First-Person: Setting the Record Straight on SpongeBob
by Ed Vitagliano
March 16, 2005
(AgapePress) - Admittedly, it's hard saying the words "SpongeBob SquarePants" and "homosexual agenda" in the same sentence. But the recent controversy over SpongeBob and the promotion of homosexuality to children spawned a secondary story about how the media covers this issue, and how they often seem intent on ridiculing Christians.
Genesis of a Controversy
The dispute had its beginning when the Associated Press (AP) released a brief story on November 16, 2004, describing a children's music video based on the popular song, "We Are Family." Produced by the We Are Family Foundation (WAFF) -- founded by Nile Rodgers, who co-wrote the song itself in the 1970s -- the video included over 100 characters from children's television programs, such as SpongeBob, Barney, Jimmy Neutron, Rugrats and others. It has been sent in DVD format to over 61,000 elementary schools, along with a teacher's guide for after-viewing discussions.
Since the AP story stated that the video was intended to promote "diversity and tolerance in classrooms," I decided to examine the WAFF website to discover whether or not the issue of homosexuality was included. It was -- and in spades.
The American Family Association (AFA) became concerned that, along with the innocuous content of a children's video, public school teachers who were sympathetic to the homosexual movement might use WAFF materials to initiate a discussion of tolerance and diversity that would include homosexuality. And might do so without parental knowledge or approval.
I wrote about these concerns in the front page story for the January issue of the AFA Journal. Apart from follow-up stories on American Family Radio and in AgapePress, the story appeared to die out as 2004 ended.
On January 18, however, at a dinner for political allies and members of Congress hosted by Focus on the Family (FOF) and two other pro-family groups, FOF president Dr. James Dobson mentioned SpongeBob and the video project, warning that the website contained materials that many parents might find problematic.
At that dinner was David Kirkpatrick, a reporter with The New York Times, who published a story in the Times on January 20 about Dobson's comments concerning WAFF and its video project.
Missing in Translation
The media picked up the New York Times' piece and the story exploded. According to a LexisNexis search, 68 newspapers covered the story, countless radio talk shows called for interviews, and virtually every network news and cable news channel did stories on it.
This media brouhaha produced some of the sloppiest journalism I've ever seen, as some members of the media pounced on and then spread a rumor: that AFA and FOF had claimed that SpongeBob -- as a cartoon character -- was "gay." The rumor was so persistent in the media that SpongeBob creator Stephen Hillenburg was forced to issue a denial.
Even more disappointing, however, was that some television news programs went out of their way to present one-sided programs on the controversy. Most notable in this respect were the January 21 editions of both NBC's Today Show with Matt Lauer and ABC's Good Morning America, as well as Fox's January 24 The O'Reilly Factor.
Irritatingly, the Today Show and O'Reilly refused to have a live representative of AFA on to explain our views, preferring instead to have Rodgers -- live -- on both programs. In fact, O'Reilly, who had already scheduled to have me on the program, dropped me and had Rodgers on by himself.
What did Rodgers proceed to do with his appearances on these programs? He "spun" the truth in such a shameful manner as to nearly make this writer apoplectic. For example, concerning a Tolerance Pledge on the WAFF website, he told host Bill O'Reilly, "Even on our website, we don't ask people to sign our pledge."
Of course, what he neglected to say was that, after the AFA Journal article had been published, the section of the pledge that kids could sign was removed.
Moreover, Rodgers told O'Reilly that AFA had gotten the original article wrong because it had investigated the wrong website. How Rodgers could maintain this fantasy -- a falsehood he also promoted on the Today Show -- is strange, since he and WAFF attorneys had been sent a letter by AFA attorneys on January 13 which proved that this was not the case.
Finally, Rodgers told O'Reilly that the only thing I had found in my WAFF research was the tolerance pledge. Unfortunately left out in Rodgers' explanation was the fact that everything I mentioned in my original article -- with the exception of the tolerance pledge -- also had been removed from public access. Everything.
The producers of The O'Reilly Factor were informed of these "disappearances" on January 25, the day after Rodgers appeared on the show. Our requests to have a representative come on the show and explain our position were ignored. So much for the Fox News slogan of "Fair and Balanced."
In a snide editorial in USA Today, columnist Bruce Kluger ridiculed conservative attempts to protect children from pro-homosexual programming. He said "gay" content should be included because "Good parenting relies on telling the truth to kids -- not hiding it."
To Kluger, O'Reilly, Lauer and other members of the media elite, I say, so does good journalism.
Ed Vitagliano, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is news editor of AFA Journal, a monthly publication of the American Family Association. This article appeared in the March 2005 issue.
