[lbo-talk] the Mary Cheney controversy

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Thu Oct 21 11:43:51 PDT 2004


[this sheds some light on one of the odder controversies of the day]

On FOX, Kerry's reference to Mary Cheney's sexual orientation compared to saying "Your daughter is a slut"

<http://mediamatters.org/items/200410200007>

Frequent FOX News Channel guestKellyanne Conway <http://www.pollingcompany.com/biography.asp?FormMode=Show&ID=1>, president and CEO of The Polling Company, compared Senator John Kerry's reference to Vice President Dick Cheney's daughter, Mary Cheney, as a lesbian to "someone" saying, "'Your daughter is a slut,' or 'We want you to open up the divorce records.'" Conway, who is a frequent guest on other cable news channels as well as apanelist <http://www.pbs.org/ttc/panelists.html> on PBS's To the Contrary, made this statement on FOX News Channel's Fox & Friends on October 16.

Earlier on the same program, nationally syndicated radio host and frequent FOX News Channel contributor Mike Gallagher, who was guest co-hosting FOX & Friends, compared Kerry's reference to Mary Cheney to a hypothetical statement about obesity. As Media Matters for America has noted <http://mediamatters.org/items/itembody/200410180008>, conservatives in the media have also drawn comparisons between Kerry's mention of Mary Cheney's sexual orientation to revelations about a family member's abortion, adultery, and alcoholism.

From the October 16 edition of FOX News Channel's Saturday edition of FOX & Friends:

CONWAY: All he [Kerry] has to do, Mike, is say "I'm sorry," and he won't say it.

GALLAGHER: Robert, right, would you agree with that? It's a distraction that the Kerry campaign would've preferred not to have to deal with.

ROBERT ZIMMERMAN (Democratic strategist): It's George [W.] Bush and Dick Cheney who keep making this an issue now, after the debate. They keep raising it in sound bite after sound bite.

CONWAY: John Kerry wants someone to say, "Your daughter is a slut," or "We want you to open up the divorce records."

ZIMMERMAN: Oh, my goodness.

CONWAY: Exactly. Doesn't that shock you?

ZIMMERMAN: How can you compare the issue of being a gay person to being a slut?

CONWAY: It's someone's sexuality, it's off limits, and you guys made it that way, just as we don't want to talk about it.

ZIMMERMAN: You might've talked to Dick Cheney before he brought it up.

JULIET HUDDY (FOX & Friends co-host): Parents, take the children out of the room! Actually, bring them back in now, it's over.



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