Teaching ABC News a Lesson in Tolerance
The news division of another broadcast network has been staging “news” in an attempt to show the prejudices of the American people. Only this time, it didn’t work out as planned. After planting a gay couple and an actor portraying a loud-mouthed anti-gay bigot at a New Jersey sports bar, ABC News learned that the bar’s patrons are, on the whole, a remarkably tolerant lot.
This wasn’t the first time that ABC staged “news” in an attempt to show the prejudices of those from more “conservative” segments of American society. This network has not been alone in engineering events designed to show such prejudice. Three years ago, NBC sought to dispatch Muslims to a NASCAR race in order to show how “red state” America would react.
These news producers seem convinced that the places to look for prejudice in America are places where conservatives congregate. Perhaps it might be more accurate to say where people different from them congregate. They always do seem to discern prejudice in the “other.”
When, however, they dispatched an actor to verbally harass a gay couple they had sent to a New Jersey sports bar, they found more tolerance than bigotry. While a handful of patrons expressed disapproval of the couple’s presence in the bar, the patrons who spoke out the loudest called the actor on his bigotry, in the process challenging the prejudices the ABC News producers apparently harbored against the patrons of a suburban sports bar.
They had the gay couple come into the bar at two different times — first during the mid-day lunch hour, then later in the evening.
In the mid-day visit, no one took much notice of the two men until the aforementioned actor, at the network’s behest, started “stirring the pot,” pretending “to be bothered” by the couple. A few guys seemed to share his sentiments but didn’t act out their animosity.
Yet when the actor pestered a “new arrival” about the gay guys, the new guy did express some animus, though not against the gay couple. He told the ostensibly bigoted actor to shut up, saying that if he had to choose between that irritated individual and the gay couple, he’d probably be asking him, not them, to leave. Indeed, he told the gay men, “I’d rather have twelve of you them than four of him.”
In the evening, the couple turned up the heat by increasing their public displays of affection. At the same time, the producers raised the stakes by having a straight couple, also actors, “appear to be bothered too.” The actor remained obnoxious. A few people grumbled, with one man saying the gay men’s display “disgusts” him. But the most agitated person was a woman who objected not to the their affection, but to the basher’s antics.
Once again, the most vocal reactions were to the anti-gay voices and not the gay people. And yes, a few people did say they were disturbed by the gay men’s public displays of affection, but one wonders if they would have kept their thoughts to themselves had they not been egged on by actors prompted by ABC News to speak out against the gay bar patrons.
Even after they discovered that bar patrons were a remarkably broad-minded lot, the network titled their print story, “Gay Bashing at a Sports Bar: What Do You Do?” The only gay bashing that took place at this sports bar was a verbal one staged by ABC.
The only gay bashing that took place at this sports bar was a verbal one staged by ABC.
~~~~~~~~~~
No wonder ABC like’s HAMAS so much – they stage “news” stories too, and ABC “covers” them.
That needed to be said – thank you. If we just had six more B. Daniel Blatt’s we would stop the US from coming apart.
The bigger story is why a news organization is creating an artificial environment ??
If ABC wants to create a reality program, great, have their entertainment writers develop a series where people try to provoke each other, its been done before and will be again.
The news division should be seeking News, not trying to create drama in a flipping bar in new jersey. There isnt enough for reporters to dig up in the banking crisis, derivatives fraud, Tracing where 3 trillion in cash was sent by the Feds in 2007 and 2008, or the myriad other questions nobody seems to want to ask regarding our banking system…
This is a great snapshot of why the USA continues to stumble, people dont seem to understand what their job truly is.
“What Would You Do?” is an asinine show and the host (John Quiñones) is almost as unappealing as the actors playing racists and homophobes. The Candid Camera set-ups are one-note and cowardly. The whole show seems aimed at sentimental old white ladies–
“If ABC were truly interested in what people would do (this segment was part of the series What Would You Do?) In certain staged situations, they might want to handle prejudices the mainstream media has ignored for all too long. At Townhall,Greg Henger suggests they have a gay man harass a couple of Christians carrying Bibles and praying at a gay bar.”
The brain washed, mind numbed collectivist class that actually do watch these inane shows, have been conditioned to see anyone one with a bible as an extremist. So, the irony of that scenario may be missed all together.
