Culture & Cosmos
Volume 3, Number 27 | February 8, 2006
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Dear Colleague, Not long ago I sat down with a reporter from Rolling Stone Magazine who was doing a story about Christian conservatives in Washington and Senator Sam Brownback in particular. The writer presented himself as something of an honest seeker with no particular axe to grind. Boy was he a fibber. He produced a hatchet job on Brownback that is full of errors. Spread the word. Yours sincerely, Austin Ruse President Action item: You can read the hatchet job here. |
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Rolling Stone Magazine Attacks Senator
Brownback,
A 7,000-word
profile of Kansas Senator Sam Brownback in the current issue of Rolling
Stone Magazine is full of factual errors a review of the article by Culture
& Cosmos shows. The article also contains numerous observations that are
stated as fact but are simply the opinion of the article's author Jeff
Sharlet.Writer Admits Error
By Mark Adams
One of the most egregious errors in the articles resulted in Sharlet publicly admitting his mistake. Sharlet wrote, "[Brownback] shakes his head in sorrow, thinking of Sweden, which Christian conservatives believe has been made by 'social engineering' into an outer ring of hell. 'You'll know 'em by their fruits,' Brownback says. He pauses, and an awkward silence fills the room. He was citing scripture -- Matthew 7:16 -- but he just called gay Swedes 'fruits.'" Sharlet later admitted on his blog that this characterization was wrong after the homosexual activist group, the Human Rights Campaign, sent a letter to Brownback demanding an apology. Sharlet explained to an HRC spokesman that Brownback had not used the term fruit to describe homosexuals and they withdrew their demand. On his blog he wrote, "Brownback did not mean to make a joke, nor did he mean to use 'fruits' as a slur. I didn't think he did, nor did I mean to imply that. But I was laughing at the senator." Though the piece is presented as an in-depth profile of the senator based on extensive interviews, the article is full of Sharlet's own opinions often presented without any supporting evidence yet stated as fact. "In his dream America, the one he believes both the Bible and the Constitution promise, the state will simply wither away. In its place will be a country so suffused with God and the free market that the social fabric of the last hundred years -- schools, Social Security, welfare -- will be privatized or simply done away with. There will be no abortions; sex will be confined to heterosexual marriage. Men will lead families, mothers will tend children, and big business and the church will take care of all." According to Brian Hart, the senator's communications director, this characterization is not based on any of Brownback's policy positions and nothing Brownback is quoted as saying in the interview backs up Sharlet's claim that he advocates the dissolution of the state. Sharlet takes a similar approach to Brownback's views on sex. Brownback said, "It's not that we think too much about sex, it's that we don't think enough of it." Sharlet refuses to take Brownback at his word and writes, "The senator would gladly roll back the sexual revolution altogether if he could, but he knows he can't, so instead he dreams of something better: a culture of 'faith-based' eroticism in which premarital passion plays out not in flesh but in prayer." According to the article Brownback opposed the nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court because "she was insufficiently opposed to abortion." In reality Brownback said in a press conference on the day Miers' nomination was withdrawn that he was confident that of all of Bush's appointees, Miers was the one most likely to be pro-life, but he was unsupportive of her nomination due to her lack of qualifications. Sharlet wrote that Brownback's wife Mary, "boasts that she has never worked outside the home." In reality she worked as a practicing attorney in trust management after graduating from University of Kansas School of Law. Brownback is a convert to Catholicism and is well regarded among Christian conservatives of all types. He is seriously considering a run for the president in 2008 and will likely face increased scrutiny and abuse from the press as the next election draws near. |
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Culture of Life Foundation 1413 K Street, NW, Suite 1000 Washington DC 20005 Phone: (202) 289-2500 Fax: (202) 289-2502 E-mail: clf@culture-of-life.org Website: http://www.culture-of-life.org |