I really thought this would be a one-day flap, but Pat Robertson’s not letting this go, so I guess I’m not either.
Robertson generated widespread criticism last week by saying he’d like to see a “nuclear device” get into the State Department so someone could “blow that thing up.” Yesterday, the infamous TV preacher returned to the controversy on his 700 Club program.
Robertson brought back Joel Mowbray, the State Department critic whose book prompted Robertson to utter his nuclear fantasy, to yesterday’s show. Brother Pat started by saying the State Department had characterized Mowbray’s book as “despicable.”
In other words, Robertson started lying at the outset. The State Department didn’t call Mowbray’s book despicable — a State spokesman called Robertson despicable for his pro-terrorism comments.
Robertson went on to say that his suggestion that “the answer” to State’s problems is a nuclear strike was simply an effort to describe a serious issue “in a laughing fashion.”
Yes, Robertson, a paragon of morality and virtue, thinks it’s funny to joke about blowing up the State Department with a nuclear bomb. Hilarious.
Robertson concluded yesterday’s interview with Mowbray by saying, “I want to correct my remarks. Joel did not say ‘Nuke the State Department,’ he said ‘gut it.’ So we’ve changed.”
More demonstrable lies. Robertson assured his audience that Mowbray did not say to nuke the State Department. We already knew that; no one ever accused Mowbray of making such a comment. The problem was (and is) that Robertson said he wanted to see the State Department attacked. Mowbray was irrelevant; he wasn’t the one advocating terrorism in front of a national television audience.
I have to admit, I expected Robertson to be a little more contrite. After all, he is a supposed religious leader who claims to receive “words of knowledge” directly from God. For such a person to recommend attacks on the State Department is fairly breathtaking.
I anticipated Robertson either ignoring the controversy all together, or expressing some insincere regret. Instead, Robertson said he was joking and tried to shift the controversy towards his guest.
One could certainly do a detailed case study on public relations crisis/management simply by following Robertson’s record of responses to his self-generated controversies.
* 48 hours after the terrorist attacks of 9/11, for example, Robertson joined Jerry Falwell in blaming the attacks on American liberals. Later, Robertson said it was all Falwell’s fault.
* In 1998, Robertson said the city of Orlando will face divine retribution — including possibly being hit by a “meteor” — for allowing a gay group to fly rainbow flags from light poles during an event at Disney World. Robertson later said his remarks were taken out of context (though a transcript proved otherwise).
* In 1992, Robertson signed a letter to GOP activists in Iowa that said, “The feminist agenda is not about equal rights for women. It is about a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians.” When asked about the remark, Robertson said someone else wrote it and he just stuck his name on the letter without reading it.
* Robertson called Episcopalians, Presbyterians, and Methodists “the spirit of the anti-Christ” on his program in January 1991. When asked about it later, Robertson said he didn’t remember making the remark.
One last thought. Robertson’s show, which provides him an invaluable platform to share his lunacy with a national television audience, is broadcast, ironically, on the ABC Family Channel.
That’s right, young children across the country can tune in to a Disney-owned channel to watch cartoons, educational programs, family-oriented comedies, and an insane TV preacher rant on a daily basis about his hatred for everyone and everything that conflicts with his theological (and theocratic) worldview.
Maybe it’s time to petition ABC Family to drop Robertson from its network?