Incitement to riot is a crime in New Jersey. New York, too, probably. Oh, yeah right, that wasn’t what ABC was doing. They were just trying to promote a meme – all conservatives are anti-gay by definition and ABC wants to prove it.
If anyone’s been following the McLean’s Magazine/Mark Steyn/Ezra Levant saga with the Canadian Human Rights Commission, you’d know that these staged antics and attempts at entrapment are considered cricket by the nanny state representatives. Sock puppets leaving hateful messages on racist forums were so common it got to the point that Steyn figured they outnumbered the actual “haters”.
Before you get mad about it being staged, just remember it was staged to prove a point. Kind of like an Easter passion play at church, only about a different subject.
As to your suggestions about “Republican bashing,” please stow it. You’re going to complain that ABC thinks NASCAR races are hotbeds of prejudice….
And in the next page talk about “a tony coffee shop in Manhattan’s Upper West Side or in San Francisco?” And you have the stones to complain about stereotypes?????
Pull the plank out of your own eye.
Who gives a crap if the left thinks we’re bigoted? The numbers are on our side. Most people are against gay marriage and this whole “gay is sexy!” trend that’s taken over our country these last few years. Most people don’t like gay people being overly gay in public to test the tolerance of non-gay people. All it does is create animosity towards them. The more the left tries to push gay culture on our society the more people will be alienated and vote Republican.
I guess irony and nuance are not Herb’s thing. The suggestion of entrapment and the actual attempt at it are not quite the same thing. There is no question that ABC wanted to show that Main Street Americans are murderous trogs. Perhaps Herb could dismount his pedestal for a moment to acknowledge that they might have been wrong and should apologize.
Is Herb an ex Dan Rather employee? “just remember it was staged to prove a point”…really?
Herb,
You really play by the liberal playbook, don’t you? Twist the discussion to try to inflate your strawman.
Nowhere has anyone mentioned a problem of “stereotypes” except you! Kind of like the race-baiters and “racial profiling”. Welcome thought police!
The discussion was on ABC trying to provoke a “bigoted” ACTION. They are the ones who promoted the stereotype, not the patrons.
Go troll somewhere else.
Tolerance Breeds Contempt…
Herb has to be an April Fools plant, the irony of his complaint, ‘Pull the plank out of your own eye’, is just too rich for reality!
Just what I would expect from ABC News — not that I would ever watch their trash…
I think Herb was the (bad) actor ABC hired. Cut him some slack folks, his act didn’t go over well, and he can’t tell the difference between the passion play and idiocy on TV.
Maybe we can get Herb in that program that those released terrorists from Guantanamo are going to be in. You know, the program that rehabs them so they can assimilate and live amongst us.
To all the folks who slammed me for pointing out the hypocrisy, let me ask you a question:
If Fox News ran this story in the same way to disprove the idea that conservatives were bigots, would you object to the story and its methods then too?
I doubt it.
More than that…if Fox News ran a story in which “a gay man harass[es] a couple of Christians carrying Bibles and praying at a gay bar,” would you make the same complaints about the methods and integrity of the newscast?
Your answers will determine whether you’re really principled, or just partisan.
Herb,
If we agree it “was staged to prove a point;” then one must acknowledge the point proved – that is exactly the issue; their presumed response was falicious – yet they failed to admit they were wrong….had they been right – how many times and how many forums would of touted the ‘bigoted suburban Republicans?’
GF
The loudmouth was hired by ABC to bash the gays and ‘prove a point’.
Seems that in the hysterical legal climate that is a bit too common around the gay community (anyone remember the thuggish attempts to overturn the democratic vote for Prop 8 in California?), it would be considered proper to press charges against ABC for hiring ‘hate speech’. In Seattle, such charges would probably succeed.
Herb is to be smoked, not respected.
I would probably say something. I do not want to have to explain to my young child, why two men are slobbering all over one another in a public place. There is no shame in America….no guilt…I don’t want to watch two teenagers deepthroating one another in public either. Rent a room, for God’s sake.
