You appear to be confusing passionate political discourse with hate. Sure, things can get quite heated around here, but that’s to be expected given the topics discussed. But it’s not hate.
IMO, sometimes it really is hate (or bigotry, or racism, or whatnot) ... but that's just my opinion, and anyway it's beside the point.
The question is not your or my opinion of FR or various FReepers. It's more about how outsiders like the nice folks at Fox 5 News perceive FR.
They, having no long-term connection or understanding of FR, would base their opinions on the topics posted at the time they checked us out, and the manner in which they're discussed.
Sometimes, what you call "passionate political discourse" would leave an outsider with a very, very poor impression of what FR is all about -- even to the point of justifying an opinion that FR is a "hate site." Even though it's nothing of the sort.