There has been a lot of broo-hah-hah lately about mainstream and alternative media reporting of "hate crimes," especially since the murder by two homosexual men of 13-year-old (heterosexual) Jesse Dirkhising.
On the one hand, the mainstream media, led by "http://www.washingtonpost.com" Ombudsman E.R. Shipp, has accused the conservative-wing of the alternative media--especially "http://www.worldnetdaily.com" Editor Joseph Farah, whom she called a "David Duke" supporter--of using the Dirkhising case as "proof" that the establishment media favors reporting murders of gays and ignoring murders by gays and thus kow-tows to poilitical correctness. Shipp (in the article cited below) claims, in defense of the Post's lack of reporting the case, that the murder of gay student Matthew Shepard by two thugs was a "hate crime" as it was done specifically because Shepard was gay; meanwhile, Dirkhising's murder was not done because Jesse was heterosexual--it was done for sex reasons. The need for the mainstream press to make the distinction came about because of Christian groups calling for more exposure of the Dirkhising case, which they felt was deliberately ignored in the establishment media since Dirkhising was not a member of a "protected" group, such as homosexuals. See "http://news.lycos.com/headlines/TopNews/...", the article entitled "US Anti-Gay Groups See Rallying Point in Arkansas Murder" (A Reuters article).
On the other hand, the alternative media, led by Farah and WorldNetDaily, see the lack of reporting of the Dirkhising case precisely as the mainstream press choosing to ignore Dirkhising's murder because the perpetrators, two homosexual men, are members of a "protected" group in the world of political correctness. That is, they too are using this case for their own agenda--only they won't admit it (Farah has claimed many times that it was time for a "New Media" to replace the politically correct "old" media, and, in fact, organized a conference in LA months ago for that purpose). See the article titled "Klayman, Farah Demand Retraction" from Shipp (regarding an accusation that Farah was like KKKer David Duke) in "http://www.worldnetdaily.com/bluesky_exn...". To WNDs credit, however, they did in fact break the story nationally.
My point in all this: what difference does it make if a murder is called a "hate crime" or a "sex crime"? Several years in jail, it turns out. Simply put, perpetrators of a "hate crime" murer will spend more time in jail than other murderers. But is that out of "political correctness" or is that because those laws receive heavy lobbying efforts from gay groups? I tend to believe the latter. Follow the lobbyists' money trail.
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