CNN's King again claimed "pro-family voters" are "conservatives"
SUMMARY: For the second time in two days, CNN anchor John King equated "pro-family voters" with "conservatives" during interviews on The Situation Room.
On the October 3 edition of CNN's The Situation Room, CNN chief national correspondent John King twice equated "pro-family voters" with "conservatives." In an interview with Rep. Ray LaHood (R-IL), King reported that "Tony Perkins, the president of the Family Research Council (FRC), told us ... his guess [is] that many Christian conservatives, other pro-family voters might simply stay home this year" because of the scandal surrounding former Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL); the clip showed Perkins talking about "Republican turnout." Later in the program, King asked Wendy Wright, president of the conservative Concerned Women for America (CWA), if "pro-family voters, conservatives across this country who made this party, made the Republicans the majority party," should trust the Republican leadership in the wake of the disclosure, reported by The Washington Post and Roll Call, among other outlets, that they have known for months about emails allegedly sent by Foley to a 16-year-old male congressional page.
As Media Matters for America noted, on the October 2 edition of The Situation Room, King prefaced a question to Perkins by similarly stating that "pro-family voters" looked to the conservative FRC "for guidance and advice in moments like this."
From the October 3 edition of CNN's The Situation Room:
KING: Well, let's talk about what you think will happen. You're not only a veteran of the Congress, you're a veteran of congressional staff. You know how politics works quite well. There will be a federal investigation, state investigations into Mark Foley's conduct. There will be a continued inquiry internally and by journalists and the like as to who knew what when and what they did about it. But the American people have to vote in five weeks. Democrats are making an issue of this. And also, you know how this works in a midterm election, turnout is traditionally low. You need your base to turn out.
I want you to listen to something Tony Perkins, the president of the Family Research Council, told us in discussing this last night. And his guess that many Christian conservatives, other pro-family voters might simply stay home this year because they're disgusted by this.
PERKINS (video clip): I think this is a real problem for the Republicans as they, right or wrong, are seen as the guardians of value, the party that preserves and works for family values. This certainly is not a family value. This is going to be, I think, very harmful for Republican turnout across the country because it's inconsistent with the values that the Republicans say that they represent.
[...]
KING: But should they trust -- the biggest issue -- the short term issue politically -- and I don't mean to make this all about politics, but there is an election in five weeks, and the Republican leadership is saying, "Trust us, keep us in power." My question to you: When you communicate with pro-family voters, conservatives across this country who made this party, made the Republicans the majority party, should they still trust them?
WRIGHT: Well, I think we need to recognize that pro-life and pro-family people don't just blindly follow one party or the other. We look at individuals. And Mark Foley himself was not someone who voted pro-life or pro-family. He's not someone that our constituents would have supported.
What we see here is the result of years of Right Wing propaganda. In the popular vernacular, pro-family= Christian=Republican. Whenever I hear one of these putzes say "traditional family values" I want to throw up. IT MEANS NOTHING!
Of course, we all know that Democrats eat their children and kick their dogs. Democrats, who are hatched in incubators, HATE families.
Sorry, lost my mind for a minute.
"Pro-family" is a euphemism for "homophobic." Everyone knows this, but it's rarely acknowledged.
Anti-abortion. I think if you bundle anti-abortion and anti-gay, you pretty much have the "pro-family" platform.
Anti-science.
"Pro-family" is a euphemism for "homophobic".
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You have no evidence or proof of that. Just because someone favors strong families and supports legislation that encourages certain tax benefits, etc. doesn't automatically make them homophobic. I think the term "pro-family" is misused on the left to marginalize and stigmatize certain people as well. I will admit that certain factions of the extreme right may feel that way, but it is unfair to generalize with such a broad brush.
In my mind, one can be pro-families of all types, straight and gay.
...but I think the point was refering to the unfair stereotypes used so frequently by the right wing hacks that rule the airwaves. I agree, not all conservatives believe this way, but there is an effort by the RusHanniReilly's to paint us with a brush similar to what you're protesting.
I vaugely remember a quote (attributed to perhaps Gen. Douglas McArthur) sometime during WWII--He who rules the air rules the war. Different air, different war, same conclusion.
You miss the point completely. We're talking about people who use the term "pro-family". I encourage you to find and present one such group that takes a favorable stance on gay rights.
for themselves are really shams?
tough on terrorism -- sham family values -- sham traditional values -- sham fiscal responsibility -- sham small government -- sham
If they weren't so immune to irony, they'd have few labels left... just "pro-big business," "pro-torture," "pro-war profiteers," and "pro-Maccaca."
It was Dan Quail who first uttered the words; "Family values party," on the campaign trail in reference to the Republic Party. He equated family values to anti-abortion.
I have argued since then that they can say this all they want, but they'll never do anything meaningful to actually get rid of abortion. If they did, they would lose a great number of their base, and nothing gets them fired up like the "Life/Choice" debate.
Over the years, they have labeled Liberals as anti-morality, when facts prove in EVERY instance that the reality is exactly the oposite. They turned the term "Liberal" into a profanity, then started shoveling all the country's ills onto it.
Did anyone see John Walsh on Larry King last night? He stood up for homosexuals which so many people were unwilling to do. He is a hero and I love Americas Most Wanted. TP has a thread about this.
families suck. I hate them. I hate my Mother and Father. Hate my wife. I live in the garage now because I hate family so much. Life sucks too. I hate people who are alive and breathing. I hate my life too. I hate America, hate freedom and harbor an irrational hatred for our president. I'm just a big hater. Hating all the time. So they say. Really what I hate, if I can use such a strong word, are things like intolerance and bigotry. I hate narrow mindedness and intellectual laziness. I hate an apathetic electorate and ignorance. Man I really hate ignorance. And I hate cable news and what passes for our main stream media. Oh and I hate using " " around phrases like "liberal media bias." But that's my own hang up I guess.
And I thought conservative didn't have a sense of humor.