I will make this a very brief diary, but I hope that other DKos readers will join me in contacting "Hardball" and Chris Matthews. It is time for the liberal community to tell MSNBC to stop allowing anti-gay extremists on its shows.
I want some of you to think about what Dan Savage said on CNN last week. Would CNN or MSNBC allow racists or anti-semites to spew their hatred on-the-air? Of course not! So, why does it continually permit the anti-gay extremists to spew their hatred on-the-air?
After today's appearance by Tony Perkins of the Family "Research" Council on "Hardball", my breaking point has been reached. Has yours?
Take Dan Savage's advice, folks.
SAVAGE: We can start with that, we can also start with... really, we need a cultural reckoning around gay and lesbian issues. There was once two sides to the race debate. There was once a side, you could go on television and argue for segregation, you could argue against interracial marriage, against the Civil Rights Act, against extending voting rights to African Americans and that used to be treated as one side, you know, one legitimate side of a pressing national debate and it isn't anymore. And we really need to reach that point with gay and lesbian issues. There are no ‘two sides’ to the issues about gay and lesbian rights.
And right now one side is really using dehumanizing rhetoric. The Southern Poverty Law Center labels these groups as hate groups and yet the leaders of these groups, people like Tony Perkins, are welcomed onto networks like CNN to espouse hate directed at gays and lesbians. And similarly hateful people who are targeting Jews or people of color or anyone else would not be welcome to spew their bile on networks like CNN and then that really -- we really have to start there. We have to start with that type of cultural reckoning.
And now for the email I sent to hardball@msnbc.com:
In the last five years, I can honestly attest that at 5PM on most weekdays "Hardball" is on my television. That will no longer be the case. As long as your show continues to provide a platform for religious extremists to broadcast their irrational hatred for, fear of, and lies about the gay community, I refuse to watch.
While Chris Matthews correctly says that there are more important issues for the nation to worry about than preventing a same-sex couple from marrying, he continually resurfaces the issue by bringing lunatics like Tony Perkins on his show thereby giving credibility to their incredible cause. Dan Savage is absolutely correct. If the word "homosexual" was replaced by "black" or "Jew" in statements made by Perkins on "Hardball", Perkins would never be permitted on "Hardball". Unfortunately, it seems that your show is more interested in broadcasting extremism than it is in journalism.
A formerly faithful viewer,
(my name)
===UPDATE===
The video in question (via Truth Wins Out)