ABC proved itself to be bigoted & clinging to old stereotypes rather than prove it to be “open minded” or tolerant. The fact ABC wanted to provoke innocent people to make themselves some form of twisted entertainment proves ABC’s motives are in a dark, arrogant place where the mold grows thick. ABC’s arrogance is so that it has lost the irony of the whole situation at hand.
I am reminded of the clip where a professor & his students went to Arab, Alabama, dressed in Muslim garbs, in a vein attempt to see bigotry in the South. The tables were turned when their ignorance came to the surface instead while the locals were shown to the most tolerant bunch…
When will these arrogant people ever learn? I supposed they want. It’s why they are arrogant & think they know it all when they know nothing. This proves just having book intelligence is not enough to have in the real world.
Who’s ABC? What program? Who’s John Quiñones?
Could we use some of those reporters to cover ACORN instead?
HERB You ask a theoretical question, then give a theoretical answer to the question, then you make statements based on the theoretical questions and answers as if they are actual facts.
Congratulations Herb, you have truly demonstrated the essence of the false assumptions that liberals base their reasoning upon. You are hereby awarded the Liberal Attaboy Award !
Do a web search for the name, “Jesse Dirkheissing,” and see how (major media)treat the topic of sodomy when news outlets will bury a story at the same time as the victim.
Ask any Boy Scout or Salvation Army official about all the “tolerance” they have experienced from homosexual groups…no snarls of “gay” phobic, oh no, they must be “homo” phobic!…there is no room for independent thinking of dissenting Americans on this issue. No freedom of speech, religion, or association is allowed.
Ever wonder why such narrow minded grievance groups yell that they need special protections and rights, when it’s (largely) Christians who are getting gunned down in schools, church meetings, and jobsites…babies are aborted, euthanasia is suggested for the sick and elderly, mentally ill are homeless and vulnerable, but dang it…! Let’s do all we can do for homosexuals!!!
Maybe it’s time that homosexuals take their chances in life like everyone else…the Constitution guarantees “equal protection” for ALL Americans.
Or is this an effort to garner negative feedback, therefore, Proof! The Feds must designate funding to impose a homosexual agenda in schools, business’ and churches?
“What if Foxnews did this” Can you all not see Bill O’Rielly orchestrate something like this? Bill seems to have real concern for his credibility. This means evenhanded comment on all subjects. The MSM is only concerned with their role as liberal PR machine. In their echo chamber, conservatives just need an opportunity to prove their ignorance. Repeat, Deny , Distort.
Hell just get a hollywood production going and call it news.
Well, if a conservative broadcaster was to set this up, they’d have a liberal dweeb like Herb beating up to a strawman, with someone else in an ACORN t-shirt cheering him on…
What if there was a reaction, a violent one and someone got hurt? Maybe even killed? Maybe the supposed bigot got the crap beat out of him. Who would share in the blame? ABC? If you are a driver in a robbery and someone gets hurt you get part of the blame. Also, remember the Ford Pinto exploding gastank fiasco? Who was involved in that one?
I see a much larger problem than the PDA exhibited (by gays or straights – like they guy said “get a room” – an appropriate time and place for everything).
When “news” companies engage in creating “news,” they have crossed that line of credibility. This is frighteningly Orwellian. At what point do they create the news and NOT confess that it was staged? Will people be able to trust that news source for objective and accurate information?
Okay, admittedly, ABC news, et al, have serious issues with objective and accurate information dissemination. Ergo: the reason I read PJ, et al.
I just remembered a setup by John Stossel (I think, could be wrong about John Stossel). They rigged a purse snatching to get a reaction in a dinner. They got different reactions but one of the patrons cought and punched the so-called thief. It would have been horrible if it went further than that and I tought then as now that it is irresponsible, No matter who does it.
leave the psych experiments to the college professors
ABC is notorious for this kind of thing. Frequently they take sides in an issue, then join hands with the stooges on the side they’ve joined, and call it journalism. See: ABC in cahoots with the United Food and Commercial Workers Union in a staged attack on Food Lion Stores a few years back.
What would be great is if some could edit this for youtube and put the title as something along the lines of “Dems out gay bashing in NJ bar”. That video wouls spread like wild fire and ABC would have to run quick to put it out.
Herb, I think any of these staged “news events” are not news and are not events. Journalists should not be manipulating people or events to produce stories. The circumstances or the intent do not matter because the tactic itself is wrong.
