Media Bias in Family Research Council Shooting?
TV news coverage of Wednesday's shooting at the Washington, D.C., offices of conservative group Family Research Council has either been scarce or slow to report on the possible political motive, says one media watchdog.
"Neither NBC Nightly News nor CBS Evening News produced a full story on the FRC shooting, instead committing only 17 and 20 seconds respectively for anchor briefs that omitted the shooter's motive," Media Research Center reported.
MSNBC's Chris Matthews, meanwhile, ignored the story, according to MRC. And CNN did not report on the shooting until almost three hours later, according to Katie Pavlich, a columnist for Townhall.com.
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"What did @cnn cover yesterday instead of the FRC shooting? Chelsea Clinton in Vogue," Pavlich tweeted Thursday.
Dan Gainor, vice president of Business & Culture for the Media Research Center, had a quick answer for the slow media coverage or lack thereof: "They didn't like who they had to blame," he told The Christian Post.
The shooting has been classified by the FBI as an act of domestic terrorism.
Floyd Lee Corkins II, 28, has been charged with assault with intent to kill after opening fire at the Family Research Council's headquarters Wednesday morning.
Corkins entered the building with a backpack containing a 9mm pistol, extra ammunition and 15 Chick-fil-A sandwiches. He posed as either an intern or someone seeking internship, according to various accounts. Unable to get past the security guard, Leo Johnson, Corkins shot the guard in the arm. Johnson was able to subdue him and take the gun from the shooter.
According to a criminal complaint filed Thursday, Corkins said something to the effect of "I don't like your politics."
Sources also told Fox News that after Johnson subdued Corkins, the gunman said, "Don't shoot me, it was not about you, it was what this place stands for."
Corkins was a volunteer for the U Street NW community center for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.
In reaction to the media coverage, Media Research Center President Brent Bozell said in a statement, "The liberal media have repeatedly and deliberately turned a blind eye to the violent, hateful culture of liberalism, particularly their vicious attacks against those who advocate traditional Christian values and conservative principles.
"Imagine if, God forbid, this exact same thing had happened at a Planned Parenthood or the Southern Law Poverty Center, which labeled both Chick-fil-A and FRC hate groups. We'd be hearing an endless loop of stories about the danger of militant, hate-filled right wing wackos."
Gainor agreed, saying that if a conservative had opened fire at the offices of an LGBT group, then the media would have been all over it.
"They would have beat conservatives over the head with it," he said.
"We are barely 24 hours later and pick the outlet – CNN, The Huffington Post – they're already still pointing fingers at Family Research Council and saying they're a hate group," Gainor further commented. "That whole liberal indoctrination of the media from groups like the Southern Poverty Law Center, GLAAD and others created a climate of calling people a hate group."
The Southern Poverty Law Center placed FRC on its list of anti-gay "hate groups" in 2010.
Family Research Council is a conservative Christian group that was organized in the early 1980s by Dr. James Dobson. Its mission statement says that it "champions marriage and family as the foundation of civilization, the seedbed of virtue, and the wellspring of society. FRC shapes public debate and formulates public policy that values human life and upholds the institutions of marriage and the family. Believing that God is the author of life, liberty, and the family, FRC promotes the Judeo-Christian worldview as the basis for a just, free, and stable society."
