On Thursday's Early Show, CBS's Seth Doane and Chris Wragge lauded playwright Larry Kramer and his "brilliantly done…and very good" play, "The Normal Heart," while glossing over his long history of radical homosexual activism. Kramer once denigrated former President Ronald Reagan as "Adolf Reagan" and even went so far to call for "Nuremberg trials" to try not only Reagan, but even the top brass of the New York Times for perpetrating a "holocaust" against homosexuals.

Doane's report on the Tony-nominated play aired 14 minutes into 8 am Eastern hour as part of the morning show's regular "CBS Health Watch" feature. The correspondent touted "The Normal Heart" as "a moving reminder of how far we've come, and how far we still have to go." After playing some clips from the active Broadway production, Doane played his first clips from his interview of Kramer. The writer himself made the only vague reference to his role as an "activist," and the journalist decided to highlight how his subject passed out literature after each showing of the play:

DOANE (voice-over): Playwright Larry Kramer based the main character, Ned Weeks, on his own life.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR 1 (from the play "The Normal Heart"): Welcome to gay politics-

DOANE: A man outraged at those ignoring the disease.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR 1: I'm beginning to think that you and your straight world are our enemy-

KRAMER: I was not an activist until 1981, believe it or not.

DOANE (on-camera, from taped interview): Until AIDS.

KRAMER: Until AIDS, yes.

DOANE (voice-over): (clip of protesters chanting, "Hey hey, ho ho") Back in '81, when those first cases appeared, AIDS was called a 'gay cancer'- little was known, though much was feared….

DOANE (on-camera): The actors told us that the director told them to think of this as a horror story.

KRAMER: It was that. It was- it's still a horror story.

DOANE (voice-over): AIDS rates continue to climb, with 7,000 new cases identified worldwide every day, giving reason for Kramer to keep fighting.

ELLEN BARKIN, TONY NOMINEE, FEATURE ACTRESS IN A PLAY: You will find Larry Kramer outside the theater, handing out a flier, educating the audiences.

Later in the segment, Doane used Kramer's own label about himself as he interviewed a doctor who treats AIDS patients:

DOANE (on-camera): Are activists, like Larry Kramer, raising their voice today, 30 years later, for good reason?

DR. JONATHAN JACOBS, INFECTIOUS DISEASES, WEILL CORNELL MEDICAL CENTER: Oh, the activists are definitely raising their voice for good reason. Unfortunately, most of the activists from the early days have actually died of this disease. So, there are fewer left.

The playwright is much more than a mere "activist" (he gave a further hint of his radicalism with the copy of "The Chomsky-Foucault Debate on Human Nature" that was proudly displayed on his desk, but only momentarily visible during the report; see screen cap here. Of course, both Noam Chomsky and Michel Foucault are well-known leftists.). The militant organization ACT UP, which infamously disrupted a Catholic Mass at New York City's St. Patrick's Cathedral in 1989, credits Kramer as being an inspiration for the founding of the organization, after he gave a speech in 1987 beseeching the local homosexual community to become more politically active.

Over a decade later, after the 2004 death of former President Reagan, the writer published an essay in The Advocate magazine bearing the "Adolf Hitler" slur as its title. As MRC president Brent Bozell noted in his June 16 column that year, the essay began with even more vitriol: "Our murderer is dead. The man who murdered more gay people than anyone in the entire history of the world, is dead. More people than Hitler even."

Two year later, Bozell spotlighted Kramer again as he expanded his Nazi comparison to include not only Reagan, but also the leaders of The New York Times:

Just a few weeks ago, a…panel on the 25th anniversary of the first New York Times article on AIDS included radical activist Larry Kramer, who distributed his wild remarks in advance, claiming among other things that "the gay population of the world has been and continues to be targeted for extinction." His written remarks also called for "Nuremberg trials" to hold not only the late Ronald Reagan, but the owners and editors of – how's this for gratitude?– The New York Times to be tried like Nazi war criminals for the AIDS holocaust.

None of this came up at any point during Doane's report. In fact, he and Wragge concluded the segment with further praise of the writer:

DOANE (voice-over): But with 'The Normal Heart' now on Broadway, Larry Kramer is affecting a new generation of audiences.

