This MSNBC host appears better at exemplifying “convoluted” than defining it.
MSNBC host Alex Wagner celebrated how the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit “struck down two more same-sex bans” in Idaho and Nevada during “NOW with Alex Wagner” on Oct. 7. During a panel, she addressed the “convoluted argument” of religious liberty by calling religious exceptions “carve-outs for bigotry.”
To introduce the segment, Wagner gushed that the Court of Appeal’s move “comes on the heels of a landmark Supreme Court un-ruling on marriage equality,” and “is expected to bring the grand total of states allowing gay and lesbian Americans to marry the person they love to a whopping 35.”
When Republican strategist Hogan Gidley [1], a guest panelist, brought up religious liberty Wagner criticized him, asking, “Don't you think that is a convoluted argument to say it is denying people religious liberty to let other people enter into marriage?”
Gidley replied, “If you're going to tell me you can force people who take wedding pictures to take pictures of a gay wedding, you can force them by law, then why can't I force an African-American bakery to bake a cake for a white supremacist group? Or a Jewish group to handle meat and in unkosher manner for another function?”
“If you want special carve-outs for bigotry,” Alex sneered, “we can have that discussion.”
New York Times reporter and MSNBC contributor Josh Barro [2] chimed in, “there is an enormous generational divide, including a majority of young Republicans in favor of gay marriage. The people on your side of this issue literally are dying every day.” As if that changes the truth.
The media, particularly the networks [3], have turned a blind eye in the past to the gay rights movement's threat to businesses with owners with religious convictions.
— Katie Yoder is Staff Writer, Joe and Betty Anderlik Fellow in Culture and Media at the Media Research Center. Follow Katie Yoder on Twitter. [4]