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Media analyst: Craig scandal overshadowing big story in Florida
One News Now ^ | 9/4/2007 | Jim Brown and Jody Brown

Posted on 09/04/2007 1:20:29 PM PDT by fweingart

A media analyst says in its zeal to extensively cover the homosexual sex scandal involving Senator Larry Craig (R-Idaho), the media has practically ignored a very important story out of Florida.

A week that began with the revelation of an arrest in June and guilty plea in August over charges that he was soliciting homosexual sex in airport bathroom, ended with Senator Craig standing before his constituents in Boise on Saturday and announcing he was stepping down from his Senate seat effective September 30.

After apologizing for "what I have caused," Craig explained the reasoning behind his decision. "I have little control over what people choose to believe, but clearly my name is important to me and my family is so very important also," he stated. "Having said that, to pursue my legal options, as I continue to serve Idaho, would be an unwanted and unfair distraction of my job and for my Senate colleagues."

Bob Knight of the Culture and Media Institute has been watching the media's reporting of the Craig scandal, and reports on what he perceives as a bias against traditional, pro-family values. Knight explains that the media went on a "feeding frenzy" when Senator Craig's bathroom bust was made public. He notes there were 19 network news stories in the first 48 hours after it was revealed Craig had pled guilty to misdemeanor disorderly conduct in connection with his arrest for soliciting an undercover police officer for sex in the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.

Meanwhile, Knight points out, the media has little desire to report on the efforts of Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jim Naugle to crack down on homosexual sex in public bathrooms.

"He stood up against the activists there; he held a press conference to ostensibly apologize -- and the press was there and he turned the tables on them," notes Knight. "He said [he wanted] to apologize to the families, to the parents, for the city letting this go on for so long [and that he] had no idea how bad it was." (See latest on the Naugle story)

Naugle's battle, says Knight, should be a story. "A mayor standing up to a very vociferous, aggressive special-interest group," he says. "But the press have taken virtually no interest in it."

According to media analyst, CNN did two segments on Mayor Naugle, while Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly invited the mayor onto the program to explain his position. However, Knight says that the rest of the media, including the major television networks, virtually ignored the story.

"They're too busy making Larry Craig the poster boy for the meltdown of pro-family conservative activism," he asserts. "As if somehow the movement is going to go away because one guy apparently did or did not succumb to temptation."

Knight says the Larry Craig scandal is a "perfect" story for the mainstream media because the senator has a pro-family voting record, yet engages in behavior he ostensibly opposes. Senator Craig resigned from the U.S. Senate on Saturday amidst the bathroom sex scandal.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Extended News; Politics/Elections; US: Florida; US: Idaho
KEYWORDS: fortlauderdale; homosexualagenda; jimnaugle; larrycraig; mayor; msm
...the media has little desire to report on the efforts of Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jim Naugle to crack down on homosexual sex in public bathrooms.

The homosexuals don't want anyone to hear of this brave mayor....it doesn't fit their agenda and the MSM pays more than lip service to that agenda.

1 posted on 09/04/2007 1:20:35 PM PDT by fweingart
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To: fweingart

Absolutely correct. Why is this mayor being attacked for trying to combat exactly what Craig resigned over?


2 posted on 09/04/2007 1:22:45 PM PDT by Williams
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To: fweingart

No, the really BIG story the media is ignoring is the convicted felon Norman Hsu and his family that have been funneling millions to several Democrat candidates...


3 posted on 09/04/2007 1:23:16 PM PDT by TommyDale (Never forget the Republicans who voted for illegal immigrant amnesty in 2007!)
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To: fweingart

Especially when this mayor is a democrat!


4 posted on 09/04/2007 1:23:42 PM PDT by italianquaker (Obamas "spiritual advisor" , ." On the Sunday after the attacks, Dr. Wright blamed America.)
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To: TommyDale

I didn’t get to listen to all of Rush today but what I heard had no mention of Hsu.


5 posted on 09/04/2007 1:26:17 PM PDT by saganite (Billions and billions and billions----and that's just the NASA budget!)
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To: fweingart
I am still unaware what laws are broken for soliciting sex from a consenting adult in a public place. Can anyone inform me. I am NOT talking about HAVING sex in a public place, but the solicitation of it. It goes on in bars every day and night.
6 posted on 09/04/2007 1:34:13 PM PDT by hophead ( "Enjoy Every Sandwich")
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To: hophead
It goes on in bars every day and night.

The kind I think you're referring to doesn't happen in bars I frequent.

7 posted on 09/04/2007 2:00:20 PM PDT by fweingart (Tom Tancredo Will Get The Job Done! (PS: I Don't Like The Clintons.))
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To: hophead

There were none, That’s why they didn’t charge him with it. All they had to go on was a perception that toe tapping is the code. So next time your in a stall and your favorite song come on over the sound system, stay still.


8 posted on 09/04/2007 2:01:01 PM PDT by massgopguy (I owe everything to George Bailey)
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To: massgopguy

Rush was grouchy today, and I feel grouchy, too. It is discouraging to see the drive by media play conservatives who willingly hand them the rope after all of the effort to expose their methods.


9 posted on 09/04/2007 2:05:10 PM PDT by ClaireSolt (Have you have gotten mixed up in a mish-masher?)
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To: hophead; massgopguy

Let’s take this slowly.

1. It’s a public place open to all — men, women, and children.

2. Even though it is a public place, people have to undress to use the facilities. (you don’t have to undress to use a bar)

3. Because people undress to use the facilities, there is a higher degree of protection of personal privacy expected there.

