One of the amazing things about monitoring the Religious Right on a daily basis is realizing the frequency with which right-wing figures engage in abject hypocrisy, seemingly unaware of their own past behavior or public statements.
Take Bryan Fischer’s radio program today, for instance, when he and a caller named Bobby had a somewhat contentious exchange stemming from a recent comment made by Paul Reville, the former secretary of education for Massachusetts, was said that “the children belong to all of us.”
The debate between Fischer and Bobby was not particularly interesting, but what was interesting is that when Fischer returned from the break, he admitted that he might have been a little too hard on Bobby. Fischer didn’t necessarily think he had been unfair and defending his behavior during the previous segment by insisting that the caller had needed some “tough love” because he was refusing to answer Fischer’s simple questions.
“He was trying to avoid answer the question,” Fischer said, in his own defense. “And that’s why I wasn’t going to let him skate on the question … You needed a little tough love there buddy, because you were trying to skate on what was a simple and straightforward and honest question and it was my responsibility to kind of hold you to account for facing the truth”:
Now let us contrast Fischer’s “tough love” approach to callers on his own show to his behavior when he appeared on Alan Colmes’ radio program a few years ago where he literally refused to answer any of Colmes’ question, simply repeating the same talking point over and over and over again because he did not like the line of questioning.
To top it off, Fischer then complained that Colmes’ interview was nothing but “gotcha journalism,” complaining that “there was an answer that he was going to pester me until I gave it and then he could grab it and say ‘gotcha,'” which is why Fischer insisted on simply parroting his talking points over and over again:
Today, Fischer literally did this very thing to a caller on his show and defended his actions on the grounds that the caller needed some tough love because he was refusing to answer the questions. But when the roles were reversed, Fischer was outraged because it was nothing more than “gotcha journalism” when it happened to him.
