A little more on the Perkins-Santorum event at Perkins’ church in Louisiana.
Recently the group Faithful America launched a campaign to pressure MSNBC to stop booking Perkins as a guest on its programs, because of his history of anti-gay bigotry. The group attempted to place an ad on MSNBC that sets out their complaint, but MSNBC rejected it:
Faithful America’s petition reads: “The Family Research Council is a hate group, and journalists ought to treat it as such. MSNBC must stop inviting Family Research Council spokespeople on the air to represent the views of Christians and other people of faith.”
I’m not a big fan of banning guests from appearances on television because of their views, even when they’ve been labeled a “hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The sad reality is that Perkins is a powerful, influential person in conservative politics, and his views are revealing about the current state of the conservative movement and the GOP. The annual Values Voters Summit, co-sponsored by his Family Research Council and other religious right groups, and for which Perkins is seen as the chief spokesperson, attracts Republican presidential candidates and Republican Congressional leaders seeking to pander to the voters who attend. In hosting Santorum at his home church in Louisiana, Perkins is using that clout to try to influence the outcome of the Republican primary.
The public should hear from Perkins. Hiding him away is not a journalist’s job. MSNBC’s viewers should see who this person is, what he believes, and who he influences.
The problem is not that Perkins appears on television; the problem is how he is presented as a guest.
Frequently Perkins is called upon to offer the views of conservatives on an issue (say, Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, or the state of the horse race in the presidential campaign). That’s the setup of cable news: we need both sides, here they are, time for a commercial. Or, we need someone with inside knowledge of what conservative powerbrokers think about the presidential campaign. That structure is the problem — not having Perkins on television. He should be questioned about his beliefs, past statements, and, for example, willingness to stand by as his own pastor tells fellow Americans to “get out” of America if they don’t believe as he does that we live in a Christian nation. That ought to shed some light on whether he represents the “views of Christians and other people of faith.”