DOANE (on-camera): When I watched the play, there were people all around me in tears by the end.

KRAMER: Good. I wrote this play to make people cry- good. It's the saddest thing I've ever known.

DOANE: AIDS?

KRAMER: AIDS- the whole thing; not just the illness, the fact that people die needlessly. That's what makes you cry.

DOANE (live): In the production, the real names of those who've died because of AIDS are projected on the stage. It's a tragic list that only continues to grow. The play is scheduled to remain on Broadway through July 10th.

WRAGGE: And it is a brilliant play-

DOANE: It really is-

WRAGGE: We've talked to Jim Parsons, who has been on the program before. Ellen Barkin is wonderful in it. James Benjamin Hickey, like you mentioned, also nominated for a Tony for it. For a play that sends such a wonderful message, I don't want to, I guess, give the impression to the people that it's this one real long, depressing play. It's brilliantly done and it's very good.

DOANE: And it's funny-

WRAGGE: Yeah-

DOANE: There are a lot of very funny moments through the entire production. The audience is laughing and crying, but mostly crying by the end.

WRAGE: But Mr. Kramer is- he's out there at the end, handing out those pamphlets.

DOANE: He is.

WRAGGE: Seth, thank you very much.

On Monday's Newsroom, CNN's Kyra Phillips gave a false impression of Pope Benedict XVI's recent comments about condoms. While the Pope stated that condom use "can be a first step…on the way toward recovering an awareness that not everything is allowed," Phillips stated that the pontiff "says condoms are okay sometimes." Refreshingly, Monday's Today show on NBC accurately covered Benedict's remarks.

The anchor previewed CNN correspondent Atika Schubert's report on the pontiff's comments 10 minutes into the 9 am Eastern hour with her inaccurate description: "Well, the Catholic Church and condoms: two things that have never really gone together until now. The Pope, quoted in a new book, says condoms are okay sometimes. Now, that's a talker!" After a commercial break, Phillips continued with another misleading statement:

PHILLIPS: Pope Benedict is bending a bit when it comes to condoms. A new book actually quotes him as saying that they are okay to use in certain circumstances, like to prevent disease, not birth control. It's the first time the Church has ever talked about exceptions to the condom rule.…Here's a part of what the Pope says in the book. See if your eyebrows raise a little bit. It says- quote, 'There could be single cases that can be justified. For instance, when a prostitute uses a condom.' Say what? (laughs) Doesn't it kind of sound like the Pope is justifying prostitution, too? Surely not, but what a bizarre analogy.

read more

Host Behar started the interview by asking Moore his views on former Democratic Congressman Eric Massa, who recently resigned amid charges that he sexually harassed male aides. Moore used the opportunity to bash gay Republicans as he praised the film Outrage which seeks to expose Republicans rumored to be gay. Moore:

I saw a great documentary this year – it didn`t get much distribution – it was called Outrage. … the filmmaker actually exposes the members of Congress who are gay but only exposes the ones who have voted against gay or HIV issues – in other words, the hypocrisy. … it`s a compelling movie, and actually Massa is a Democrat – 99 percent of these closeted gay members of Congress are Republicans.

Behar agreed that the film was a "great" documentary, and, after she recounted that some conservatives "embraced" Massa at first because he was attacking the Obama administration, Moore quipped, "I`m sure during the 24-hour embrace many of those Republicans enjoyed it."

As the discussion turned to President Obama’s continuation of the war in Afghanistan, Moore gave his view that the murder of almost 3,000 people in the 9/11 attacks should have been treated like a criminal act and handled by the justice system instead of through war, to Behar’s agreement:

MICHAEL MOORE: I just think, look, it`s best to treat people who commit murder like this as criminals.

JOY BEHAR: Right.

MOORE: That was our whole wrong approach to this. We treated it as a military operation when it should have been a criminal operation. You do what the Israelis do, you send in the Mossad, and you grab them and you bring them to justice. And that`s the end of that. And that’s, you know, well, I mean, after a trial and, you know, a jury verdict.

BEHAR: Of course. There has to be a trial.

The HLN host soon brought up former Bush advisor Karl Rove’s recent contention that American voters are "not easily misled," prompting Moore to suggest that President Bush and Rove fooled Americans because America is a "society of ignorant and illiterate people."

