Jennifer Giroux, founder of the conservative Christian organization Women Influencing the Nation, appeared on MSNBC's Scarborough Country for the third time in the program's last six episodes and claimed that “the fact that” the FOX Searchlight Pictures film Kinsey “is such a bomb constitutes [sic] that people in America do not want to praise somebody that praises pedophilia and perversion.” But the film, which relates the story of Dr. Alfred C. Kinsey's studies of human sexuality, is doing very well at the box office.
From the November 30 edition of Scarborough Country:
GIROUX: Well, you know, do they depict him as a person that is sexually deviant and in his own little dark world? ... You know, this man should not be glorified. And the fact that it is such a bomb constitutes [sic] that people in America do not want to praise somebody that praises pedophilia and perversion.
But Kinsey has not been unsuccessful. Film industry news website BoxOfficeProphets.com reported on November 28 that Kinsey was “continuing to show great strength at the box office. ... Kinsey, showing on only 188 screens this weekend, grossed $1.2 million and had a venue average of $6,436. Its total after a couple of weekends of work has already reached $2.5 million.” On November 29, the Boston Herald reported that the film “opened well in limited release and should pick up as it expands and (presumbably) [sic] wins critics awards and Golden Globe nominations.”
The Washington Post noted on November 22 that some conservative groups that object to the film “may be reluctant to try to punish its distributor, Fox Searchlight, owned by conservative media mogul Rupert Murdoch.” The Post article also quoted Kinsey biographer James H. Jones, as noting “the Harvard-trained entomologist [Kinsey] was 'a rigorous scientist to his fingertips' and there is no evidence that he was a pedophile or that he knowingly cooked his books.”
Dr. Drew Pinsky, another guest on the November 30 edition of Scarborough Country, also addressed Kinsey's research:
PINSKY: The primary contribution he [Kinsey] made was a willingness to look at it [sexuality]. And I know Jennifer has issues with who he was as a person, but really, fundamentally, his philosophical orientation was to look at the phenomenon of the biological, psychological, neurobiological phenomenon of sexuality with scientific objectivity. ... And he also opened the door to new considerations of sexuality, outside of any moral consideration.
Media Matters for America noted in April that in her role as founder and director of SeeThePassion.com, Giroux appeared on Scarborough Country 14 times in nine weeks. Giroux was the southwest Ohio chairwoman for Pat Buchanan's 2000 presidential bid.