Paula Zahn - discrimination against atheists part 2

[Az]

Run time: 04:58 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPHnXrU5JzU   Posted on YouTube: February 05, 2007 By YouTube Member: benjdm Views on YouTube: 176277   Posted on DU: February 17, 2007 By DU Member: Az Views on DU: 1672

 
This is the segment that caused the hoopla in the atheist community. Here they are talking about whether atheists are discriminated against in a panel format and not an atheist to be seen. There was a massive atheist protest against this dismissive attitude. They finally agreed to interview an atheist (Richard Dawkins). But his interview was bumped twice due to Anna Nicole Smith. When it was finally aired it was shortened a great deal and was not part of a panel discussion.

[GreenEyedLefty]

1. For the first time on DU, I have to use this...

:puke:

Atheists should just shut up. Give me a damn break. What a bunch of ignorant tripe.

Prayer in public schools. They're PUBLIC, fool. Paid for by taxpayers of every religious, social and economic stripe. If you want to pray, do so at home or at church.

As a resident of the Metro Detroit Area, let me say about Fordson High School, which is in Dearborn: it's 95% Arab, and mostly Muslim, hence the prayers before football games, which (most of the time) happen to take place on Friday nights. So take that and shove it, Debbie Shlussel, or however the hell you spell it.

[rickrok66]

2. This is what I want to write to CNN - your thoughts?

I know it kind of a rant, but I was upset and had to get it
out of my system:


I watched with disbelief a February 4th video clip of Paula
Zahn’s so-called panel discussion of “Are atheist tactics too
militant?”  The discussion included Mr. Steven Smith, an ESPN
commentator, Ms. Karen Hunter, a Pulitzer Prize winner, and
Ms. Debbie Schlussel, a conservative columnist.  I am ashamed
of CNN.  You first hire a know right wing thug like Glenn Beck
and turn him into a smiling wacky independent who still fronts
for the right.  Then, you follow it up with the biggest
disgrace to the legal system that you find in the almost human
Nancy Grace.  Now, you get Paula Zahn who is reprising her
role as Fox News talking blond on the news channel that “you
can trust”.  Well, I don’t trust you.  It seems that the best
news that Americans can watch can be found on the BBC, CBC, or
the France24 network.

The premise of the show is ridiculous.  I have never met an
atheist who is too militant.  I guess this militant atheist is
another conservative urban legend like the “Welfare Queen” and
the “Protestor who spits on soldiers”.  The question should be
rephrased to:  “Are people sick and tired of Christian
Fundamentalists who spend all day at work bible thumping and
not doing their jobs?”  

No, I don’t like people in my workplace shoving their religion
or politics down my throat.  It usually comes from the
Christian Right.  It is not just atheists that I see being
verbally attacked all the time.  They also attack gays,
Catholics, Jews, Wiccans, Mormons, Quakers, Muslims, and
everyone else that is not of their particular brand of
Christian. 

The discussion itself had so many holes that even a college
major in journalism could find.  The points that Karen Hunter
brings up that atheists have no beliefs is false.  Many
atheists are secular humanists.  Remember the Renaissance, the
Age of Enlightenment, the Age of Reason – it seems most
Christian Fundamentalists in America are still upset over
Galileo, Copernicus, and Darwin.  That’s what most atheists
believe in.  

Karen Hunter asks, should we should remove the motto, “In God
We Trust” from the currency and the phrase “One Nation under
God” from the Pledge of Allegiance? Yes,  they were both
placed there by a Republican led Congress in the 1950s.  The
old motto on the currency was “Liberty” and the original
Pledge of Allegiance was written by a socialist.  Go figure. 
It is representative of another era of people using stupid
wedge issues and meaningless gestures to gain support and not
actually do anything.

Debbie Schlussel pulled out of her conservative holster the
old “attack by exception” maneuver.  “There was once this
school in California [of course] who made all the kids were
Muslim clothes and read the Koran.”  That kind of crap is
either isolated or in most cases it never happened.  If you
want more examples, watch Bill O’Reilly – any episode.

