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crossposted on Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters
I'm sure Rep. Steve King and those 52 Republicans in the House expected some type of response for their letter asking that the President fire Kevin Jennings.
But the response they are getting isn't the one they should want.
Several blogs and organizations have rallied around Jennings, calling attention to the fact that the attacks on his character is nothing more than a smear campaign because he is an openly gay man:
The Huffington Post:
Shame on the 53 Republican Congressmen who have signed a letter asking for Kevin Jennings' head on a silver platter. They have started a witch hunt. Van Jones was first. Now Kevin Jennings. I'm sure there is a list.
There. I've said it. For those of you who read my posts here, you know me to be fairly measured in my points of view. Today I don't feel measured.
I am mad. But I am going to take a deep breath and step back.
People for the American Way:
“Kevin Jennings has dedicated his entire career to ensuring that all students are safe in school,” said Keegan. “Kids can't learn when they're not safe, and Kevin's work has won unanimous praise from across the education community. He's exactly the kind of person who should be in charge of the Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools. It's disappointing that some opponents of this administration would rather attack Jennings and his work to score political points than actually protect kids.”
Truth Wins Out:
“Jennings ‘real agenda’ was promoting tolerance and stopping children from essentially getting mugged in schools because of their real or perceived sexual orientation,” said Besen. “These attempts to slime Jennings have nothing to do with his exemplary record or qualifications. Instead, extremists are trying to use Jennings as a proxy to further their culture war.This backlash against King's letter can be pinpointed to anger over one portion of the letter – the part which accused Jennings of covering up potential sexual abuse of a minor.
King's letter made this charge weeks after it had been widely and publicly debunked. Also, according to Greg Sargent of Plum Line, King's office was informed of the falsity of the charge BEFORE the letter was sent out.
This blatant attempt at lying even had gay conservative commentator Andrew Sullivan crying foul:
. . .to send a letter to the president that repeats what is clearly untrue strikes me as a classic part of the usual strategy of trying to accuse gay people of child-abuse. And King knew the charge was untrue, because we know Greg Sargent told his office, and even Fox News corrected its smear.
More concern has been raised over the New York Times's coverage of the controversy. The article published looked like a listing of points rather than giving more detail behind the claims lodged against Jennings. Among other things, the article failed to note that the charge against Jennings involving the “underaged minor” was debunked.
John Aravosis of Americablog took the article's writer, David Kirkpatrick, to task:
Reporters, like the NYT's David Kirkpatrick, get played by both sides of the aisle. And it's the reporters' job to sniff through the spin, and the bull, and find out if there's a real story underneath. It is not the reporters' job to simply reprint one side's accusations as “news,” without questioning the source, or pointing out the obvious errors in the charge itself.
Media Matters gave a breakdown of the things the article should have mentioned but didn't.
On the Support Kevin Jennings page via Facebook, there was a huge jump of supporters since King's letter came out.
This is excellent news, but those of us who support Jennings shouldn't slack up in the least.
Those who are intent on Jennings' dismissal have shown that they won't let truth or public embarrassment stand in the way of their attempts.
12 Comments
Illinois Family Institute publishes letters to the editor in IL newspapers about JenningsIf I may blogwhore for a moment, it looks like the Illinois Family Institute (of Porno Pete fame) has gotten a couple of letters published in local newspapers, including mine. None of this should be a surprise, but I did a takedown of the letter here:
David E. Smith: homophobic douche-yokel
Oh joy!I just took another look at the letter, and it seems our local boy (who’s also an ass kisser and toe licker of John Boehner!) signed on to this letter…. guess it’s time to take pixel in hand and write to our dear “Rep.” Bob Latta!!
Breibart TV was smearing Kevin as a member of ACT UPI posted about this on the open thread.
Just getting all angry about this, triggered a sh*t load of grief, so I’m not going to dwell on it today.
I did point out to those A$$wipes, the blood supply never would have been screened for HIV without ACT UP, and no need for them to THANK US. My straight HIV doctor, one of the leading in the field, was himself an ACT UP member.
Van Jones I’ll keep this brief, but I think that a certain amount of the responsibility for this nonsense falls on the Obama administration because of its poor handling of the Van Jones situation. I think that their silence gave a sign to the right that they can just pick off progressive members of the administration without a fight. I hope that they step up with the Jennings situation and put an end to this.
I wouldn’t call this backlash, just reaction.Backlash would imply that GOP was feeling some hurt. But much of this is the usual suspects, Huff Post, PFAW, TWO, Aravosis, etc… that consistently gun for this crew of GOoPers.
These are people that, as great as it is to have them as allies, aren’t really registering with the mainstream media. And your own article points out the MSM, personified by the NY Times, is at least partially onboard with the witchhunt, giving it creditability by mentioning the charges but not the actual (contradictory) facts.
Christ, it shows how far off the gridthey are to consider ACT-UP not a proud line in anyone’s resume. Sure, they were contraversial at the time, but in retrospect, I think we can all agree, the apathy at the Federal level very much warranted their actions and they have been vindicated by anyone who doesn’t still share Reagan’s apathy at the AIDS crisis.
So they accuse him of crimes,and there will be no repercussions. I wonder whether this means I could publicly accuse Rep. King of breaking into my house at night and kicking my cat with similar safety.
Jennings has been targeted for 6 or 8 weeksI think that Obama admin has stood by him thus far is testament to the fact that they may have regrets about Van and may have woken up to the value of showing Rush, Beck, et al who is really in charge.
At least my fingers are crossed that’s what’s going on.
That bastard!I hope your cat is okay.
My thoughts exactly. When there’s real backlash King will apologize and retract the letter, lest he damage his chances of being re-elected.
Every word of support from those peopledoesn’t provide help much if the NY Times remains on the fence, entertaining the homophobes’ lies and delusions, unfortunately.
That said, I think Jennings would have been gone by now if he was going. Absent new relevalatins, I think he’s safe. The RW is now desperately making up lies about him being a NAMBLA supporter, and that means they’ve run out of gas.
She’s shaken –it’s not every day that we have Republican members of Congress flying out to California to break into my apartment and kick my cat — but it happens often enough that she’s learned to cushion the impact and then bite back. If you see any Congressional Republican limping in the next week, we can of course consider this conclusive proof of an anti-cat conspiracy in the GOP.