to Matt, had she not been handed prior knowledge of Peter’s.
Yeah, that’s a spoiler… But bite me. You’ll see it coming a mile away if you read the book, or if there’s ever a movie version. I thought there was, IMDB says it fell apart, there’s only fan trailers of leaked scenes on Youtube. Not important to my post, just saying this is a case where “SPOILERS!” is met with “Bite me.”
Kelly conveniently left out the context, as well as any line of questioning that would have implied Baer read the book beyond that passage, and would have therefore knew that.
Kelly also refused to disclose any particular reason this one certain outrage was important, beyond to paint Baer as a victim of those mean ol’ public schools. I posted examples of other outrages with children’s books and movies that got a pretty good following, where was Fox News on those ones?
Oh, and regarding the video? The officers present were going to merely escort him out. When he asked if he was under arrest, he was told no, and he said “Well, you’re going to have to arrest me.” He then dared the cops to arrest him. Baer wanted to be arrested, he flat provoked it. When you can comprehend that, we’ll talk about how he was whining about his censorship, while demanding it for Picoult’s book. Funny how that never came up, either.
Likewise, anyone who thinks violent video games get a pass needs to read up- Gears of War, Grand Theft Auto, The Last of Us, Beyond Two Souls, Saints Row the Third, and the Batman: Arkham Franchise have all been on the receiving end of criticisms for their violence. Hell, GTA V was blamed for Newtown before it was released, and the torture scenes in the government employer missions were fuel on the fire for the groups that exist purely to try bringing video games back to Mario and Pong.
Oh, and quick fun fact: PETA once had a hair up their ass about Mario. They said that it promotes animal cruelty, and the animal suits in the third game on the original NES were an attempt at pro-fur propaganda. Never mind that people who wanted Mario gone were already trying to convince anyone that would listen that he’s a metaphor for communism. So, until video games start getting the protection that comes with being considered an art form…
The school board numerous time had asked that foolish attorney to stop disrupting the meeting. He wouldn’t listen, so he gets arrested.
Let’s see him pull the same stunt inside a courtroom, and the judge tells him to shut up. He would clam up in a hurry.
Funny how the right is up in arms about a sexually explicit scene that people who read the book are asking Q&A sites where it is… But not a peep about graphic homophobia such as that.
BTW, where were these people for “Twilight,” a YA series that centered around two people just wanting each other, and when they got there, having such wild sex, they broke the bed? Or “The Hunger Games,” the novels of which are being compared to rap videos for their “not sexual” exploitation of the female characters, including a level of nudity that would be almost excessive in more adult fiction, and that Katniss had to be portrayed as sleeping with two boys as a major plot point in Catching Fire?
If you have to ask what I’m talking about on THG, you’ve very clearly only seen the movies. Trust me, the books come as close to being their own Rule 34 as YA guidelines allow, what I’ve seen of the movies is the PG version.
Oh, I’m sorry- Those are “Christian YA” -They need to go after Anne Frank, or try to convince us “Frozen” is lesbian propaganda. Note to self: If I ever finish and submit a story, pretend to be a Christian… I could probably get away with putting an orgy in there if I say PRAISE CHRIST enough. Katniss certainly put in a case for that.
Of course, what’s really funny to me is that, considering the book’s main storyline involves a school shooting, carried out by a character who’s bullied, and the female lead is being abused by her boyfriend (who’s involved in the bullying of the other character) and becomes pregnant and has a miscarriage, the father is only upset at the “explicit sex scene.” No wonder the right-wing is so upset. How dare people interrupt a wonderful school shooting story with icky stuff like sex!
