Gary Wills on "Agenda" as Jargon

Yoshie Furuhashi furuhashi.1 at osu.edu
Mon May 27 12:00:23 PDT 2002



>A wonderful parenthesis by Gary Wills in the current NYRB:
>
>"'Agenda' is the current swear word -- say anyone has such a thing and
>he or she is instantly disqualified from expressing an opinion.
>Apparently only the directionless or clueless are worth listening to."
>
>Actually, the term has a history -- in the past the term was "hidden" or
>"secret" agenda. It's a standbye of the duller forms of red-baiting.
>
>Carrol

***** Hate on Tape

The Video Strategy of the Fundamentalist Right

by Laura Flanders

It was the military and the media that made The Gay Agenda popular, says Bill Horn, once a CBS sportscaster, now video maker for the Springs of Life charismatic Christian church that produced the tape.

"Since The Gay Agenda was featured on Larry King Live and ABC World News Tonight, calls have poured in on the 1-800 sales number requesting a copy," boast the producers. After appearing on Pat Robertson's "700 Club" with clips, Horn says he gets 500 requests a day.

The Gay Agenda poses as a teaching tape, revealing what Horn calls the "hidden" side of gay life. Using amateur footage from gay parades and demonstrations, the tape stars doctors and scholars and "recovered" homosexuals who recite lists of unsourced statistics on what they say are the unhealthy practices of gay men.

Ten thousand copies were distributed to voters in Colorado and Oregon in the fall of 1992, in time to influence voting on anti-gay initiatives that were on the ballots in those states. According to Horn, exit polls in Oregon showed that 70 percent of "yes" voters said they were influenced by the tape.

Then in December 1993, Marine Commandant General Carl E. Mundy received a copy. "After viewing it, I reproduced copies for each of my fellow service chiefs, the chairman and the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff," he told Representative Pat Schroeder in a letter. "It appears to be extreme, but its message is vivid and, I believe, warrants a factual assessment."

Eventually, each senator and representative in Washington has received a copy, and Rev. Donald Wildmon of the American Family Association distributed tapes to every legislator in the states of Washington, Maine, New Mexico, and Montana, where voters faced anti-gay initiatives....

<http://www.publiceye.org/eyes/hatetape.html> ***** -- Yoshie

* Calendar of Events in Columbus: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html> * Anti-War Activist Resources: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/activist.html> * Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osu.edu/students/CJP/>



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