Today on Slate, an article appeared which made me laugh.. both a mirthful 'damn that's funny' laugh, and a laugh that said 'damnit, some idiot is going to believe this garbage.
http://www.slate.com/...
Those f'ing girl scouts. But while Slate tears it apart, I want to add a few things especially about the harm of just making spurious allegations to sell an audience, and what those claims really boil down to.
You see, Fox News didn't just decide now was the time to run a story, on January 10, about a tweet that happened weeks before. No, Fox News following the 'story creators', people like the religious founders of this website:
http://cookiecott.com/...
Why Should You Be Concerned?
Girl Scouts USA (GSUSA) recently promoted pro-abortion politicians, Senator Wendy Davis and HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, as women to be honored for their accomplishments in 2013. Many other pro-life concerns exist about the Girl Scout organization including:
But maybe these religious organizations have other thoughts?
Girl Scouts’ recent inclusion of Wendy Davis and Kathleen Sebelius in its conversations regarding role models for 2013 are just the most recent examples of the organization’s continued promotion of women and organizations that aggressively support sexual and reproductive rights to the girls whose characters they are seeking to form. From curriculum materials, to resources shared on social media, to event invitations, Girl Scouts USA and local councils across the country present an ideology that embraces sexual and reproductive rights to their members with disturbing consistency.
http://www.lifenews.com/...
The fact that they even discussed these two people existing is heresy! It's like invoking Voldemort! How dare you even mention their names!
Let me go back to the Slate, who really puts a spin on this:
Ellison Barber of the Washington Free Beacon argued, with a straight face, that linking to an article about many prominent women, one who happens to have famously stood up for abortion rights, constituted a violation of the Girl Scouts policy to supposedly take no position on "human sexuality, birth control and abortion."
Just by mentioning the name 'Wendy Davis' and 'Kathleen Sebelius' the Girl Scouts are now terrorists. Just for acknowledging the fact that they were major figures in the news passes as heresy. This is not news. The part that makes this news is that FoxNews brings up - and openly debates as 'YOU DECIDE' issues which have been debunked for almost two years.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
“Misinformation is passing as fact,” Diane Tipton, president of the Girl Scout Council of the Nation’s Capital, said in a Jan. 22 statement responding to St. Timothy’s move. “The Girl Scout organization does not take a position on abortion or birth control, and these topics are not part of the Girl Scout program or our materials. We believe these matters are best discussed by girls with their families.”
Such avowals haven’t dissuaded the critics. They are convinced the Girl Scouts are secretly promoting abortion under guise of teaching knots and scrapbooking.
This is the problem with 'YOU DECIDE'. By putting forward spurious, inflammatory arguments which are easily shown to be false, and letting the audience decide, Fox News isn't providing fair and balanced, they are forcing a debate of non-issues and hoping a big slice of their audience buys what is well established fiction.
History has long regarded William Randolph Hearst as the head of 'Yellow Journalism' leaping into a debate with half facts and pressing the story in order to start a war for his paper to cover. But Heart said, repeatedlly as life went on that he regretted leaping into the story; that he wanted to be first, and that he would do it differently.
No one at Fox News is screaming that they would do it differently. They are getting their war with lies, half truths and deception. Leading the public to hate and smear people in a way that resembles the Black List of the early communist witch hunts.
Are you now, or have you ever been, associated with Wendy Davis?
Are you now, or have you ever linked an article about Kathleen Sebellius?
If so, you must be a terrible person.
Debate is the freedom to mention what is out there, agree or disagree. Fox and these religious groups are saying, pretty exclusively to young girls: you have a set in stone path, and if you aren't on it, we intend to shun, shame and mock you.
Women and young girls need a far different message. One that says to disagree doesn't mean to shun. An opinion that says not every member of the girl scouts has to come from a right wing religious household, and the girl scouts have to represent all their members. It says that Girls have the right to not feel ashamed of being a girl. And the fact that the right wants to decry a non-due association with the WAGGA, a group of girl scout like groups around the globe that encourages condoms gasp for older girls in the face of issues like disease and illness in their countries strikes me a lot like saying: we determine what is morally OK. And if it's not you, go die in a fire.
It's time to wake up to this forced level of absolute hate mongering that is being put forward as 'virtuous debate'. Because it isn't virtuous debate. It's religious groups using trumped up issues to force their viewpoint on people. And until women know their place - from 9 years old and on, they aren't interested in listening or even discussing the names of anyone who disagrees.
But I'm not afraid to say Wendy Davis.
Damn, I feel like Harry Potter all the sudden.