Run For Your Lives!!! Lesbian Gangs!!!

There has been the craziest thing on TV lately. Mostly the bloggers are getting kick out of it, because it's so dumb, but some people take this stuff seriously, so you have to do something about it.

Bill O'Reilly had a breathless piece recently about "lesbian gangs!!!" (It is my understanding that the term is required to have three exclamation points.)

From the Southern Poverty Law Center's report on it:

A "national underground network" of pink pistol-packing lesbians is terrorizing America. "All across the country," they are raping young girls, attacking heterosexual males at random, and forcibly indoctrinating children as young as 10 into the homosexual lifestyle, according to a shocking June 21 segment on the popular Fox News Channel program, "The O'Reilly Factor."

Titled "Violent Lesbian Gangs a Growing Problem," the segment began with host Bill O'Reilly briefly referencing for his roughly 3 million viewers the case of Wayne Buckle, a DVD bootlegger who was attacked by seven lesbians in New York City last August. Deploying swift, broad strokes, O'Reilly painted a graphic picture of lesbian gangs running amok. The Oh-Really Factor: Fox News' Bill O'Reilly offers up an 'expert' to claim that pink pistol-packing lesbian gangs are terrorizing the nation

You ought to read the rest of this, it gives a lot of detail. A lot of background.

Most of the blogosphere got a bit of a laugh out of it, except you just know there are people at home who watch this ... stuff ... and huddle together in fear. Fear of the menace of lesbian gangs!!!

But, you ask -- who would ever believe a story like this? Ah, we know who (scroll down to "Related News").

Yesterday, Box Turtle Bulletin carried a statement from GLAAD, who figured they'd better do something about this nuttiness before it got out of hand.

GLAAD Challenges Irresponsible Reporting of “Lesbian Gangs”

This year, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) has been busy challenging sensationalistic and unsubstantiated reports of so-called “lesbian gangs.”

On June 21, Fox News Channel’s The O’Reilly Factor featured a segment titled “Lesbian Gang Epidemic,” in which Fox News Crime Analyst Rod Wheeler made the factually inaccurate claims that a “national network” of “lesbian gangs” preys on young girls and that 150 such gangs exist in the Washington, D.C. area. Both the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department and the Southern Poverty Law Center found Wheeler’s assertions and statistics to be deeply flawed and misleading. In response, GLAAD issued a Call to Action, urging constituents to demand The O’Reilly Factor to provide background information and evidence that supported Wheeler’s statements. Following GLAAD’s efforts, Wheeler posted a retraction of the story on his website.

Well, that's good. I didn't think those kinds of guys posted retractions. I mean, The O'Reilly Factor is worried about what? -- their credibility?

Look, maybe I just fell off the turnip truck. I don't get this. Lesbian gangs??? Who makes this stuff up?

But this story gets better, I mean really. O'Reilly actually invited a guy from GLAAD onto the show (yo, Rashad), and O'Reilly sort of apologized.

As a result of the overwhelming feedback from GLAAD and its constituents, The O’Reilly Factor invited GLAAD’s Senior Director of Media Programs, Rashad Robinson, to appear on its July 9th show. On the program, Robinson brought to light the sensational and inaccurate assertions in Wheeler’s report. Bill O’Reilly agreed that the report was exaggerated and promised, “We’ll do better next time.”

This was not the first time GLAAD took the media to task for irresponsibly and sensationally reporting on “lesbian gangs.” In February, GLAAD called on local ABC24 and CW30 affiliates in Memphis, TN not to air a shockingly defamatory and inaccurate report dramatizing “Gays Taking Over,” with actors portraying a group of African American women preying on other women. In the report, which GLAAD screened before its airdate, the principal interview subject, a so-called “gang expert,” stated without evidence that people victimized by “lesbian gangs” would be turned gay.

Although GLAAD’s urging prompted the station to modify its report and to disclose that it was unable to document its claims or provide evidence to back them, the segment that aired retained its sensationalistic and homophobic tone. And, unlike Fox News Channel’s The O’Reilly Factor, ABC24 general manager Jack Peck refused to acknowledge the report’s irresponsible exaggerations. And recently, he even began falsely claiming that GLAAD had threatened to sue the station.

Whenever media outlets seek to boost ratings by airing sensationalized and unsubstantiated stories such as these, GLAAD will continue to demand that journalists back up their reporting with facts and statistics and that their representations of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community are fair, accurate and inclusive.

GLAAD Statement on “Lesbian Gangs!!!”

It is a weird, wild, and wacky world we live in. But slowly, slowly, things are changing. Not so many years ago nobody would've challenged a story like this, now even Bill O'Reilly admits he got it wrong.