The final argument was that, well, this is a Christian nation
anyhow, so it is okay to bully minorities into being quiet. 
Has anybody at CNN ever read the Constitution or taken a
Political Science 101 course?  The purpose of freedom of
speech is for the smallest minority to have his or her say
without fear of attack, not for Ted Haggard to declare himself
“Completely Hetero” or for the puppets on Fox News to blame
everything on France, gays, and Bill Clinton.

Paula, go back to Fox News where you belong.  They will
appreciate your biased and half-assed approach to journalism.

[smoogatz]

4. Other potential topics for Zahn's show:

"Are Jews really money-grubbers like everyone says?"
"Catholicism and pedophelia: is there a connection?"
"Blacks: America's laziest minority?"
"Are homosexuals trying to 'convert' you?"
And, finally:
"Was Jesus a Communist?"

[rickrok66]

8. I sent my above text to CNN n/t

[TheBaldyMan]

13. could you add a bit about Schlussel's blatant reversal of roles...

i.e. it's the religious people that are besieged by atheists. That is so wrong no matter what angle you look at it. Typical RW tactics. Accuse the other side of the very thing that they are most guilty of. I'm surprised they didn't try and drag Clinton's BJ into it.

[smoogatz]

3. Who are these morons?

Atheists should shut up? Minority views not welcome? This from a black woman and a jewish woman? And this is what passes for reasoned discourse on CNN? Holy shit.

[left of center]

5. ignorant and prejudiced commentary

The women panelists make some good points, but their derisively snide attitudes by and large turn me off.

What does Karen Hunter mean by prayer in school? That teachers and administrators will lead students in prayer? What kind of prayer?

Had there been an advocate for atheists like Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Ann Gaylor, or Paul Kurtz, the two women panelists would have had those smirks wiped off their faces!

This was CNN?! I guess it is hard to be objective when doing so might hurt your ad revenue!

[smoogatz]

9. Good points? Like what?

I guess I messed them. Mostly they said, "atheists should shut up because this is a Christian nation." Obviously wrong on both counts: atheists have as much right to speak their minds as religious people do, and America may be a nation in which the majority are Christian, but it is in no way politically or constitutionally a Christian nation.

[knight_of_the_star]

6. Pricks

I guess that wipes out any good the first segment did. Honestly this was ridiculous, poorly done, had no pretense of balance whatsoever.

[chaska]

7. Holy shit! (pardon the pun). This is outrageous! I'm so pissed off, I could scream!

Un-fuckin'-believable!

[ellenfl]

10. kick eom

[Cobalt Violet]

11. Those women are asswipes.

Especially that one tell me I should shut up. F*CK YOU YOU BUNCH OF C*NTS! I WILL NOT SHUT UP!

[Porcupine]

12. The Reformation anyone? 300 years of warfare....

where one christian sect rounded up armies and slaughtered the next christian sect down the road.

The founding fathers separated church and state specifically to remove the threat of any church or sect gaining control of government. In the wars of the reformation, which are still simmering in Ireland, all parties fighting over religious differences were Christian. Three college educated idiots and not one can recall this crucial information about the history of their culture and religion.

[rickrok66]

14. Reformation and ECW

Good point Porcupine, it is my opinion that much of the basis for the Bill of Rights and civil protections in the Constitution come not only from the excesses of George III, but the collective memory of the founders of the excesses of the English Civil War which took place at that time about a hundred years earlier. Protections such as habeas corpus, cruel and unusual punishment, excessive fines, freedom of religion, the press, assembly and forcing one to testify against oneself was often abused by Cromwell and company. Whenever these knuckleheads start talking about faith-based initiatives and more god in government, the first person that comes to my mind is Cromwell. I am not a big fan of monarchy, but in this case - long live the king.

[left of center]

15. Yeh, but they were really not Christian...

I think they were atheist! Yeh, that's right!:rofl: