The Cincinnati Post |
Editorial Page
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Oct. 22, 1998 |
| The abduction, beating, robbery, and murder of Matthew Shepard is a horrible crime and shows the lowest depths of human evil against human. We are all rightfully nauseated and disgraced that fellow humans and fellow Americans could do such a thing. Fortunately, we already have laws that will punish such acts with imprisonment or even death. Unfortunately, the media has jumped on a band wagon with the gay public relations machine that is championing this crime as the tip of an iceberg of hate crimes.
The media has a long history of using such an emotional crime to whip the country into a thought stampede. The example that stands out in my mind comes from 1996. I remember that as the year when all the black churches of the South would be burned down if we didn’t act quickly. It started early in 1996 with a press conference by some black church leaders who stated their concerns and had recent examples of churches that were torched as hate crimes against blacks. The daily and weekly mainstream print media along with the network television news whipped |
the country into a stampede of emotional outrage at this new trend. The results were massive. There was a flood of giving. For months we worried and editorialized about a terrible new trend toward racism and scratched for extremist groups to blame.
The other night on the Fox News, I heard the head of a gay advocacy group postulate that for every reported hate crime "there may be another 10 unreported." Seems like 1996 all over again! An emotional rush to control people’s thoughts and opinions and perhaps statements (in Canada it is a crime to publicly disagree with someone else’s sexual orientation, because that might place a motive for someone to commit a hate crime). All I can say is, "Look out America, here comes another thought stampede." John W. Kirby, Hyde Park
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