Wednesday, June 13, 2007

The Real "Gay Bomb"

The Gay Bomb (a recently resurrected 2005 story) and Fred Thompson have something in common: special placement on Paul Harvey's daily radio program.

This morning, I was listening to the radio and caught a bit of Paul Harvey. He did a story claiming that the United States military has admitted working on, and then discarding, technology to create a "Gay Bomb." He said that the idea was to drop a non-lethal bomb that would contain high levels of hormones and aphrodisiacs rendering troops so interested in having sex with each other, they would be unable to fight. Don't even get me started about the implications of this mindset for our gay men and women who are currently serving in our own military.

Initially, I thought it was just absolute homophobic crap, but a quick Google search has me asking another question. Turns out, this story was reported by the BBC in 2005, and it was also reported on FOX in 2005. If this story broke in 2005, then why are Harvey (click here and then scroll down and click on Wednesday AM to listen) and other American news outlets reporting this today as news? The answer is easy: it's nothing other than blatant, fear-mongering propaganda.

Neither is it an accident that in 2006 none other than Sen. Fred Thompson (as in, I'm sort of running for President Fred Thompson) signed on as Paul Harvey's substitute. Those of us old enough to remember will recall that before he ran for President, Ronald Regan also spent a good deal of time on the radio. I can recall my father listen to the radio as he got ready for work in the mornings, blood pressure rising as Regan talked. This is, as that was, a calculated, strategic use of "mainstream media."

It is crystal clear that fear of and bigotry regarding gays will be a weapon in the arsenal of the GOP during the upcoming battle for the Presidency. From the attacks on Sen. Edwards to the support of "don't ask, don't tell" in the military, the radical right wing of the Republican party appears to have been given free reign to wage this campaign of hate.

Now, does someone out there want to argue with me about the "objectivity" of mainstream media?

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