Free speech, hate speech clash

NBC NEWS ^ | Oct. 28 | Pete Williams

[Prodigal Son]

The proposed monument would say, “Matthew Shepard entered Hell, October 12, 1998.”

Geez. How'd you like this Phelps person living in your neighborhood?

BTW, do we even need to excerpt NBC articles?

[Poohbah]

They're definitely a "We hate every-f-ing-body but us" group.

[Puppage]

They advertise themselves as an anti-gay group

THEY advertise themselves as such, or the media?

[CSM]

"Geez. How'd you like this Phelps person living in your neighborhood?

BTW, do we even need to excerpt NBC articles?"

I would like to think your first question is rhetorical, not requireing an answer from me. However, just in case: "No, I would not like him living in my neighborhood and I am not supportive of this dolt!"

To the second question: MSNBC. When I went to post, I received the "must excerpt" warning and I tried to correct the post. It didn't work.

[Puppage]

I don't think so... I've never heard of them picketing adulterers

Probably because there's no adultering case out there that has media backing to the extent of the Shepard caes. My point is that by the media calling them an anti-gay group, which they obviously are, they get a specific group enraged.

They are more than an anti-gay group, do you really think there views, which I choose to call hate, are limited solely to gays? If NOT,then WHY are they simply/only called an anti-gay group?

[meyer]

anti-gay hate group

I like how the article gently equates anti-gay with hate.

[Puppage]

And, trust me--they don't just offend a specific group of people--"gays & lesbians" is your assertion.

Cat, I didn't say they JUST offended a specific group. What I was trying to get across was that by the media calling them an anti-gay group, and ONLY (as far as I have seen) an anti-gay group, that in & of itself is meant to enrage, offend, etc. THAT specific group of people.

[Puppage]

It's just downright mean to try to put up a monument stating a murdered person is going to hell

WHOA! Hold on there, ISC....I am with you on that 100%. I don't think my posts even mentioned that aspect of the story.

Because they call themselves, "God Hates Fags".

They don't call themselves that, it's just what their ignorant minds believe, and what their signs espouse.

[Prodigal Son]

Yeah, my bad. I keep forgetting that NBC is now MSNBC.

Yes, it was rhetorical ;-) Guy sounds like somebody I would really not like to know.

[Catspaw]

Given my husband's family's reaction to Phelps' visit--and his family is quite conservative--Phelps and his family enraged and disgusted them when the Phelps' picketed in Wausau, Wisconsin. Now Phelps may be trying to goad gay and lesbians, but he manages to trigger great loathing in heterosexuals as well.

[Catspaw]

THEY advertise themselves as such, or the media?

Their website is "God Hates Fags." I'm not going to put up a link, but google that, go to their website, read what they say, download a couple of their posters (in PDF format), view their signs from their pickets.

And then go over to their other website and see how they say that the sodomites are to blame for 9/11.

[Chad Fairbanks]

“Our message is a message of God’s hate, not human hate,” said Marge Phelps, the reverend’s wife

Ahhhh... I never knew that God "Hated"... Maybe it's an Old Testament thingie... anyway... Seems to me, the more I keep wondering if Rev. Phelps is a dupe for the Left. HE seems to do more for THEIR cause, than anything...

[auboy]

The proposed monument would say, “Matthew Shepard entered Hell, October 12, 1998.”

Sounds like Mr. Phelps likes to be judge, jury, and wishes he could be the executioner. With his attitude and deeds, Phelps may be Judged harshly when he appears before the true Judge.

Somehow, when it comes to the Fred Phelps of the world, the words "false prophets" keeps popping in my head.

[Semper Paratus]

Is the ACLU representing Phelps? Sounds like their kind of guy.

[Chad Fairbanks]

THEY advertise themselves as such, or the media? </>

I'm guessing it's a self-imposed title...

“Our message is a message of God’s hate, not human hate,” said Marge Phelps, the reverend’s wife

[Puppage]

but he manages to trigger great loathing in heterosexuals as well.

I couldn't agree more.

[wita]

Truth. A wonderful and all important principle. Your comments are TRUTH in print. Truth is so important that it is necessary to make us free. Truth is absolute. There is sufficient deception in the public realm, to fool most of the people most of the time, some of the people all the time, and even some of the people that ought to know better.

[Chad Fairbanks]

That's kinda what I was thinking, too.

[Between the Lines]

I find it interesting that they call them only an anti-gay hate group. Most groups would have a name, yet no group name is ever given. If the name of that group is Westboro Baptist Church, then print it. I do not mind a particular church being labeled as a hate group, but without a group name, the story sounds as if this is a much larger anti-gay hate group than it really is.

Five years after University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard was killed, touching off a national dialogue on gay rights, the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas, an anti-gay hate group wants to put up a monument to Shepard’s murder in his hometown. The city doesn’t want it, but it is caught in a legal tangle that involves, of all things, the Ten Commandments.

AT SHEPARD’S FUNERAL in his hometown of Casper, Wyo., Westboro Baptist Church members demonstrated in a park across the street, led by the Rev. Fred Phelps.

Sounds a little different doesn't it? Instead of sounding like a large hate group, it sounds like a kooky little church in Kansas. The media knows how they made it sound and they did it purposefully.