MOORE: The bad side of the coin is we have created a society of ignorant and illiterate people. Our schools have done this, our media has helped to contribute to this. We have 40 million adults in this country right now who are functional illiterates. That means they can`t read and write above a fourth grade-level. When you have a society that dumb, so to speak, that ignorant-

BEHAR: Well, ignorant, yeah.

MOORE: -that, well, dumb, I mean, dumb in the sense of-

BEHAR: Uneducated.

MOORE: -well, they`ve been kept that way.

BEHAR: Illiterate.

MOORE: I mean, it`s an enforced dumbness by a system that doesn`t value education that puts it low on the list of priorities.

Below is a transcript of relevant portions of the Thursday, March 11, Joy Behar Show on CNN Headline News:

JOY BEHAR: Just when you thought "Ticklegate" couldn`t get any worse, former Congressman Eric Massa is facing new allegations that years ago he climbed into a Navy shipmate`s bunk bed and tried to snorkel him. Creepy, right? I don`t even really know what it means. Here to talk about Massa-

MICHAEL MOORE, FILMMAKER: Don`t look at me. I went to the seminary. Oh, actually, that might indict me. How did I end up on this show?

BEHAR: Don`t say anything about the seminary.

MOORE: All right.

BEHAR: Okay, you know who he is, Oscar-winning filmmaker Michael Moore. All righty.

MOORE: Well, to be honest, I just did come from taking a shower with Rahm Emanuel.

BEHAR: Did you really?

MOORE: Yeah, and I want to say there was no finger poking or anything.

BEHAR: Nothing?

MOORE: He was a true gentleman. And, actually, he had the kind of soap that has the little speckles in it that gives you kind of the loofah effect while you’re sudsing so you don`t need a loofah. The guy is way ahead of his time.

BEHAR: Do you know what snorkeling is?

MOORE: I`ve never heard. I think it`s something you do in the Caribbean when you go on vacation.

BEHAR: I don`t think this particular type has anything to do with seeing a coral reef. I think it has some other meaning that people look, have to look up in the urban dictionary and then they`ll find out what it is.

MOORE: Yeah. Have you looked it up?

BEHAR: Someone did. Someone did on the staff.

MOORE: But not you?

BEHAR: No, I have virgin ears.

MOORE: Right.

BEHAR: So what do you make of this Massa mess? Let`s talk about it.

MOORE: Well, you know, I think we`ve all been bored, it`s the middle of winter.

BEHAR: I know.

MOORE: We need some entertainment. You know, I guess, honestly, I`ll tell you how I really feel. I feel bad. I feel really bad that we still live in a society where someone who is gay still feels the need to hide as deep in the closet as possible, even though when he himself is flinging the door wide open, he still feels this need to maintain this – actually I saw a great documentary this year – it didn`t get much distribution – it was called Outrage.

BEHAR: I saw it.

MOORE: Did you see it?

BEHAR: It`s great.

MOORE: Now, in this documentary, the filmmaker actually exposes the members of Congress who are gay but only exposes the ones who have voted against gay or HIV issues – in other words, the hypocrisy.

BEHAR: Right.

MOORE: He’s not just purposely outing them to out them. But it`s a compelling movie, and actually Massa is a Democrat – 99 percent of these closeted gay members of Congress are Republicans.

BEHAR: Yes. They`re the ones who vote against gay marriage.

MOORE: Right.

BEHAR: They vote against gays in the military, all that stuff.

MOORE: What`s odd about Massa is that he`s a Democrat. I mean, Democrats and liberals are generally accept – that`s the definition of a liberal, you know, "I accept you for who you are and I have an open mind." So it`s sad that he has to put himself through this.

BEHAR: The Republicans sort of embraced Massa for about 24 hours this week.

MOORE: Yeah, yeah.

BEHAR: But they dropped him like a hot rock right now.

MOORE: Right, yeah, well, yeah, yeah, but I`m sure during the 24-hour embrace many of those Republicans enjoyed it.

BEHAR: I hope so. I hope they did. So now do you think that – just to finish this up – do you think that Rahm Emanuel really did go into the shower naked and poke Massa and sort of intimidate him? Is Rahm Emanuel – is that typical behavior?

