Double Standard on Supporters

Media focus on Farrakhan, largely ignore Hagee's long history of controversial statements

Washington, D.C. -- In discussions of high-profile supporters of presidential candidates, many in the media have focused heavily on Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan's praise of Sen. Barack Obama despite Obama's repeated denunciations of comments Farrakhan has made, but have largely ignored Sen. John McCain's embrace of an endorsement from controversial televangelist John Hagee. As Media Matters for America has noted, Hagee, founder and senior pastor of Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas, has made numerous controversial statements about homosexuality, Islam, the Catholic Church, and women.

In contrast with Obama's repeated criticism of Farrakhan, McCain openly welcomed Hagee's endorsement, stating, "All I can tell you is I'm very proud to have pastor Hagee's support."

"Some in the media continue to focus on Farrakhan's praise of Obama, even though Obama has repeatedly criticized Farrakhan, while McCain has actually embraced the endorsement from Hagee -- who has a history of inflammatory rhetoric about women, Muslims, the Catholic Church, and members of the gay community," said Karl Frisch, a Media Matters for America spokesman. "Why have so many in the media shied away from asking these tough questions of the McCain campaign? The double standard is very telling."

Background on John Hagee

Below is a sampling of the controversial statements Hagee has made about homosexuality, Islam, the Catholic Church, and women.

• Hagee has asserted that "Hurricane Katrina was, in fact, the judgment of God against the city of New Orleans," and suggested the "judgment" occurred, in part, because, according to Hagee, "there was to be a homosexual parade there on the Monday that the Katrina came. And the promise of that parade was that it was going to reach a level of sexuality never demonstrated before in any of the other Gay Pride parades."
• When asked whether Hagee believed that "all Muslims have a mandate to kill Christians and Jews," Hagee replied, "Well, the Quran teaches that. Yes, it teaches that very clearly."
• In 1996, the San Antonio Express-News reported that Hagee was going to "meet with black religious leaders privately at an unspecified future date to discuss comments he made in his newsletter about a 'slave sale,' an East Side minister said Wednesday." A July 27, 2006, Wall Street Journal article about Hagee noted the incident.
• A December 23, 2007, Reuters news article noted that in his book, Jerusalem Countdown, Hagee wrote: "Most readers will be shocked by the clear record of history linking Adolf Hitler and the Roman Catholic Church in a conspiracy to exterminate the Jews."
• Journalist Sarah Posner noted in God's Profits: Faith, Fraud and the Republican Crusade for Values Voters (PoliPointPress, January 2008) that in his book What Every Man Wants in a Woman (Charisma House, 2005), Hagee wrote, "Do you know the difference between a woman with PMS and a snarling Doberman pinscher? The answer is lipstick. Do you know the difference between a terrorist and a woman with PMS? You can negotiate with a terrorist."
• Posner also noted that, in another Hagee text, "Bible Positions on Political Issues" (John Hagee Ministries, 1992), he wrote, "[T]he feminist movement today is throwing off authority in rebellion against God's pattern for the family."

###

Posted to the web on Tuesday, March 04, 2008 at 02:56 PM ET