You gotta love the NYT. Even with Judith Miller gone, there's nothing like a good lie to get their reporters to parrot whatever made-up story you tell them. Ford spun the New York Times a good one. Unfortunately, the Times reporter didn't bother doing any research or he'd have seen that Ford already publicly said they were pulling their ads specifically in response to the anti-gay hate group.
In any case, we've now got Ford on the record outright lying about this entire affair, and we've got the quotes to prove it.
Let's start with what Ford told the Advocate, one of the magazines it pulled its advertising from:
When first contacted, Ford spokesman Moran referred Advocate.com to the AFA statement, suggesting that the company had no disagreement with Wildmon's assertions.I also confirmed today with another journalist I know and trust that Ford told him basically the same story, that they caved to appease the anti-gay extremist group. That journalist's story won't be running until later this week.
And finally, there's this report I received yesterday of a conversation a top gay rights advocate had with a Ford employee:
I reached XXXX on his cell phone, xxx of Ford pr. We had a lengthy and civil, if tense, discussion. He clearly confirmed that Ford was pulling ads from "advocacy publications," which seems to cover every gay magazine and newspaper in the country since they "advocate" a "gay rights agenda." xxxxxxx said that this all started due to Ford ads in Europe, which apparently include some gay people/couples in a positive way. But he did confirm that Ford had indeed reached a formal settlement with AFA, and this specifically includes withdrawing advertising for certain Ford vehicles from LGBT publications/media.Now, call me confused, but three different credible witnesses, two of whom are credible journalists, have Ford on the record admitting not only that they caved to pressure from extremist gay-hating groups, but in one conversation Ford admitting to having reached a "formal settlement" with the gay-haters. That's extremely troubling since it now leaves us wondering what other anti-gay actions has Ford agreed to in its secret agreement with the anti-gay bigots?
So we now know Ford is lying to America's civil rights community. The only question is whether they lied to 3 different sources this weekend, or whether they're lying now that this controversy has exploded in their face. Gee, which situation do you think provides Ford with a greater incentive to lie?
And one more thing. The story is now in the New York Times, in just two days of working it. This is when the floodgates open.
See ya in the morning!
