Because WorldNetDaily’s Bob Unruh has an anti-gay agenda, he has no interest whatsoever in accurately or fairly reporting on LGBT issues (which is just the way his employer likes it). Unruh keeps up that un-journalistic tradition in his coverage of a lawsuit over a Houston non-discrimination ordinance — something he has spread lies about in the past.
In an Oct. 13 WND article, Unruh dishonestly portrays a city request for copies of sermons delivered by pastors who oppose the ordinance — which Unruh maliciously describes as “allow[ing] ‘gender-confused’ people to use public restrooms designated for the opposite sex” and portrays as part of “the transsexual agenda” — as a threat to religious freedom. Unruh quotes only pastors and their legal representatives fearmongering about the action and misleading about the ordinance, and he made no apparent effort to contact city officials for their side of the story. Unruh also repeats his lie that Houston Mayor Annise Parker “has acknowledged the ordinance is ‘all about me.'” As we’ve documented, Parker said no such thing.
But as Media Matters points out, the request is part of a normal discovery phase in response to a lawsuit filed by ordinance opponents and are meant to gather information about possibly improper church behavior.
Had Unruh bothered to contact Houston officials about the controversy, he wold have found that they concede the documents request may be overbroad.
But, again, the facts don’t matter to Unruh. His Oct. 15 follow-up article repeats all the one-sided smears and Unruh’s refusal to tell the other side of the story. And in an Oct. 16 article kept up Unruh’s lazy reporting: He fails yet again to contact Houston city officials for their side of the story, instead noting an article from the right-wing Washington Times about the city narrowing the scope of their demands.
Most real journalists would be ashamed to write such ridiculously biased and misleading — if not outright false — screeds and passing them off as “journalism.” Unruh clearly has no shame about this, which is just another reason why nobody believes WND.
UPDATE: Unruh’s Oct. 17 article on the issue, like the others, ignores the other side of the story. Despite writing four articles about this, Unruh has never reached out to Houston city officials for their response. Talk about lazy reporting.