Highly upset!! - Fred Phelps to Visit

[Lady's Human]

Lady Z,

This is one of the times I wish the Hatch act wasn't so restrictive. I doubt Phelps would show up at ANY military funerals if there was an honor guard of a battalion or so of uniformed servicemembers between them and the funeral.

Being that it would be construed as a political statement, however, it wouldn't be allowed.

[lady_zana]

Lady Z,

This is one of the times I wish the Hatch act wasn't so restrictive. I doubt Phelps would show up at ANY military funerals if there was an honor guard of a battalion or so of uniformed servicemembers between them and the funeral.

Being that it would be construed as a political statement, however, it wouldn't be allowed.

Wouldn't that be nice? The police told us that as long as the protesters stayed across the street from the church there was nothing they could do about it. It's sad that a battalion would be needed but it would be wonderful not to have to worry about someone disrupting a loved one's funeral.

[Edwina's Secretary]

I am so glad so many people became aware of this and came out to support the grieved family.

Rest in Peace...

[mugsy]

I'm glad they didn't show up, but, I agree with LH...if the press would use better judgement about what they choose to blow out of proportion and give the desired attention to morons such as Phelps, then they would fade away into the background.

Sara, please note, that I am NOT advocating censorship, just good taste and tactfulness. I am just advocating that the press be more prudent in coverage. If they choose to cover it, then it's on them...I'm not taking their right away to cover it, however, please don't take away my right to believe that the press can be entirely too pushy and obnoxious in many cases.

The press here in Ft Wayne finally got a clue a few years ago and stopped covering the KKK's protest on the courthouse steps and voile! they stopped protesting the next year! It took awhile for it to sink into their brains, but, it finally did and the Klan doesn't show up anymore.

[Edwina's Secretary]

Sara, please note, that I am NOT advocating censorship, just good taste and tactfulness. I am just advocating that the press be more prudent in coverage. If they choose to cover it, then it's on them...I'm not taking their right away to cover it, however, please don't take away my right to believe that the press can be entirely too pushy and obnoxious in many cases.

I absolutely agree that the press can be too pushy and obnoxious in many cases. I hate the way they lurk around bereaved families for example...asking how they feel...

So I understand Molly, but my concern remains who gets to decide what is good taste and tactful? You certainly wouldn't want me deciding it!

If something is happening, I think they should report on it. If I find the topic offensive...I won't read it.

And I certainly would not want something as obnoxious as this Phelps man NOT to be reported on. How else would people know to (hopefully) shame him into stopping?

[DogLady]

It's really a viscious circle......

They protest for shock.

A local paper/TV station runs the story.

They get press out of it (No such thing as bad publicity)

They protest again, and get more attention. This time instead of the local TV station, it's CNN.

They get still more attention.

Ignore the bastards and let them fade back into the morass.

I'm new here but this caught my eye.

Unfortunately, the situation with Fred Phelps is not that simple to resolve. He had the police and city government of Topeka cowed for years with a barrage of lawsuits (he's a disbarred lawyer and nine of his kids are currently lawyers). When the local government grew a spine and started fighting back, he looked for another way to get attention and discovered that picketing would do the trick.

The press covered the Westboro Baptist Church pickets at various businesses and churches in Kansas for awhile but then lost interest and stopped covering them as a story.

By your theory, that should have caused Phelps & family (the Westboro Baptist Church is 80+% Phelps family members by blood and marriage) to fade away.

What really happened is that Fred Phelps then upped the ante. He started picketing funerals of people he thought (correctly or not) had died of AIDS in Kansas. When the press stopped covering that, he started showing up at funerals in other states. The press covered it a little, not much, and then ignored him.

So he upped the ante again--he showed up at the funeral of the victim of a vicious hate crame, Matthew Shepard. That got publicity and the press covered him for awhile, then they started ignoring him again.

So Fred got another idea--he started picketing the funerals of victims of other disasters like the World Trade Center bombings. After the Iraq war started, he picketed the funerals of soldiers.

The man is a whore for attention and he's a genius at figuring out ways to up the ante so he can't be ignored. Simply ignoring him just doesn't work. Fighting back does work but it's a tricky thing to do without unconstitutionally restricting the rights of others as well.

[Cataholic]

Doglady- welcome to PT.

I agree with your thoughts. The man is a hate monger.

[RICHARD]

There's no hell like anonymity for idiots like this. They crave attention, and we stupidly give it to them.

Bill "big tuna" Parcells, The head coach of the Dallas Cowboys commented about the press giving Terrel "I'm a selfish AH" Owens press about his antics.

"He suckers you media in, Conisder yourselves sucked"