4. These degenerates shaking hands at the sinks. These so called consenting adults are ogling, peeking, sticking heads, feet, hands, arms, legs and whatever under doors and stall walls in order to get what they want. They are doing so to non-consenting occupants of the stalls. In other words, they are harassing the folks in the stalls and restrooms.

5. This harassing behavior is disturbing and alarming to any sane person who just wants to use the public facility. It would be particularly frightening if this happened to women or young men and boys who use the restrooms.

I find it astounding that this has to be explained to anyone. Though I have seen it employed from time to time here, I particularly find your potty equals bar analogy somewhat suspect as most people don’t undress to defecate or urinate as part of regular bar use, and children surely don’t make regular stops there.

The truth is these people can find other places for their trysts. They have money, they have homes, they need to learn to keep their bedrooms out of our restrooms.


10 posted on 09/04/2007 2:36:51 PM PDT by Waryone (Constantly amazed by society's downhill slide.)
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To: massgopguy; hophead
Oh and here is what he actually was charged with, pleaded to, and was convicted of.

3. I am pleading guilty to the charge of Disorderly Conduct as alleged because June 11, 2007, ... I did the following: Engaged in conduct which I knew or should have known tended to arouse alarm or resentment of others which was physical (versus verbal) in nature.

4. I understand that the court will not accept a plea of guilty from anyone who claims to be innocent.

5. I now make no claim that I am innocent of the charge to which I am entering a plea of guilty.

With Larry Craig's big old signature at the bottom.

Now you can't say no one ever told you.

11 posted on 09/04/2007 2:45:14 PM PDT by Waryone (Constantly amazed by society's downhill slide.)
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To: saganite
Yes, just so, just so, because Rush is obviously running a stealth pro-Hilary campaign /sarc

Hillary Never Knows Anything!

12 posted on 09/04/2007 5:20:55 PM PDT by Duke Nukum (...no more I follow, no more obedience pay.)
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To: Duke Nukum

Like I said, I didn’t listen to the whole show. No need to be a jerk.


13 posted on 09/04/2007 5:48:37 PM PDT by saganite (Billions and billions and billions----and that's just the NASA budget!)
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To: fweingart
“The kind I think you’re referring to doesn’t happen in bars I frequent.”

I am talking about “soliciting sex”. If you are going to bars where nobody is engaged in this, then I think you are too old to really care or are visiting the wrong bars. I may not condone the behavior Craig was engaging in, but I won’t deny him his “right” to engage in it. The SCOTUS has ruled that what he was doing is ok. As long as he did not engage in sex in public, what is the problem?

14 posted on 09/04/2007 6:09:01 PM PDT by hophead ( "Enjoy Every Sandwich")
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To: massgopguy

“So next time your in a stall and your favorite song come on over the sound system, stay still.”

Did Craig have an ipod on? Or the new iphone? Remember people, DO NOT wear a music device in a public toilet stall!!!!!!!


15 posted on 09/04/2007 6:17:32 PM PDT by hophead ( "Enjoy Every Sandwich")
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To: fweingart
and the MSM pays more than lip service to that agenda.

Um, could you re-phrase that, please?

16 posted on 09/04/2007 6:48:46 PM PDT by sionnsar (trad-anglican.faithweb.com |Iran Azadi| 5yst3m 0wn3d - it's N0t Y0ur5 (SONY) | UN: Useless Nations)
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To: hophead
"The SCOTUS has ruled that what he was doing is ok."

The SCOTUS has not ruled that it is okay to behave in a disorderly fashion. It also has not ruled that it is okay to assault men, women, and children in a private restroom stall.

It's obvious that either you haven't a clue about the degenerate behaviors that are being perpetrated against non-consenting children and adults or you don't care. To you it's all about the degenerates right to satisfy deviant lusts not about protecting the rights of individual Americans to privacy.

Too bad for them and anyone who believes their position, they are very wrong. Where my right to privacy begins, their belief in doing anything, anytime, anywhere ends.

17 posted on 09/04/2007 7:48:19 PM PDT by Waryone (Constantly amazed by society's downhill slide.)
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To: saganite

Sorry, it just seems so easy to go the the site and see what was discussed that to complain about something not being discussed while one was listening seems kind of jerkish in a way.

I just reacted because it seemed like a lamestream media thing to do so it is like a Pavlovian response.

He had a lot of callers today though and a lot of them wanted to talk about Craig, for some reason. Well, probably because Rush was saying the GOP rolls over too easy for the Democratics, which I tend to agree with. So it was kind of a dull show from that point of view.


18 posted on 09/04/2007 8:09:26 PM PDT by Duke Nukum (...no more I follow, no more obedience pay.)
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To: hophead
Remember people, DO NOT wear a music device in a public toilet stall!!!!!!!

Tell us how you know what you post to be so!

19 posted on 09/04/2007 8:58:17 PM PDT by Buddy B (MSgt Retired-USAF)
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To: Buddy B
I was sitting in a public bathroom on RT 95 one time. I hear the guy next to me say “Hey, how you doing”. I did not respond. Then he said, “whats up?”. I reluctantly said “I’m ok, you?” Then he said, “where you heading?” I did not want to get into a conversation while doing my business but did not want to be rude either. I said I was just heading home. Just a few more miles. I then heard him say, “Where you going to be Saturday afternoon?” I thought enough was enough and said,”Look, I don’t want to engage in anything here and just want to finish and be on my way.” He then said, “hold on, some nut job next to me keeps talking to me, I will call you back!”
20 posted on 09/05/2007 8:20:57 AM PDT by hophead ( "Enjoy Every Sandwich")
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