MOORE: No.

BEHAR: You don`t believe it?

MOORE: No, I don`t believe it. I don`t know him that well. His brother is my agent-

BEHAR: Ari.

MOORE: -the famous Ari.

BEHAR: He sounds like he`s notoriously evil also.

MOORE: Oh, no. No, no.

BEHAR: Ari?

MOORE: No, he is the force of good against the evil.

BEHAR: Is that so?

MOORE: Oh, absolutely.

BEHAR: Oh, really.

MOORE: Let me tell you this right now, Fahrenheit 9/11 never would have seen the light of day, it would never have been distributed in theaters had Ari Emanuel not exposed Disney who was going to put it on the shelf – because they own Miramax, that`s who did the film – and they weren`t going to distribute the film. And Ari went public with it on the front page of the New York Times. And they wouldn`t let him on the Disney lot for six months. So this was a, if you need an agent in Hollywood, call Ari at-

BEHAR: But I was really referring to the massacre at the William Morris office that he took over. It was pretty ugly over there. So that`s an inside thing, I think we probably don`t talk about.

MOORE: People don`t care about any of that stuff.

BEHAR: They only care about celebrities getting their projects done.

MOORE: There was an agent massacred in Hollywood? Oh, the horror.

BEHAR: I was at the William Morris office, and my agent got that scoop.

MOORE: Oh, I see. And I was at Endeavor, so essentially my agency-

BEHAR: Ate my agency.

MOORE: -ate your agency.

BEHAR: Yeah, that`s it.

MOORE: Ah, capitalism.

BEHAR: You see how it goes. Okay, you know what, Michael, we`re going to take a break and get comfortable because we have a lot to discuss. And we`ll be back in 60 seconds with more of Michael Moore, so don`t go away.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BEHAR: I`m back with Oscar-winning filmmaker Michael Moore. His most recent film Capitalism: A Love Story is out now on DVD, and this is a fabulous film. People should all rent that movie or buy it, at this point.

MOORE: Oh, no.

BEHAR: It’s really a good movie.

MOORE: You should have seen it in the movie theaters. I mean, we make films-

BEHAR: Oh, don`t, don`t, don`t, don’t-

MOORE: No, people should go to the theater to see a movie. I mean, unless you`ve just had a baby in the last couple of years, you can`t get out of the house, I understand.

BEHAR: But, Michael, it`s not playing in the theaters right now, so let’s move on.

MOORE: No, I know, so they missed it.

BEHAR: That ship has sailed.

MOORE: We should just worry about the next film now. Don`t sell any DVD`s.

BEHAR: What is your next film, by the way?

MOORE: I don`t have one.

BEHAR: Okay, let`s talk about the Democrats who really are on my last nerve.

MOORE: Yeah.

BEHAR: First of all-

MOORE: That`s generous. They`re on no nerve with me.

BEHAR: I mean, they are dropping all over the place, and we`re going to lose the whole Congress in November.

MOORE: That is correct, yeah. As I`ve said on my Web site, they`re in for an ass-whooping of biblical proportions, absolutely. If they don`t turn this around right now, if they don`t change, they don`t do the job they were sent there to do, it`s all over for them.

BEHAR: So what do they have – what does Obama have to do? You know, this whole thing about, you know, reaching over to the other side, that`s really – who cares?

MOORE: Yeah, no more kumbaya.

BEHAR: No, we`re done with that. And I don`t know if he has it in his personal character, his personality to be strict like Bush was.

MOORE: Right, which is a good thing and a bad thing because it actually – because I think he is a decent person; because I think he has a good heart.

BEHAR: He`s a gentleman.

MOORE: Absolutely. And I think he really came in there with wanting – he`s not going to give up his own personal political beliefs, but I think he really did want to, you know, figure out how to work with them. When they come into town, when the Republicans win, they get in their Hummers and they barrel down Pennsylvania Avenue with all guns blazing, get out of the way, we`re in charge. And these are the laws we`re going to pass. And that`s that. That`s not the Democratic way.

BEHAR: Why? Why? Why can`t we do that?

MOORE: Because we don`t like to start wars. We`re like a peaceful people.

BEHAR: Well, he`s in Afghanistan, he`s in the war. He`s doing it.

