Lest We Forget… James Dobson’s Attack on the Media for Even Reporting the Ted Haggard Story

Published on November 4th, 2006

Posted by KB in General

Now that Haggard has been fired, perhaps it would be well to recall what James Dobson had to say about the story even being covered in the first place.

A Recap of James Dobson’s public statement on November 2 :

“It is unconscionable that the legitimate news media would report a rumor like this based on nothing but one man’s accusation. Ted Haggard is a friend of mine and it appears someone is trying to damage his reputation as a way of influencing the outcome of Tuesday’s election — especially the vote on Colorado’s marriage-protection amendment — which Ted strongly supports.

“He has shown a great deal of grace under these unfortunate circumstances, quickly turning this matter over to his church for an independent investigation. That is a testament to the character I have seen him exhibit over and over again through the years.”

Notice that he doesn’t blame the quality of the reporting, he insists that there never should have been any reporting at all !

As usual, his words speak for themselves, don’t they?

14 users responded in " Lest We Forget… James Dobson’s Attack on the Media for Even Reporting the Ted Haggard Story "

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# 1 AB CD said, on November 4th, 2006 at 10:07 pm

Doesn’t blame the quality of the reporting, but insists there should be no reporting. Isn’t that what environmentalists do to global warming skeptics? Look what they did to John Stossel’s special on the environment.

# 2 Greg Allen said, on November 4th, 2006 at 10:55 pm

With the GAZILLION scandals going on with the conservatives, this one with Ted Haggard will be probably just be a 15 minutes of infamy. But this is a big deal. Not just big. But BBBIIIIGGG.

We evangelicals don’t have a pope but Ted Haggard was the PRESIDENT of our biggest and oldest group ! This should be stunning but we are all so jaded to this hypocritical crap now.

(I’m an evangelical, BTW, and am part of this group.)

For we evangelicals, Haggard is a much more significant person than, let’s say Jimmy Swaggard, who got MONTHS of bad press for his hypocrisy.

It’s hard to make an analogy of what this is like… something like if it was revealed that Jesse Jackson secretly owned black slaves or if Strom Thurmond had a secret black lover. (oh, that’s been done, already.)

# 3 Gary Marks said, on November 4th, 2006 at 11:04 pm

When Dobson accused the media of unconscionable reporting, apparently he was unaware that Mike Jones had already been able to bolster part of his story with an audio tape of messages left on an answering machine.

Media 1, Dobson 0, Jesus sobbing.

# 4 Dallas said, on November 5th, 2006 at 6:45 am

Of course Dobson objects to this reporting. Why? Because these religious enterprises are BIG business, big money and all tax protected. The last thing Dobson wants is their “customer base” to go away.

Let’s face it folks, these religious enterprises are the biggest scam in modern history. Big money, big voting block, big influence, big power. The Dobson’s of the world don’t want the media or anybody else to mess with this – OR ELSE.

If you want to go after another scam, go after groups like the Psychic Readers Network!

# 5 Mr. Fusion said, on November 5th, 2006 at 6:46 am

#1, Doesn’t blame the quality of the reporting, but insists there should be no reporting. Isn’t that what environmentalists do to global warming skeptics? Look what they did to John Stossel’s special on the environment.
Comment by AB CD — 11/4/2006 @ 10:07 pm

Stossel did a hack job on global warming. He purposely ignored recognized experts in favor of industry bought flunkies. Both Dobson and Stossel are claiming the same thing; if we all ignore the bad stuff, it will go away.

# 6 doug said, on November 5th, 2006 at 7:17 am

#5. and ignoring global warming deniers is like ignoring Holocaust deniers, moon-landing skeptics or 9-11 conspiracy theorists. some thigs are just true, and we don’t need to hear from the handful of crackpots that deny it.

# 7 George Beinhorn said, on November 5th, 2006 at 8:34 am

Given the number of false reports of sexual harassment and related claims over the last 10 years, Dobson’s remarks don’t strike me as entirely fatuous. Larry Ellison, Cardinal Bernardin, et al. – reporters are completely willing to sensationalize accusations before they’re proven. In a localized FBI study, over 60% of sexual harassment accusations were found to be false. Linda Fairstein, former DA for NYC, included a chapter in her book on sex crimes in which she railed against the high incidence of false accusations, and how they diminish the credibility of true victims. If John Dvorak chooses to believe the worst about Haggard because he’s a right-wing fundamentalist preacher, whatever, well, Dvorak’s just another reporter, yes?