If ABC really wants to provoke violence and hatred why doesn’t it hire an actor to portray a Jewish conservative applying for a faculty position at the Columbia History Department
So entrapment is an acceptable method in the modern media.
To bad they did not get a guy in a Ann Coulter t-shirt to shoot the gays. That would have gotten a Grammy for sure.
Further to what Bruce #37 said, if ABC wants to provoke violence and hatred, it should send some people into the Castro in SF holding signs that ready “Mormons for Proposition 8!”.
#39, you don’t need to even mention Prop 8. Just have some Mormons hand out pamphlets unrelated to homosexuals, or carry generic signs concerning faith. Then get one rabble rousing flamobyant person to accoust them. See how many jump in.
The MSM is a complete joke.
Before you get mad about it being staged, just remember it was staged to prove a point.
haha. Awesome. A staged event proves exactly what?
And let’s make a bit of a correction in your last post, you know, so you can compare apples to apples.
…
To all the folks who slammed me for pointing out the hypocrisy, let me ask you a question:
If Fox News ran this story in the same way to disprove the idea that conservatives were bigots, would you object to the story and its methods then too?
…
More than that…if Fox News
ranstaged a story in which “a gay man harass[es] a couple of Christians carrying Bibles and praying at a gay bar,” would you make the same complaints about the methods and integrity of the newscast?…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQalRPQ8stI
I am reminded of that YouTube vidoe of people walking through Manhattan with John McCain shirts and signs.
The real story here is that some news organization (like Fox, since others wouldn’t touch it w/ a 10 foot pole, except John Stossel) needs to do a story just like this, with gays or “liberals” or Obamians or whatever in small town South, or NASCAR races, places like that, and film the results.
THEN, get Mormons (as mentioned here) or evengelicals, or Sarah Palin supporters, etc to walk throuhg the very heart of our most “tolerant” cities of New York, Seattle, San Francisco, etc, not to mention our campuses…. and film that as well.
Every single one of us reading this knows exactly what would result. We ALL know who in those two stories would be the rabid, intolerant, insulting ones.
It would be great TV, and would make a point that damn sure needs to be made.
This is phony journalism at it’s finest. Gotta love both left coasts.
I would also like to add. I have an ex that is a supposed liberal. I have both gay and black friends, yet his friends are nothing but “union” thugs. He is also on disability and states he’s just “playing” the system. Whatever that means.
HERB, read the story. Your biased questions are (essentially) already answered there.
The intolerance of the left is so easy to illustrate that no ‘setup’ is needed. Just have a conservative message on your shirt while walking through any Liberal infested neighborhood.
Herb, you can even try that yourself. IF you have the courage, put on that T shirt and take a stroll down the sidewalk.
#17 Herb – Strawman argument. “If FoxNews did it….”
The point is that FoxNews wouldn’t do it. The fact that ABC did it is the point. It is like running a dishonest poll to get the results you want rather than getting the truth.
Wow, what a great idea! Parlaying Bystander Apathy (always reliable and nearly infinite in supply) to prove up the bona fides of the Victim Group du jour! The possibilities are infinite.
Most MSM “reporters” try to appear objective in their pieces that one would come to the conclusion they have to be from another planet that they transform themselves into a cartoon of themselves; otherwise, I just see them as egotistical blow hards with little common sense.
The piece came off a mean-spirited & cruel for the people not in on the hidden camera & the so-called reporting of the subject.
Uh-huh.
The lesson here is pretty clear.
If you’re in a straight bar, and see a pair of Gays in the corner, making kissy-face, then look around for a media-type drone…
…and then celebrate your right to privacy by beating the snot outta the schmuck with the hidden camera.
‘Cuz let’s face it, NOBODY wants THEIR KIND in here.
50. Bilgeman:
“…and then celebrate your right to privacy by beating the snot outta the schmuck with the hidden camera.”
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA … *gasp*…*wheeze* …
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA … *gasp*…*wheeze*…
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA …
Thanks, Bilgeman, it was a really crappy day and I needed a good laugh. Yours was great!
There is no pravda in the news and no news in the Pravda.