MOORE: Well, he inherited a war that, again, he doesn`t have the wherewithal to say, "You know what? That is a mistake." It wasn`t a mistake to go after the killers of 9/11. But al-Qaeda essentially is not in Afghanistan anymore.

BEHAR: I know. … We can`t catch up with them. They`re moving around.

MOORE: They`re everywhere.

BEHAR: Did you see that thing about Jihad Jane?

MOORE: That`s why the war will never end.

BEHAR: Did you see the Jihad Jane? She`s a blond with blue eyes type now – they can`t even like stereotype them anymore.

MOORE: I know. Yeah, well, I just think, look, it`s best to treat people who commit murder like this as criminals.

BEHAR: Right.

MOORE: That was our whole wrong approach to this. We treated it as a military operation when it should have been a criminal operation. You do what the Israelis do, you send in the Mossad, and you grab them and you bring them to justice. And that`s the end of that. And that’s, you know, well, I mean, after a trial and, you know, a jury verdict.

BEHAR: Of course. There has to be a trial. Now, Karl Rove has a book out.

MOORE: Yes.

BEHAR: And he said this, he said Americans are hard to mislead. Do you agree with that?

MOORE: No, actually, we`re quite an easy people to mislead in part because – and this is another reason why people in other countries actually do like us as individuals. We`re a very trusting people. We`re a very kind of-

BEHAR: Is that dumb?

MOORE: Well, no, it`s not dumb. It`s actually, wouldn`t you rather be a trusting person than not?

BEHAR: Well, there`s a difference between being trusting and being naive.

MOORE: Well, that`s, I`m just saying that`s the good side of the coin. The bad side of the coin is we have created a society of ignorant and illiterate people. Our schools have done this, our media has helped to contribute to this. We have 40 million adults in this country right now who are functional illiterates. That means they can`t read and write above a fourth grade-level. When you have a society that dumb, so to speak, that ignorant-

BEHAR: Well, ignorant, yeah.

MOORE: -that, well, dumb, I mean, dumb in the sense of-

BEHAR: Uneducated.

MOORE: -well, they`ve been kept that way.

BEHAR: Illiterate.

MOORE: I mean, it`s an enforced dumbness by a system that doesn`t value education that puts it low on the list of priorities. And I was just watching CNN here earlier today, and they had this guy on talking about this in terms of how the college tuition has gone up and kids, kids who come from the poor and working class, they were told to work hard in school all of these years and the ones who did, now they can`t afford to go to college.

BEHAR: Right.

MOORE: So what`s the message here?

BEHAR: The message is go to a state school. I went to Queens College and Stony Brooke, and I had paid nothing for my education practically. And-

MOORE: Well, but that, but that was, you know-

BEHAR: A long time ago.

MOORE: And in California and in New York a long time ago.

BEHAR: Yeah.

MOORE: I remember those times.

BEHAR: Yeah.

MOORE: I remember thinking people I knew that lived in these two states that got to go to college for free, I mean, you guys were like France.

BEHAR: That`s true.

MOORE: You know.

BEHAR: I had it all, $24 a term.

MOORE: Yeah.

BEHAR: All right, stick around, more with filmmaker Michael Moore on the way.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BEHAR: I`m back with Oscar-winning filmmaker and every Republican`s worst nightmare Michael Moore.

MOORE: No, no, I love Republicans. I, in fact, admire, I admire Republicans for-

BEHAR: All right, let`s do it again.

MOORE: Yes.

BEHAR: Okay, we`re back with the most charming man in show business, Michael Moore. Everyone loves him, Republicans, Democrats.

MOORE: I love Republicans.

BEHAR: Pinkos, commies.

MOORE: Oh, no those are the-

BEHAR: Right-wing zealots, Glenn Beck, they all love him.

MOORE: I don`t know about that guy. I thought you were just going to refer to those from the planet Earth.

BEHAR: Okay, Arianna Huffington was on Bill Maher last week, as were you.

MOORE: Right.

BEHAR: And she said, I believe it was there, she said your anger reminds her of a Tea partier. Do you see any similarities between you and the Tea party?

MOORE: Well, I think the, yes, I think the average citizens who are drawn to it, I think are justifiably upset at the fact that they`ve lost their homes and the banks have gotten billions.

