Culture/Society

The recent manufactured controversy over Chick-fil-A has allowed media figures on the left to combine two of their favorite pastimes: serving as self-appointed food police and attacking supporters of traditional marriage.

Television commentators and print writers have taken the recent furor over Chick-fil-A’s corporate stance on gay marriage to complain about the unhealthy quality of Chick-fil-A’s food.

Yesterday’s “Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day” was huge across the country. MRCTV’s Dan Joseph and crew  traveled to several Chick-fil-A locations around the DC area to interview some of the many Americans who came to support traditional marriage and freedom of speech.

“It’s a shame we can’t say what we think these days,” protested one woman. Another added, “We’re protesting, you know,  the media and everybody trying to say it’s hate. I don’t hate anybody.” Joseph even found a huge line in Springfield, Virginia at 2 pm – hardly the lunch rush:

On its Wednesday evening and Thursday morning newscasts, CBS didn't file one report or news brief on the controversial federal abortifacient/contraception mandate going into effect. Even worse, the only mention of religious liberty scandal over the regulation was CBS This Morning playing a clip of liberal comedian Stephen Colbert making fun of it.

ABC's Diane Sawyer heralded the mandate taking effect as "an important day for women's health" on Wednesday's World News, and forwarded the White House's talking points on the regulation: "Religious employers, like Catholic charities and hospitals, do not have to directly include free birth control under their health plans." On NBC Nightly News, Brian Williams lamented that "simply by taking effect, it started up the health care fight all over again."

On Aug. 1, CBS Evening News ignored the massive crowds that turned out that day at Chick-Fil-A restaurants around the nation in support of traditional marriage, free speech, or simply tasty fast food. ABC and NBC, by contrast, covered “Chick-Fil-AAppreciation Day” with full and surprisingly respectful reports on their evening newscasts.

The August 1 episode of CBS Evening News completely failed to mention the massive crowds at Chick-Fil-A restaurants across the country. And it’s not as though the network was unaware of it. CBSNews.com mentioned Chick-Fil-A Appreciation Day (without providing video), reporter Stephanie Condon treated the event as an inside-the-beltway political affair, calling it a “rallying point for conservative pols.” The site also featured commentary from writer Erik Sherman, arguing that Chick-fil-A’s “brand perception” took a major hit because of Chick-Fil-A President Dan Cathy’s remarks.

Last weekend in a meeting in Minneapolis, the Democratic convention's platform committee unanimously voted to plow ahead with a pro-same-sex marriage amendment that will call for the repeal of the Bill Clinton-signed Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). News of this development broke yesterday. The exact language of the platform plank is yet to be hammered out but should be available in a few weeks.

At a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., yesterday, the Coalition of African-American Pastors announced that unless and until President Obama recants his position for same-sex marriage, they will counsel members of their respective congregations to not vote for Obama as his position on the issue counters biblical teaching.

ABC, CBS, and NBC all failed to cover either development on their July 31 evening newscasts or August 1 morning news programs.

It appears as though Andrea Mitchell has joined the chorus of "journalists" on MSNBC attacking Mitt Romney for his comments in Israel over the weekend. 

On Wednesday’s Morning Joe, Mitchell tried to scold Dan Senor, senior advisor to Mitt Romney, over what she described as Mitt’s ‘deeply offensive’ comments on the relationship between culture and economic success in Israel.  [Video follows page break;  MP3 audio here.]

On his way out to commercial break at 3:24 p.m. Eastern, Studio B host Shep Smith noted that August 1 is "National Badminton Day," and quipped "Forget National Day of Intolerance, let's just stay with badminton."

The Fox News Channel host's comments appear to be referring to Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day, which Smith's fellow FNC colleague Mike Huckabee declared August 1 to be recently. Huckabee announced the eat-in demonstration to show support for the national chicken chain which found itself in a liberal firestorm after its president expressed his religious convictions against same-sex marriage. [h/t email tipster Tom Hanks; MP3 audio here; video follows page break]

The Big Three networks enthusiastically paid tribute to leftist author Gore Vidal on their Wednesday morning newscasts, but not one mentioned his political ideology. NBC's Today devoted two briefs to the "sardonically witty" Vidal, who died late Tuesday. The morning show also labeled him a "cultural icon." ABC's Good Morning America played up his "outsized personality and scathing wit."

However, CBS This Morning surpassed its competitors, with anchor Charlie Rose's retrospective on the "brilliant essayist and a commentator on America."

Dan Cathy, president of Chick-fil-A, has said that we are “inviting God’s judgment on our nation when we shake our fist at him and say, ‘We know better than you as to what constitutes a marriage.’” How this unremarkable statement, which never mentions homosexuals, can be labeled anti-gay is astounding. But according to the editorial board of the New York Times, it can be. After quoting Cathy, the Times says, “Antigay remarks like these are offensive.”

It won’t work. According to this logic, almost everyone who ever walked the face of the earth has been an anti-homosexual bigot. Such hyperbole relegates real gay bashing to the trash bin, something to be discarded with alacrity.

MSNBC is your network for badly fractured Bible analogies. Jeff Poor of the Daily Caller revealed that on Friday morning, Roberts cracked up MSNBC weekend host Melissa Harris-Perry by telling anyone for "marriage equality" who eats at Chick-fil-A on August 1 -- when the conservatives turn out in support -- is a "chicken-eating Judas."

So in the Roberts analogy, Jesus is Barney Frank, and the critics of homosexuality are the ones who hand him over to be crucified? Roberts slammed former Gov. Mike Huckabee for backing the chicken chain:

Are public figures allowed to have an opinion anymore? Are private companies allowed to donate to the charitable causes of their own choosing, no matter how unfashionable they might be?

