When a senator has to weigh in on an issue, it must be serious.
On July 31, Senator James Lankford (R-OK) penned a letter to James Goldston, the president of ABC News, rebuking the network for calling the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) an “anti-LGBTQ hate group.” On July 12, ABC reporters used the phrase again and again when referring to the religious freedom group, citing the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) as their source for the smear.
The ADF is currently representing baker Jack Phillips in the Supreme Court case Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, which will be likely debated in the fall.
Neither the ADF nor Senator Lankford were amused. The ADF requested an apology from ABC, calling the smear “journalistic malpractice.”
Senator Lankford admonished ABC: “Libel and slander receive only limited protection under the First Amendment.” He then asked the question, “Since I think I can confidently assume that ABC News is a strong supporter of the First Amendment, why would ABC News label a peaceful group as a “hate group” simply because of a difference of opinion?”
He also cited the Supreme Court’s ruling on the libel of “hate”, quoting from a 1969 case, “The Supreme Court has been clear that “the public expression of ideas may not be prohibited merely because the ideas are themselves offensive to some of their hearers.”
Lankford also admonished the SPLC, saying that its “definition of a “hate group” is overly broad and not based in fact or legal accuracy.” The SPLC has incited acts of violence in the past. The Family Research Council shooter Floyd Lee Corkins used the “hate map” provided by the SPLC to find his target. Senator Scalise’s shooter James Hodgkinson liked the SPLC page, so he was a consumer of their propaganda as well.
Senator Lankford ended his written statement to ABC News with the sentence, “It is my hope that we can all, including the press, take more responsibility for our words and actions, because they matter.”
