(CNS News) – In a strongly worded letter to CBS News president David Rhodes, members of the Conservative Action Project (CAP) are demanding that Face the Nation host Bob Schieffer apologize for smearing people of faith when Family Research Council President Tony Perkins appeared on the show last Sunday to discuss the Supreme Court case on same-sex marriage.
“The interview was more than sloppy journalism,” said the letter from the conservative leaders. “It was an assault against Judeo-Christian people of faith.
Schieffer needs to apologize for “suggesting that the FRC doesn’t represent Christians” and using the discredited Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) “to smear people of faith,” the letter stated.
In a discussion on the gay marriage case now before the U.S. Supreme Court during Sunday’s broadcast, Schieffer told Perkins that “[w]e have been inundated by people who say we should not even let you appear because in their view, ‘you don’t speak for Christians’.”
He also referred to SPLC’s designation of the FRC as “an anti-gay hate group” because of its position upholding traditional marriage.
Calling Perkins “the most vocal opponent of same-sex marriage,” Schieffer told him that “you and your group have been so strong in coming out against gay marriage that the Southern Poverty Law Center has branded the Family Research Council an anti-gay hate group.”
Schieffer did not mention the fact that that the “hate group” label was specifically cited by SPLC supporter Floyd Lee Corkins as his motivation for the shooting of security guard Leo Johnson at FRC’s Washington, D.C. headquarters in August of 2012.
The “Southern Poverty Law lists anti-gay groups. I found them online, did a little research, went to the website, stuff like that,” Corkins told FBI interrogators. He later pleaded guilty to terrorism charges.
“In his plea agreement, Corkins acknowledged he identified the [Family Research] Council as ‘an anti-gay organization’ by visiting Southern Poverty’s website,” according to CBS News’ own Feb. 6, 2013 story.
The CAP letter, which was sent to Rhodes on Thursday, was signed by CAP chairwoman Becky Norton Dunlap, CAP founder Ed Meese, and 45 other prominent conservative leaders.
“The homicidal SPLC supporter admitted that he attacked FRC headquarters because the SPLC’s website map identified FRC as a ‘hate group.’ As a result of this crime, the federal court linked the SPLC to domestic terrorism in 2013. Additionally, the FBI removed links to the SPLC from its ‘hate crimes resources’ page and the Department of Defense and the U.S. Army have distanced themselves from the SPLC’s materials,” the CAP letter pointed out.
“CBS, however, continues to use them as a ‘resource’ to smear upstanding Christians and Christian leaders such as Tony Perkins.”
The Family Research Council is still listed on SPLC’s “Hate Map”.
Schieffer also accused Perkins of saying that justices who ruled in favor of gay marriage should be impeached, an accusation Perkins denied.
“I didn’t say anything about impeachment of the judges. What I said was that they’re not the final say on this issue,” Perkins corrected him.
“For CBS News to cite the SPLC as a resource is particularly outrageous given that one of the SPLC’s supporters shot and wounded a security guard inside the FRC’s headquarters a few years ago. Would it be okay if Fox News cited a white supremacist group to call into question a liberal group? Of course not,” said Media Research Center (MRC) president Brent Bozell, who signed the letter to Rhodes.
“This ambush of my friend Tony Perkins by CBS’s Bob Schieffer is beyond the pale,” Bozell added. “The work of the Family Research Council and its president, Tony Perkins, do to promote a pro-family culture and traditional values cannot be overstated. And so to suggest, as Schieffer did, that the FRC doesn’t represent Christians is laughable.”
The MRC is the parent company of CNSNews.com.
“It is now clearer than ever before that the liberal media—including CBS—along with the radical left, aided by the Obama administration, will stop at nothing to use their power and the power of government to silence, shame, punish, and fine Americans who embrace traditional marriage and other politically incorrect truths,” the CAP letter concluded.
“This is an unacceptable trend in a free society with a ‘free press.’ CBS is now linked to the disgraced SPLC and anti-Christian bigotry.”
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/conservatives-demand-apology-cbs-smearing-people-faith
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