As usual, the Onion got their first. The real media is so pathetic these days that satire is almost impossible.
http://www.theonion.com/content/video/reporters_expose_airport_security
51. Войска ПВО:
“Thanks, Bilgeman, it was a really crappy day and I needed a good laugh.”
Glad to be of service, amigo.
I guess in ABC view we really have no news now so to have a show ABC has to make it up. That way I don’t look at news shows.
“25. Bill Perron:
You are hereby awarded the Liberal Attaboy Award!”
Bill, who said I’m a liberal? Oh…right…I’m not on board with the whole “waaaaah the MSM is liberal” movement, so bing….must be a liberal!
46. SammHill:
“The intolerance of the left is so easy to illustrate that no ’setup’ is needed.”
Hmmmm…seems ABC thought the same thing about “conservatives” at sports bars. But it’s only an issue when the liberals do it…
Spare me the nonsense.
Herb: “Before you get mad about it being staged, just remember it was staged to prove a point. Kind of like an Easter passion play at church, only about a different subject.”
Yep, the point was proved all right. ABC thinks people who frequent sports bars are bigots. Turns out they were wrong.
Fortunately for the TV station, they were able to salvage a story out of it.
oh and by the way Herb, thanks for the Passion Play example that us simplistic God-fearing yokels can relate to. Only problem is a passion play is not intended to “prove a point.” Which kind of undermines yours.
37, 39, 40.
Of course, as you no doubt already realize, this would prove nothing to lefties.
It isn’t only that they have a one-sided, politicized definition of “hate”, it is also that they believe that it is perfectly acceptable to hate those whom they themselves have labelled as “haters”. It is a very convenient definition, and it eliminates any chance for nuanced or respectful differences of belief. Any moral or ethical discussion is from that point short-circuited.
It really does remind me of working with little kids (and the occassionally intellectually and ethically challenged teen). Once they have been wronged, they are absolved of any responsibility or restrictions as to how they treat other people.
He hates me, so it is okay if I hate him. And I get to decide what “hate” means, and who has it.
#8 Herb:
“Before you get mad about it being staged, just remember it was staged to prove a point.”
And what point would that be, chum?
That ABC should brush their hair and wear a hat?
C’mon…admit it. It was an attempted piece of blatant stereotyping propaganda and it backfired.
The NRA Christian in the SF coffee shop would never even see the light of day, since anyone fair-minded enough to broach the subject at the producers’ meeting would have been ridiculed and ostracized…and received a flat “No”.
That is the point that was made.
Herb said: “If Fox News ran this story in the same way to disprove the idea that conservatives were bigots, would you object to the story and its methods then too?”
It’s likely that you’re correct in your implication that people would be more forgiving if the shoe was on the other foot. In the same way, someone can (and did) ask you that if Fox did this, would you feel the same way as you did in regards to ABC? And thus we go round and round.
However, there are two things to keep in mind here:
1- ABC *did* pull this cheap little stunt, and you felt that there was little or no reason to be upset by it.
2- Fox has *not* pulled this cheap little stunt, and therefore any conjecture about how any of us would react must remain just that– conjecture.
to “abc news”. don’t judge a book just by it’s cover, unless you cover just another, ’cause blind acceptance is a sign, of stupid fools who stand in line, like…….#8, abc, nbc, cbs, fbi, cia, atf ,etc.
Thank you for bringing this issue up. Usually the argument is “the media has no news to report,” and maybe that’s the deeper cause of this. Of course, the fact that ABC News has a clear agenda doesn’t hurt.
But I think something else has to be stated: pulling a stunt like this, a “gotcha” scenario in which the media-types can be better than everyone else, is the mark of uneducated people, people who can’t think for themselves.
I mean, there are a million stories I can think of that are worth pursuing. Our prisons are a mess; Indian reservations are still in awful shape despite the casinos; the debates in economic circles about the crisis need to be presented more fully to the public; the GOP is regrouping but having a tough time online, still; etc. You don’t need to be liberal or conservative in order to find good stories. But you need to be genuinely curious, not a “know-it-all.”
This sort of stunt absolutely stems from someone who thinks they know better already, and that there’s nothing left to explore except how awful everyone else is.
So now the media is supposed to be “proving” points (anecdotally) through staged (as in not real) productions instead of reporting real news. Who gets to decide what needs “proving”? And what’s the criteria?