Shockingly, the ladies from “The View” say yes (with differing levels of enthusiasm) to both questions. On July 26, “The View” addressed the media-manufactured controversy arising from comments Chick-Fil-A President and COO Dan Cathy made more than a week ago. “We are very much supportive of the family – the biblical definition of the family unit,” Cathy told the Baptist Press. 

Our friends at MRCTV have a great new video that goes through a short history of the liberal media's penchant for hastily laying the blame for spree shootings and other violent attacks on conservatives. Yet time after time, when all the facts came out, we learned that it was anything but conservatives behind each and every incident. Of course, by the time all the facts came out, the media spin and speculation had already sowed the seeds of misinformation. As is to be expected, some of the worst offenders were MSNBC talent like Keith Olbermann and Ed Schultz.

My personal favorite of the ones that narrator Dan Joseph recounts is the media's rush in 2009 to speculate that suicidal U.S. Census worker Bill Sparkman was murdered by some anti-government extremists -- whipped up no doubt by the Tea Party movement -- when in fact it turns out Sparkman staged the scene of his hanging to look that way. You can watch the full video in the embed that follows the page break.

The Associated Press made no attempt to hide their liberal slant on Tuesday as they hyped an obscure leftist organization's report attacking American conservatives' efforts to support traditional marriage in Africa. Writer Michelle Faul repeatedly used biased labels such as "anti-gay," "religious right," and "Christian right" against social conservatives. By contrast, she made only one vague reference to the far left political ideology of the group that issued the report.

Faul also falsely implied that American social conservatives endorse legislative efforts in Uganda to implement the death penalty on those convicted of "aggravated homosexuality."

While discussing gun control on Wednesday's The Daily Rundown on MSNBC, correspondent Mike Viqueira lamented: "...the anti-gun control, pro-gun rights crowd has won the argument at this point....they've succeeded in framing the issue as one of essential American national values." In response, host and chief White House correspondent Chuck Todd ranted: "...nobody has sort of a rational policy debate about it." [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]

Todd began the segment by whining over the lack of gun regulation:

The way to Mika Brzezinski's heart is through her stomach.  Or better put, through using the power of the state to limit what we can put into our stomachs.

On Morning Joe today, Brzezinski declared her love for NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg.  Why? Because of the Nanny-in-Chief's various food prohibitions, the latest being his limit on the size of soft drinks.  Mika's view of those who support a "don't tread on me" libertarian view?  "Idiots", she declared them.  View the video after the jump.

The Boston Herald has reported that Mayor Tom Menino is threatening to make obtaining the necessary licenses for a family business to operate "very difficult" -- not because the business's products are controversial or hazardous, but because the privately-held company believes that marriage should be between a man and a woman.

The middle three paragraphs of an unbylined Associated Press report predictably watered down Menino's threatening posture against the Chick-fil-A fast-food chain to an issue of "discrimination" and made it appear as if there is some kind of rift between the president and the company (bolds are mine throughout this post):

If you needed more proof of America’s culture rot then brace yourself, because on July 30 you’ll be able to experience classic literature with an NC-17 twist. For those who’ve always longed for sexual exploration between Sherlock Holmes and Watson, or for a bondage re-telling of “Jane Eyre,” get your Kindles and Nooks ready.

But Jane Eyre and Sherlock Holmes aren’t the only beloved characters to be bastardized by writers behind the laughable Clandestine Classics. Thanks to publisher Total E-Bound audiences can relive their hormone-infused high school fanfiction days through a plethora of classic tales, from the Bronte sisters to Jules Verne’s “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.”

For the second straight day, CBS This Morning on Wednesday promoted a liberal comedian attacking a prominent Republican. ABC's Jimmy Kimmel denigrated former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as a "crazy moose lady" on his late night program the previous evening. Despite this insult, Kimmel hinted that Palin was still better than current GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney. [audio available here; video clip below the jump]

The CBS morning newscast featured the insult during their regular "Eye Opener" segment just after the top of the 7 am Eastern hour. On Tuesday, the same segment publicized Stephen Colbert likening Romney's tenure at Bain Capital to the cannibalistic Donner Party.

Editor’s Note – It is advisable to remove any sharp or heavy and blunt objects from your immediate vicinity before reading this. If seated at a computer, place something soft on the desk in front of you. CMI is not responsible for injury incurred as reaction to this article"

"I suppose that I'm grateful that I can make all my car payments and start saving for retirement while most of my friends are living at home and working part-time jobs -- but I often find myself lamenting the fact that I'm not living at home and not working a part-time job. From my perspective, these are just some of the life-changing, character-building experiences that I may never have." 

The New York Times marked Independence Day in its usual dismal fashion, with editor-novelist Kurt Andersen's op-ed, "The Downside of Liberty," claiming that the "libertarian coin" "minted around 1967" has made Americans shamelessly selfish. (It's the second-most emailed Times story as of noon Thursday.)

This spring I was on a panel at the Woodstock Writers Festival. An audience member asked a question: Why had the revolution dreamed up in the late 1960s mostly been won on the social and cultural fronts -- women’s rights, gay rights, black president, ecology, sex, drugs, rock ’n’ roll -- but lost in the economic realm, with old-school free-market ideas gaining traction all the time?

Perhaps Chris Rock should consider following Alec Baldwin out the Twitter door after this sneering Fourth of July tweet at all his white fans (and patriotic people of every race):  "Happy white peoples independence day the slaves weren't free but I'm sure they enjoyed fireworks".

This is the same guy that compared the Tea Party to bratty racist kids who act insane before they go to bed: