ABC will be running a story on 11/26, on the always smarmy and right-wing 20/20 (home of John Stossel) which
claims that Matthew Shephard's murder had little or nothing to do with his homosexuality and was all about drugs, or a mugging gone wrong. They are basing this on what his killers now say. Of course the fact that his killers had a "gay panic" defense 5 years ago is apparently not a big deal and no longer relevant. That they give his killers a voice while they ignore the abuse and
I've never been a big fan of hate crimes laws, but I have always felt that part of this crime was motivated by homosexuality, as was the attempts to justify the actions of the killers. Now those men will be treated as some kind of victims of the homosexual agenda, or as repentent souls who are trying to speak the truth.
ABC is the most right-wing of any network besides Faux News, and they tend to book hacks like Maggie Gallagher, tend to run stories about the horrors of same-sex marriage. This is just the latest of their attempts to strip away any tolerance towards gays. The implication here will likely be that gay activists exploited his murder and made it all about his being gay, therefore, gays just prey on the dead, they are unsympathetic, they play victim, and the next time a gay or lesbian is murdered, the public will feel that a) they deserved it or b) people who decry these crimes are just media whores.
I'm not sure of ABC's contact information, but if anyone wants to contact them, go ahead. This is just more of the media's increasing attempts (along with the "moral values" shit) to scapegoat gays and to whittle away, bit by bit, on a subtle level, every shred of tolerance that the public has for gays. To persuade the public that harsh, knee-jerk, ugly reactions against gays in every aspect of life is necessary, because gays are all corrupt or liars or immoral anyway. That if you feel something sick inside when you think of gays, then just go with it, don't bother to educate yourself. They are on a slow but sure mission to erase any gains that gays have made in how America views them. They want America to go back to thinking that gays are evil, are the unknown, aren't just like everyone else. That's what the media spin on this election has been about. It terrifies me and I'm really worried about what is going to happen over the next few years and if we will see America go back to the days of the 60's, 70's, 80's, when gay-bashing was encouraged and considered appropriate, and you were not supposed to have any kind feeling at all towards gays or accept homosexuality as a concept beyond "sick" or "dirty".
UPDATE:
I should mention that we have no idea whether Stossel is involved in this story or not. Since this is supposed to be "serious" news, and not the gimmicks and cutesiness that he peddles on 20/20, I think that he may not be involved. So yes, rail against Stossel, but I wouldn't directly attack him in your correspondence to ABC.