Fox News on a witch hunt for "czars" ~ Targeting Kevin Jennings

[Emit]

Their focus is on Kevin Jennings, Assistant Deputy Secretary at the Department of Education for the Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools (OSDFS) and gay-rights advocate. They claim Jennings failed to report the statutory rape of one of his teenage students.

Media Matters has more:

More witch-hunting: Fox News targets "safe schools czar" Kevin Jennings
September 24, 2009 9:34 pm ET — 18 Comments

In its Glenn Beck-driven witch hunt for "czars" in the Obama administration, Fox News has turned its attention to attacking Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools director Kevin Jennings, with Sean Hannity and Fox & Friends asking whether Jennings should be "fired" and whether he is "the guy for the job." In pressing for Jennings to be fired and misconstruing Jennings' past comments, Fox News continues its pattern of using gross distortions to attack President Obama's advisers.

http://mediamatters.org/research/200909240038



More recently, and as discussed ad nauseum on Hannity's Hate Talk Radio today:

After FoxNews.com truncated Jennings' quote, Wash. Times, Fox Nation accuse "safe school czar" of "encouraging" statutory rape

A Washington Times editorial accused "safe school czar" Kevin Jennings of "encourag(ing)" a relationship that amounted to "statutory rape," by suggesting that his only response to an underage student's revelation that he had sex with what the Times described as an "older man" was to "make sure 'to use a condom.' " In fact, Jennings stated that he hoped the student "knew to use a condom" to protect against STDs; moreover, the FoxNews.com article from which The Washington Times based this claim truncated Jennings' remarks to exclude his statement that he thought to say this because his "best friend had just died of AIDS the week before."

The Wa Times editorial was entitled: At the President's Pleasure

Cont'd from Media Matters:

Wash. Times cites Fox News' discovery of audio to accuse Jennings of "encourag(ing)" statutory rape

From the September 28 editorial:

A teacher was told by a 15-year-old high school sophomore that he was having homosexual sex with an "older man." At the very least, statutory rape occurred. Fox News reported that the teacher violated a state law requiring that he report the abuse. That former teacher, Kevin Jennings, is President Obama's "safe school czar." It's getting hard to keep track of all of this president's problematic appointments. Clearly, the process for vetting White House employees has broken down.

In this one case in which Mr. Jennings had a real chance to protect a young boy from a sexual predator, he not only failed to do what the law required but actually encouraged the relationship.

According to Mr. Jennings' own description in a new audiotape discovered by Fox News, the 15-year-old boy met the "older man" in a "bus station bathroom" and was taken to the older man's home that night. When some details about the case became public, Mr. Jennings threatened to sue another teacher who called his failure to report the statutory rape "unethical." Mr. Jennings' defenders asserted that there was no evidence that he was aware the student had sex with the older man.

However, the new audiotape contradicts this claim. I...

Cont'd: http://mediamatters.org/research/200909280021

Times editorial mischaracterized what Jennings said about condom use

Jennings said he "hope you knew to use a condom" -- not "make sure 'to use a condom.' " According to audio of Jennings' comments to GLSEN in 2000, he said his "best friend had just died of AIDS the week before," so he said to the student: "You know, I hope you knew to use a condom." From audio of Jennings' statement on WThrockmorton.com:

JENNINGS: And I said, "Brewster, what are you doing in there asleep?" And he said, "Well, I'm tired." And I said, "Well, we all are tired and we all got to school today." And he said, "Well, I was out late last night." And I said, "What were you doing out late on a school night?" And he said, "Well, I was in Boston." Boston was about 45 minutes from Concord. So I said, "What were you doing in Boston on a school night, Brewster?" He got very quiet, and he finally looked at me and said, "Well, I met somebody in the bus station bathroom and I went home with him." High school sophomore, 15 years old. That was the only way he knew how to meet gay people. I was a closeted gay teacher, 24 years old, didn't know what to say. Knew I should say something quickly, so I finally -- my best friend had just died of AIDS the week before -- I looked at Brewster and said, "You know, I hope you knew to use a condom." He said to me something I will never forget. He said "Why should I, my life isn't worth saving anyway."

Cont'd: http://mediamatters.org/research/200909280021



Huffington Post has more:

Right-wingers, outraged by Jennings' work as a gay-rights advocate, claim that he has expressed a desire to spread homosexuality among schoolkids, contempt for religion and enthusiasm for drug use. (The Family Research Council has a scare-quote filled petition circulating.) Those hits have been rebuffed by people who have actually worked with Jennings. But the charge that's gained traction is that Jennings, while a high school teacher, failed to report a statutory rape. He said in a talk that he counseled a student who went home with a man he met in a bus station...

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/01/kevin-jennings-obama-aide_n_306950.html



Think Progress has been following the Right Wing Smear Campaign Against Jennings since July: http://thinkprogress.org/2009/07/03/kevin-jennings/



This website, Americans for Truth about Homosexuality (ATAH), who's goal is to 'expose and counter the homosexual activist agenda' is all over this: Washington Times: Obama ‘Safe Schools’ Czar Kevin Jennings Enabled Sexual Predator of Teen Boy

Here is info about ATAH - Peter LaBarbera is a Fox news contributor:

Peter LaBarbera, 47, is president of Americans For Truth (about Homosexuality, or AFTAH), a group dedicated to exposing the homosexual activist agenda. Founded as a part-time venture in 1996 but reorganized in August 2006, AFTAH seeks to apply the same single-minded determination to opposing the radical homosexual agenda and standing for God-ordained sexuality and the natural family as countless homosexual groups do in promoting their harmful agenda.

~snip~

At the Family Research Council (FRC), a leading pro-family think tank, he served as a policy analyst on homosexuality and gender issues while editing FRC’s popular weekly publication, CultureFacts.

LaBarbera also has had two stints working at Beverly LaHaye’s Concerned Women for America (CWA), another leading pro-family organization based in Washington. He credits Mrs. LaHaye with being “more fearless in the defense of God’s truth than 95 percent of the men in Washington.” In his first employment with CWA, LaBarbera edited their monthly magazine, Family Voice. Later he worked as a Senior Policy Analyst under Robert Knight at CWA’s Culture and Family Institute, where he wrote and commented extensively on the homosexual issue from a Christian and conservative perspective.

[virgogal]

1. If he didn't do what they are accusing him of doing he has a hell of

a lawsuit to file.