BEHAR: Right.

MOORE: That the number one cause of bankruptcy right now in America is medical bills and people are hurting. And this is not unusual … but those who have really started the Tea bag movement-

BEHAR: I don`t think it`s Tea bagging. That’s another.

MOORE: The Tea party. Yeah, the Tea Party movement.

BEHAR: Check that in the urban dictionary.

MOORE: Yeah, you started this.

BEHAR: Go ahead.

MOORE: You took my mind into the-

BEHAR: Oh, sorry, it`s my fault.

MOORE: The Tea Party-

BEHAR: I`m Satan`s spawn.

MOORE: Yeah, the Tea Party movement is – look, historically, it`s not unusual for those on the right, especially those in power, who hold power and money, to manipulate the working people and the have-nots, the people who have been hurt by the system, and take them rightward.

BEHAR: How do they do that? They do it.

MOORE: Fear.

BEHAR: They have people-

MOORE: It`s fear.

BEHAR: -vote against their own interests.

MOORE: Because they`re more afraid of, of what could possibly happen, and they are convinced that the boogie man is going to get them.

BEHAR: Yeah.

MOORE: And it`s how they sold the war-

BEHAR: Fear.

MOORE: -it`s how they sold all of this stuff. And the fear seems legitimate because obviously so many people are living from paycheck to paycheck right now.

BEHAR: Yes.

MOORE: They don`t know if they`re going to be able to pay the mortgage next year. They don`t know if their kids are going to go to college.

BEHAR: But, you know, Michael, with the bank bailouts and the Republicans started that TARP thing-

MOORE: Right.

BEHAR: -and then Obama continued it.

MOORE: Right.

BEHAR: And so the wrath is targeted to the Democrats and targeted to Obama.

MOORE: Yeah, because they owned it, they owned it, that`s right. He took it over and he owned it. And instead of bringing in a new idea, a new fresh idea, he brings in their ideas and brings back the guys, Sumner-

BEHAR: Geithner.

MOORE: -and Geithner and Rubin who were, in large part, responsible for the mess, to begin with.

BEHAR: I know, that was, I don`t understand why he did that. And I`m not happy with that. Are you?

MOORE: No, I wasn`t happy with it the day he did it.

BEHAR: No.

MOORE: And I tried to rationalize it at the time and thinking well, you know, he`s doing what my dad did, you know, when you make a mess in your room, you have to go in and clean it up. So he`s brought the people in who`ve made the mess in Wall Street-

BEHAR: Right.

MOORE: -and he`s going to force them to clean it up.

BEHAR: Yeah, but they haven`t.

MOORE: No, they haven`t-

BEHAR: They haven`t.

MOORE: -in fact, not one single, not one single regulation has been put back in place on Wall Street or the banks, and so they`re back to doing their derivatives and their credit default swaps-

BEHAR: Now, why can`t they put the regulations in? What is holding that up?

MOORE: Because the lobbyists for Wall Street are lining the pockets of the members of Congress and the White House, and they`re not going to allow this thing [to] happen. And so get ready for crash number two. And that crash could be worse than the last crash.

BEHAR: Well, you can see why people are furious.

MOORE: Of course, and fearful.

BEHAR: And both sides. On both sides.

MOORE: Right.

[Behar asks Moore Twitter questions about why he wears a cap and about his recent weight loss.]

BEHAR: You know, the obesity crisis in the country is the new crisis now. We did smoking, now we`re doing the obesity crisis.

MOORE: Well, the sad part of it is that the fact that so many of our kids are obese now and getting diabetes-

BEHAR: I know.

MOORE: -that we would do this to – talk about child abuse. I mean, and I would say again to my Republican friends, you should see this as a national security issue because we`re raising a generation of overweight, diabetic kids, and they`re not going to be able to defend you. Hey, I got, I asked my Twitter people.

BEHAR: We have one tweet, we have to extend this segment.

MOORE: I told them that you were tweeting about me, so I tweeted about you and they want me to ask you a question.

BEHAR: What?

 

MOORE: The first question is, how was it to be acting in Manhattan Murder Mystery with Woody Allen?

BEHAR: Oh, that was, it was great, I loved it.