# 8 RonD said, on November 5th, 2006 at 8:42 am

Both Dobson and Stossel are claiming the same thing; if we all ignore the bad stuff, it will go away.
Paul Simon said it best in his song “The Boxer” : “…All lies and jest, still the man hears what he wants to hear And disregards the rest, ..”

# 9 KB said, on November 5th, 2006 at 12:50 pm

If John Dvorak chooses to believe the worst about Haggard because he’s a right-wing fundamentalist preacher, whatever,

Is that why his church fired him, because he is a right-wing fundamentalist preacher?

(And when are people going to learn how to read a blog?)

# 10 Shadowbird said, on November 5th, 2006 at 2:23 pm

As a Christian who is studying to become a minister (Lutheran by affiliation, moderate by choice), I feel a need to speak out.

Yes, people who do gravely wrong things should be held accountable to the laws of the land, regardless of whether they are men of faith or not. Yet to go completely bonkers and say that “this shouldn’t be happening; he’s a man of God!” is going overboard at the least. While we do devote our lives to our faith and do our best to live lives that are examples of the standards set by Christ and even the old Law of Moses, we are humans. We are fallible. We are only perceived to fall hard because of the pedestal that people place ministers on. We are just as subject to temptation as every other human. Yet if we fall, it is not the end of the world for us and is no cause for people to jump all over us. We believe that God’s grace came to us through Christ Jesus and that through that grace, we can return stronger than before. We will hold ourselves accountable as the laws of the land require, but it is God who determines if we are truly repentant. It is God who sanctifies us for service.

# 11 Bruce IV said, on November 5th, 2006 at 7:23 pm

10. Amen, Brother, well spoken

Everyone else – assuming Dr. Dobson knew only that he had been accused, and spoke before he heard of evidence supporting the accusation (or before the evidence had been independantly validated) – if that was the case (tight timelines like this are so hard to sort out), then he would be justified – without evidence, allegations have no weight, and the media blowing them out of preportion turns unproven allegations into a smear campaign

–and yes, I know the allegations have been proven, I am not defending Haggard, and I expect Dr. Dobson is now quite dissapointed

— although, an argument can be made for giving Haggard some space to deal with his disgrace privately

# 12 Mr. Fusion said, on November 5th, 2006 at 11:49 pm

#7, George,

You are way out of line and probably in need of counseling. False reporting of sexual assaults are the least reported of all false crimes.
New York City Detective Bureau

A recent study by the Air Force Academy is wildly wrong and biased. The Air Force Inspector General and Judge Advocates office both roundly condemned the methodology and conclusions.

FBI statistics have been routinely misquoted and misinterpreted to suit the needs of certain people.

Claiming most sexual assault allegations are false is very insulting to the women, children, and men who have been assaulted. Especially when that assertion is so totally off the target.

But most telling of all, is that there wasn’t any sexual assault claimed here. The accuser admitted outright that he was telling his story for political purposes, he was a homosexual, he was a prostitute, he had sold Haggard meth, and the sex was consensual.

Maybe Dvorak is just another “journalist” to you, but then what are you, just another “runner”? John Dvorak didn’t post this topic, one of the editors here at DU did. Dvorak hasn’t even commented on this subject (other then on another Haggard topic where I was told to take my train of thought to a different forum).

# 13 Terry said, on November 6th, 2006 at 7:08 am

12 – Your refutation to #7 speaks of ‘sexual assault’ cases.
His post speaks of ‘sexual harrassment’ accusations.
These are not the same thing.

Re: your second paragraph. got a link to that Air Force Academy study. or at least some other references to it?

# 14 TREVOR Mc ARTHUR said, on June 12th, 2007 at 4:50 am

all thses “televangilists” pretend to the servents of god, but they are all scumbags, dont even talk about Donnie (gay fag). L O L .

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