Jay Sekulow and the ACLJ are Fear-Mongering Liars

The emails I receive from Wingnut mailing lists are a constant source of amusement (and amazement) for me.

One of my favorites is the weekly ?BE VERY AFRAID OF?.? email from Jay Sekulow of the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) because of the creative ways they twist the truth to push their wingnut agenda.

Before I talk about this week?s email- let me clear one thing up: the ACLJ is NOT, as the name might imply, anything like the ACLU.

The ACLU’s goal is “to defend and preserve individual rights and liberties” – and they mean it. They will defend anyone and everyone- from Oliver North to NAMBLA- who has had their civil liberties put at risk.

The ACLJ, on the other hand, is nothing more than the legal arm of Pat Robertson’s Christofascist empire. According to their email disclaimer, the ACLJ is actually “a d/b/a for Christian Advocates Serving Evangelism, Inc., a tax-exempt, not-for-profit, religious corporation.”

Put another way:

The ACLU supports the Separation of church and state while the ACLJ seeks to end this separation and turn our country into a Christian, theocratic state.

So anyway, back to the email.

Like all of the emails I received from the ACLJ, this week’s message intends to scare me into donating money or signing some petition. This week it?s a petition.

This week?s subject: Congress threatening to silence conservatives!

Oooh? Scary.

The basic message is this: “the liberal faction of Congress” is trying to “stifle the opposition and suppress opposing views” (i.e. conservative talk radio”) by reinstating the “Fairness Doctrine.”

The “fairness doctrine”, if you didn’t already know, “required broadcasters to grant reply time to those who said their views were criticized.”

So, for example, if Rush Limbaugh makes a “Phony Soldiers” accusation- the radio station would have to provide equal time to allow for a response from Iraq war veterans who were the target of Limbaugh’s attack.

This seems pretty fair to me and, I suppose, is why they called it the ?fairness doctrine?.

Unfortunately the FCC, under President Reagan, killed the fairness doctrine 20 years ago!

And no one- not even “the liberal faction of Congress” has tried to reintroduce it.

This makes Jay Sekulow and the ACLJ a bunch of fear-mongering liars- in addition to being Christofascist asshats.

It also makes me wonder why the ACLJ is REALLY wants me to sign their petition.

p.s. If anyone disagrees with me- I?ll gladly give them equal time and space here at Plunderbund to defend against my allegations of lying and asshatedness. It only seems fair.