Should they set up 0bama and snip the wires on his teleprompter to “prove” that he’s an idiot? That would actually come a lot closer to a true proof.
I wonder what percentage of the public understands what the word “prove” means?
Forget the topic for a sec. There used to be a standard of journalism that said if the reporter was in the store there wasn’t a story. Writing and speaking in the 3rd person was a requirement. Now – we create biased polls – and then make the poll result the story. And we have bits like this one where a staged piece of fiction is created and then reported as news. The amazing thing is that ABC was not able to create the train wreck they wanted even with an infinite number of takes and the ability to take this out of context.
Reporting is dead. Main stream media is agenda based spin from start to finish.
It reminds me of a news conference given by the Ontario Premier, that had to do with job losses in the thousands. A show that tries to be funny, “This hour has 22 minutes”, interrupted the news conference. Well, a member of the Provincial Parliament (Ontario, like all Canadian provinces, has a unicameral legislature, just like Nebraska), put an end to that foolishness.
Put plain and simple, ABC like CBC, is engaging in alienating people who normally do not watch their network; and those numbers are climbing.
Isn’t this similar what some bloggers have done with sock puppet accounts? They post vile comments on an enemy’s blog and then complain about how bad that blog is because of all the vile comments.
Of course, real reporting is almost dead because real reporting is HARD! Asking all those questions and doing research is hard and often boring work. It is a far easier to simply hire some actors and setup cameras to follow the action. This isn’t news, this is theater.
The liberal news is bringing down this country. It is a constant drumbeat to dismantle the stength of this nation and march towards Socialism.
Well, guys, it appears one of your own decided to kill a bunch of people in an immigration center in NY to help take America back. Well done.
Who are these “guys” you’re impugning, “Erasmus”? The liberals who have led people to believe laws are only selectively applied, that if you’re a favored demographic the government will give you what you want? Rather than “take America back” it’s equally likely a frustrated individual decided the government functionaries were standing between him and the government handouts he’s been hearing so much about.
Um, Erasmus, as I understand it, this guy who shot people was Asian, and by your blind bias, oh itss immigration has to be a republican, um what? Well done whom? You miss the point here as well as in the other comment in another comment today. Well done you sir! think about this: make sure brain is engaged before putting mouth in gear.
#69 Erasmus:
“Well, guys, it appears one of your own decided to kill a bunch of people in an immigration center in NY to help take America back. Well done.”
And YOUR guys made sure that every law abiding citizen in that center was lawfully unarmed.
Jusr like at Virginia Tech.
Just like the Long Island Railroad.
Just like Luby’s Cafeteria in Kileen TX,
and just like the San Ysidro McDonald’s.
Your accomplishments are legendary in this regard.
#72 Bilgeman – I wandered over here to see if there were updates, and what do I find? “Erasmus” (and it should be a sin to take that guy’s name in vain) just repeating the nonsense Steve P (the nut one) put on another thread.
#69 Erasmus – I’ll ask you the same question I put to Steve P (the nut one) – on what basis do you make this claim? Why do you think politics played any role in this? And how can you justify taking the sorrow of all the victims of this and trashing it for cheap political purposes? What possible benfit is there for anyone in doing so?
#73 Halifax:
“I wandered over here to see if there were updates, and what do I find?”
That Erasmus tried dumping still-warm dead bodies at our feet with a wheel barrow, and I used a hopper barge to bury HIM in a mountain of innocent stinking corpses.
Shut him up, though, didn’t it?
And I’ve got a whole continents full of bodies in unmarked graves of those who were disarmed by law in the face of predatory violence.
And he at least seems smart enough to realize it.
73 and 74
Well said. On top of #69 being liberal – he is evil. Hey #69 go find your own people – media matters.
What Would You Do? is simply the MSM trying their hand at front line leftist social engineering.
Read more on the cult of tolerance here:
The Myth of Relativism and the Cult of Tolerance
http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/03/the_myth_of_relativism_and_the.html
and here:
When Tolerance Trumps Truth
http://www.ncregister.com/site/article/8047
Hi I am fairly new to blogging as I am getting a little older and not so up to date with computers but am finding it wonderful and I wish we had it 25 years ago