ABC News Airs “Hate Group” Report on Eve of House Hate Crimes Vote

From an article entitled, “ABC World News Uses Scary Footage to Push Hate Crimes Bill”
By Kristen Fyfe of the Culture and Media Institute – May 3, 2007

Want to use a news story to influence a House vote on a hate crimes bill?

On the eve of the vote, lead with a close-up of skinheads presenting a Nazi salute. Run some scary shots of the Ku Klux Klan. It’s a visceral, one-two punch. You don’t need to mention any legislation; you just need to paint a picture of out-of-control hate in need of a government solution.

That’s just the manipulative trick that ABC News’ World News with Charles Gibson played during its May 2 broadcast. Portraying the country as awash in hate groups was the perfect set-up to the next day’s vote in the U.S. House of Representatives, where liberals rammed through a “hate crimes” bill by a vote of 237-180, largely along party lines. President Bush has vowed to veto the bill.

Reporter Jim Avila’s “Closer Look” story focused on the rising number of “hate groups” in America, in particular the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazi groups targeting Latino immigrants. His main source of information? The hard-left Southern Poverty Law Center, a major backer of hate crimes legislation.

The real issue, however, was the bill pending before Congress that would, in the name of fighting “hate crimes,” infringe on religious liberty and lay the foundation for silencing opposition to the homosexual agenda. Conservatives and libertarians characterize the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act (HR 1592) as “thought crime” legislation.

ABC ran the hate crimes story without mentioning the pending legislation in Congress. Had they done so they would have been challenged to present the viewpoint of conservatives who adamantly oppose the legislation.

 

Read the entire article on the Culture and Media Institute website here:
http://www.cultureandmediainstitute.org/articles/2007/20070503160420.aspx