MOORE: And Alan Alda, great man.

BEHAR: I love Alan Alda, and Woody Allen did not come on to me because I was over 15. Thank you, Michael, so much. Capitalism: A Love Story is out now.

MOORE: He`s one of our great directors, Woody Allen.

BEHAR: Well, he is, but, you know, he`s still a bit of a perv.

MOORE: Well-

BEHAR: Oh, come on.

 

MOORE: Well, we could, well, we could check into you, too, you know. I mean-

BEHAR: No, no, no, no, no.

MOORE: We`re all, we are all flawed people.

BEHAR: Who marries their daughter? Come on, get over it.

MOORE: Stepdaughter, sort of, kind of.

BEHAR: Now on DVD and Blue Ray. Up next-

MOORE: Okay, you`re right!

BEHAR: -an Apple employee claims Law and Order star Richard Belzer choked her. My pal Richard will give you his side of the story, so stick around.

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]]> http://www.outloudopinion.com/2010/03/08/aids-virus-can-hide-in-bone-marrow-researchers-say/feed/ 0 http://www.outloudopinion.com/2010/02/25/coburn-skip-europe-aids-meeting/ http://www.outloudopinion.com/2010/02/25/coburn-skip-europe-aids-meeting/#comments Thu, 25 Feb 2010 10:00:00 +0000 http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/feb/25/coburn-skip-european-aids-meeting/ An upcoming international AIDS conference in Europe should be canceled, says a Republican senator who wants organizers to use money for travel and meetings on treatment and research instead. In a letter sent last week to the president of the International AIDS Society, which is organizing this summer’s 2010 AIDS Conference in Vienna, Austria, Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, a doctor, cited statistics showing that tens of millions of people across the world infected with HIV are going without treatment. “While I recognize the International AIDS Conference can provide a unique forum for networking, reviewing scientific developments and sharing information …

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]]> http://www.outloudopinion.com/2010/02/25/coburn-skip-europe-aids-meeting/feed/ 0 http://www.outloudopinion.com/2010/02/06/who-is-harry-knox-and-why-does-he-trash-the-pope-media-elite-doesnt-care/ http://www.outloudopinion.com/2010/02/06/who-is-harry-knox-and-why-does-he-trash-the-pope-media-elite-doesnt-care/#comments Sat, 06 Feb 2010 15:56:52 +0000 Tim Graham 36237 at http://newsbusters.org Harry Knox is not exactly a household name, and the media elite have no interest in making hime one. The media are in the controversy-making business, but not when Barack Obama picks "spiritual advisers" who think condoms are holier than the Pope.

Most media outlets have reported nothing on Knox, despite his view that Pope Benedict is "hurting people in the name of Jesus."

Some could say Bush’s faith-based initiatives office didn’t get much ink, either. But back in July 2001, the networks picked up and promoted gay-left groups like Knox’s group (the Human Rights Campaign) in complaining about the Bush faith-based initiative. They made the Salvation Army a target of political criticism. (Here and here.)

A Nexis check shows that since Obama selected Knox last spring, there is nothing from ABC, CBS, NBC, NPR, Time, Newsweek, and USA Today.

The Washington Post briefly noted the appointment (without critics) in April, and then used Knox in a story about the Episcopal Church in July. The New York Times only mentioned Knox last year in a profile of Bill Donohue (last May):

And Mr. Obama’s appointment of Harry Knox, a gay human-rights activist — ”an anti-Catholic bigot who has called the pope a liar” — to the Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships had Mr. Donohue in overdrive.

”This is fantastic,” said Mr. Donohue, 61, with a gap-toothed smile that he rarely shows on television. ”I can’t get enough of it.”

CNN captured John Boehner condemning Knox in live coverage of a press conference, but never in an actual news story they produced. MSNBC’s Nexis search (their transcripts are only from parts of their schedule) found a defense of know on Ed Schultz’s show last April.

Several networks (NBC and NPR) talked to Knox in December 2008 as he protested….Barack Obama, or more precisely, Obama’s decision to invite evangelical pastor Rick Warren to offer the invocation at the Inauguration. The NPR show was Tell Me More:

HARRY KNOX: Well, we were outraged about this decision, Michel, because he could have chosen so many other people to serve in this role. But he chose a person who has used the most divisive and hateful language you can imagine to talk about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people like me and my husband, Mike.

