Fox News uncritically reported a bogus story about the alleged bullying of anti-gay students in a California high school, according to the school’s superintendent. It’s the second time the network has been duped by the lies of one of California’s most notorious anti-LGBT hate groups, reports Media Matters of America.
In a February 9 opinion piece for FoxNews.com, Fox News’ serial misinformer and mouthpiece for anti-gay hate groups Todd Starnes reported on allegations that high school students at Acalanes High School in Lafayette, California, were “bullied” by the school’s Queer Straight Alliance during a class presentation. His report drew heavily from a press release by the Pacific Justice Institute (PJI), an anti-LGBT hate group with a history of fabricating horror stories to combat efforts to make schools welcoming for LGBT students. Starnes concluded his report by asking, “Has it really come to this, America — forcing students to declare their allegiance to the LGBT agenda?”
The story spread across right-wing media, being featured on Breitbart, WND, MRCTV, and a number of smaller conservative outlets, as well as being shared thousands of times over social media.
But in an email to Equality Matters, Acalanes High School District Superintendent John Nickerson thoroughly debunked the claims made by Starnes and PJI (emphasis added):
An examination of the program and classroom environment would suggest gross inaccuracies in the Pacific Justice Institute press release. It is not clear what other primary source Fox News used for their reporting, but their “opinion” piece on the program does not reflect what actually took place. Did not happen [quoted directly from PJI’s press release]: ridiculed and humiliated / intimidation and interrogation / also had students line up. The peer led classroom activity was a carried out in a respectful environment and under the supervision of the classroom teacher. The activity focused on tolerance and acceptance, with an emphasis on anti-queer harassment and homophobia. It was intended to help students better understand the LGBTQ student experience.
The program is in its 15th year at Acalanes High School and his been a model program and replicated throughout the region.
We will continue to examine the activity/program in our efforts to improve the safety on our campuses for all students.
This is the second time Fox News and other conservative outlets have been duped by the Pacific Justice Institute. In 2013, PJI was caught promoting a fabricated story about a transgender student in Colorado harassing girls in the school bathroom – a claim that was also debunked by that school’s superintendent.
Starnes contacted Nickerson for his own piece, and Starnes quoted Nickerson as writing that the school was aware of the “concerns and allegations raised by two parents and the Pacific Justice Institute” and that it was “investigating the situation.”
But rather than waiting for the investigation to be completed, Starnes uncritically parroted PJI’s allegations. As a result, a 15-year-old school program that fosters tolerance and acceptance of minority students has been baselessly smeared across conservative media.
Fox has a history of giving headlines to PJI, despite the group’s well-established history of manufacturing anti-LGBT misinformation. Given that only recently Starnes incorrectly reported facts in a story about anti-gay cake bakers, it might behoove both Starnes and Fox to stop relying on a discredited anti-LGBT organization as a legitimate source.
If the superintendent first claimed nothing happened, and then PJI brought forth a client that said something did, would you write that the superintendent has been “debunked”? This is cavalier writing. You can’t claim that just because one person says nothing happened that the person who said something did happen is lying. This takes credibility away from LGBT Weekly.