Highly upset!! - Fred Phelps to Visit

[Lady's Human]

Sara,

I'm not blaming the press for the actions of the protesters. I'm just saying that if they had one of their protests and no one publicized it, they wouldn't gain the attention they are so desperately seeking.

[Edwina's Secretary]

I just think to say the press gives credence is to suggest the press acknowledges what the protesters are saying is true. (I looked it up in the dictionary... ) I haven't seen the press suggest ANYWHERE that the deaths of our soldiers in Iraq is devine retribution.

The protesters are nuts...and should be told that they are nuts. The protesters are horrid human beings and should be told that.

What a shame it would be if these horrid people were doing this horrid thing and good people did not know about it (from the press) so that they could help and support the families being hurt by these horrid people.

[Lady's Human]

Another definition for credence is acceptance. Most words have more than one meaning, after all, it all depends on what the meaning of "is" is.

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.

Yes, the stories have lead to counter protests, but they have also lead to the idiots getting attention which they would not have gotten had people simply looked at them, said "Damn, what a bunch of idiots" and looked away.

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

[Edwina's Secretary]

Another definition for credence is acceptance. Most words have more than one meaning, after all, it all depends on what the meaning of "is" is.

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.

Yes, the stories have lead to counter protests, but they have also lead to the idiots getting attention which they would not have gotten had people simply looked at them, said "Damn, what a bunch of idiots" and looked away.

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

Hurrah! Another vote heard for censorship of the press.....

(and you are wrong on the word credence....nice try but it is rooted in the word "creed" or truth...)

[Lady's Human]

1) Where did I say anything about censorship? I'm implying action by private citizens, not government entities.

2) http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/credence

[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"