MICHEL MARTIN, NPR: What do you consider hateful?

KNOX: Well, when he compares us to people who practice bestiality and pedophilia, to be called a pedophile is the most insulting thing I can imagine. If I were a violent person it would get him a punch in the nose. But this is the sort of speech that’s used about LGBT people with impunity by folks all the time, and we’re standing up to say that is unacceptable and it certainly shouldn’t be done by a person who’s going to be invited to be the preacher at the inaugural.

MARTIN: Harry Knox, if I could just continue with you for just a minute. There are some 62 million evangelical Christians in this country. Is it your view that they should have no representation in this inauguration, or is it something about Rick Warren?

KNOX: Absolutely not. It’s Rick Warren. It’s the choice of this person that’s so hurtful to us.

Evangelicals who completely accept the LGBT agenda — he wouldn’t have minded one of them praying for Obama and the country. Once again, the forces of "tolerance" want anyone who disagrees with them silenced.

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]]> http://www.outloudopinion.com/2009/12/29/hearing-aids-take-to-the-pool-in-test/feed/ 0 http://www.outloudopinion.com/2009/12/01/on-world-aids-day-media-wont-acknowledge-bush-successes/ http://www.outloudopinion.com/2009/12/01/on-world-aids-day-media-wont-acknowledge-bush-successes/#comments Tue, 01 Dec 2009 17:34:17 +0000 Lachlan Markay 34702 at http://newsbusters.org Today is World AIDS Day, on which we reflect on the global epidemic that has taken so many millions of lives and ponder ways in which we can improve world health by combating the terrible illness. In honoring the day, however, some news outlets have neglected to note the tremendous contributions to the AIDS effort undertaken by our last president.

Yet MSNBC makes no mention of President Bush or his tremendous efforts to combat the global AIDS epidemic. It’s not as if his contribution to the fight is ambiguous. U.S. News reports that the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) is credited for saving roughly 2 million lives.

The Huffington Post takes it one step further in its report. Noting that President Obama received a D+ grade from a group of activists on his performance in the AIDS fight, HuffPo’s Matthew Kavanagh asserts that Obama should "break from the Bush era by eliminating ideologically driven prevention programs that fail women and standing up to drug companies to drive down prices of AIDS treatment."

Even the group of activists Kavanagh cites, the Health Global Access Project, credits the "pre-existing broad bipartisan support established during the Bush Administration for increased U.S. investment to fight AIDS."

The organization lauds President Bush’s accomplishments in the arena, noting that "With scale up from the last Bush administration budget, FY 2009, to be reported this week advocates expect the U.S. to approach 3 million people supported on treatment—a huge accomplishment."

Even given the tremendous success of President Bush’s PEPFAR program, widely credited with providing access to life-saving treatments, MSNBC could not bring itself to even mention the former president’s name. And the Huffington Post managed to turn Obama’s short but sorry record on AIDS treatment into an attack on Bush.

Regardless of one’s feelings about the former president, honoring World AIDS Day demands that we give credit where it is due. That any media outlet would report on the global AIDS situation without mentioning the significant contributions to the effort undertaken by President Bush does a disservice to him and all Americans that are working to end the epidemic.

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]]> http://www.outloudopinion.com/2009/11/27/u-s-brings-hope-to-aids-patients/feed/ 0 http://www.outloudopinion.com/2009/09/24/a-world-first-vaccine-helps-prevent-hiv-infection-ap/ http://www.outloudopinion.com/2009/09/24/a-world-first-vaccine-helps-prevent-hiv-infection-ap/#comments Thu, 24 Sep 2009 14:39:49 +0000 Yahoo! News: Top Stories ap/20090924/med_aids_vaccine AP – For the first time, an experimental vaccine has prevented infection with the AIDS virus, a watershed event in the deadly epidemic and a surprising result. Recent failures led many scientists to think such a vaccine might never be…]]> AP – For the first time, an experimental vaccine has prevented infection with the AIDS virus, a watershed event in the deadly epidemic and a surprising result. Recent failures led many scientists to think such a vaccine might never be possible.