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What attacking a cartoon sponge does do for Dobson is get media attention for his fringe organization. Like many right-wing pundits, Dobson knows how to package and market a meme to get attention. Focus on the Family is just as much a fringe organization as the KKK or the Flat-Earth people, yet unlike those organizations or the leaders of those organizations, Dobson manages to find himself as a guest on otherwise-mainstream news programs and quoted in otherwise-mainstream news articles. He manages to play off people's fears and ignorance to get mainstream attention for his radical views.
Unfortunately, just by acknowledging Dobson's madness here, I have played into his hand, giving him yet more attention. I hope that in posting this article, however, I can call attention to what he's doing, and why.
During our conversation, corsican predicted that even if Dobson and Focus on the Family were portrayed as extremists and wackos in the mainstream media, then they would just act as offended persecuted Christians, misrepresented by the gay-liberal-controlled media conspiracy. His followers would eat this up.
About ten minutes later, Focus on the Family fulfilled corsican's prophesy. To deflect all negative attention received as a result of Dobson's curious raving, at the bottom of a propaganda piece they said:
Focus on the Family Chairman Dr. James Dobson was pummeled in the media after voicing his opposition to the plans of the We Are Family Foundation. Most all of those stories misrepresented what he actually said.TAKE ACTION
Want to hold the media accountable for their misreporting of the Dr. Dobson's comments regarding SpongeBob SquarePants? We've made it easy for you. Just vist the CitizenLink Action Center and you'll find out how you can send one e-mail message to five of the reporters/anchors whose stories included the most baseless attacks on Dr. Dobson.
There's certainly obvious irony in Focus on the Family accusing others of misrepresentation, but look at what they're doing here: they're telling their followers that whatever negative things they may have heard about their Supreme Lord Dobson, they aren't true, but a result of media misrepresentation. Then they're giving their followers a way to feel included in the holy jihad against the gay liberal media conspiracy to boot.
The examples they cite on their "Citizenlink" page as evidence of misrepresentation of what Dobson said don't actually include any quotes from Dobson, but rather some rather comical opinions issued by reporters or anchors. They need not actually make a case that what Dobson said was misrepresented, of course, since the Focus on the Family organization operates much like a cult; they need only issue an Edict of Truth to their members, who will then believe it without question.
Not to be constrained by a pineapple under the sea, however, Focus on the Family is now milking the small amount of attention they've received for all its worth. They've decided to attack PBS as well. Do they actually believe that PBS is part of a homosexual conspiracy? Perhaps, but that's a side issue. Just as they did with Spongebob (aka "the cartoon sponge"), they're trying to attach themselves onto a mainstream icon to spread hysteria and get attention. You may never have heard of Focus on the Family, but you've surely heard of Spongebob and PBS.
Now suppose you're an average busy parent and vaguely aware or perhaps slightly wary of gay people. Someone named James Dobson turns up in your newspaper and tells you that Spongebob Squarepants, which your kids watch, and PBS, which your kids also watch, are involved in some kind of convoluted gay conspiracy. His accusation is unnerving, and it's meant to be. The man is trying to play off your fears and ignorance of the true content of the shows your kids watch.
It's no coincidence that with the countless hours of actual gay media in circulation and gay-positive programming redily available on any given day on cable or satellite that Dobson and gang chose to attack the We are Family Foundation's video. The DVD is being sent to schools, and what exactly goes on in school on a daily basis is a mystery to many busy, working parents. Again, this organization is playing off people's fears and ignorance while trying to attach themselves to a mainstream icon- public schools- in order to spread their agenda and get attention.
It doesn't matter how much they have to lie, as long as they succeed in applying their MO: seek out mainstream cultural icon or institution, find tremendous leaps of logic to establish some remote gay connection, play off people's ignorance and fear to spread lies and misinformation and get more attention for the cult.
Speaking of lies, there's another whopper in the article linked above:
The video at the heart of the SpongeBob controversy will be shown to school kids with your help.A group that appears to want to convince elementary school students that homosexuality is comparable to race, religion and gender is accomplishing its goal with the wholehearted assistance of the Public Broadcasting System (PBS).
First off, who started the Spongebob controversy exactly? It was none other than Focus on the Family themselves. I don't think it's coincidence that they'd start a controversy and then report that it's a controversy a few days later.
The next paragraph is, well, a lie. The We are Family Foundation states clearly its reasoning behind creating the We are Family DVD: "to demonstrate to children the importance of togetherness embodied by the word FAMILY. ... This collaboration proves that even on an interspecies level, the message of family and togetherness cannot falter in times of despair." The video in question has no gay content.
Focus on the Family goes on to cite the Tolerance Pledge from the We Are Family Foundation web site as evidence that they're part of an insidious homosexual plot. But the We Are Family Foundation isn't sending its web site to 61,000 schools. It's sending a DVD with absolutely no gay content to the schools. In their article, Focus on the Family is actually forced to admit as much, saying "the video is innocuous enough." But in the preceding paragraph they said that WAFF wanted to convince school children to be tolerant of people of other sexual orientations. How can that happen if the video-- the only material being sent to schools-- is innocuous even in the eyes of Focus on the Family?
Did you catch that? They actually admitted that the material being sent to schools is innocuous.
So what's the problem then?
The problem is that Focus on the Family needs media attention, so they had to create a gay conspiracy and try to use that to scare people. By carefully crafting their article, they've made it sound like the We are Family Foundation is distributing the tolerance pledge to schools, when nothing of the sort is happening. (Incidentally, this would qualify as bearing false witness.) A video with silly kids' characters and a silly song promoting unity and family simply doesn't scare people, but a sinister gay conspiracy might.
So that's what Focus on the Family has done: they've invented a controversy about an imaginary gay liberal conspiracy which includes mainstream cultural icons and institutions to play off people's fears and ignorance to garner attention for themselves while simultaneously deflecting negative criticism of their marginal, radical viewpoint by playing the victim of yet another gay liberal conspiracy, that of the mainstream press. They are master propagandists and liars.
Keep your eyes open and your mind alert. They'll do this again.
---Nick
