Berkowitz-OLBERMANN"S  'Worst Person' see's it as 'positive thing'
 
Date: Thu, 17 Jan 2008 21:47:06 -0600 (CST)


_http://www.talk2action.org/story/2008/1/15/152258/346_ 
(http://www.talk2action.org/story/2008/1/15/152258/346) 
 
_CWA's  Wendy Wright: Self-promotion with a curious twist_ 
(http://www.talk2action.org/story/2008/1/15/152258/346/Dominionism_in_the_military/CWA_s_Wendy_Wr
ight_Self_promotion_with_a_curious_twist)  

President of Concerned Women for America proud to  named 'worst person in the 
world' by Keith Olbermann
 
By Bill Berkowitz, Talk2Action, January 15, 2008
 
While she certainly doesn't rank up there celebrity-wise with Rush Limbaugh,  
Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity or most of the other previous "winners" of Keith  
Olbermann's nightly "Worst Person in the World" designation, Wendy Wright,  
president of Concerned Women for America (CWA), appears to be taking full  
advantage of her 30 seconds.  
While Wright's response may be indicative of the growing popularity of  
MSNBC's Olbermann, it also might be indicative of the desperate financial  straits 
CWA has found itself in lately -- I received at least two breath-taking  
funding appeals from the organization at the end of last year -- or possibly an  
attempt to show the organization's supporters that it is fighting back against  
the so-called liberal media.  
Nevertheless, Wright told CitizenLink, a news service of Focus on the Family, 
 that "her newest title is actually a positive thing."  
Kudos from CWA supporters  
"The overwhelming response I am getting from Olbermann's award is hearty  
`Congratulations!' " Wright told CitizenLink. "More importantly, it has provided  
a wonderful platform to spotlight the common-sense point that earned me the  
title, that comprehensive sex ed promoters profit from the ill effects of 
their  products."  
Wright received the "Worst Person in the World" designation after she was  
interviewed for a Fox News Channel Special Report.  
During the interview, Wright said: "In fact, they [comprehensive sex-ed  
advocates] want to encourage [kids to have sex] because they benefit when kids  
end up having sexually transmitted diseases, unintended pregnancies and then  
they lead them into having abortions. So, you have to look at the financial  
motives behind those who are promoting comprehensive sex ed."  
"While the idea of sex educators rolling in piles of dough made off the backs 
 of sexually active teens seems laughable to most," Jessica Valenti recently  
wrote in The Nation, "Wright is playing on some truly hackneyed, but  
often-believed, anti-feminist myths:  
"That comprehensive sex education causes teens to have sex; that all young  
women who have sex end up teen moms; that abortion providers make oodles of  
money, and--perhaps most dangerous--that sexually active young women are  
victims. Victims of educators, doctors, men, you name it.  
"Positioning the pro-choice and comprehensive sex ed community as benefiting  
from young women being sexually active is not only untrue, it also does a 
huge  disservice to young women. (Let's not kid ourselves, when these folks talk 
about  "kids having sex," they're clearly talking about women.) Young women 
benefit  from being well-informed, they don't get knocked up from it. And if 
women like  Wright really cared about kids, they'd be fighting to make sure 
American youth  had accurate, comprehensive information about sex--not lying on 
television for  conservative brownie points."  
Olbermann lambasted by CWA's Policy Director for Cultural Issues  
J. Matt Barber, who is identified as an attorney concentrating in  
constitutional law, and who serves as CWA's Policy Director for Cultural Issues,  
lambasted Olbermann and praised Wright in a column titled "Who's the worst  person 
in the world?"  
Barber called Olbermann a "blinkered liberal extremist who plays a newsman on 
 TV," and pointed out that "in a recent episode of MSNBC's poorly rated  
'Countdown with Keith Olbermann,' the painfully 'progressive' talking-head took  
issue with Wendy for pointing out this clear conflict of interest ..."  
Barber congratulated Wright saying that "It's obvious from the left's  
reaction to your comments that you struck a tender nerve. Anytime you inject  truth 
into the analysis, they go apoplectic.  
"And if Olbermann is the chief protagonist for liberal thought, I think the  
conservative movement is going to be just fine. Anytime you've got Keith  
Olbermann's goat, you know you're doing something right."  
CitizenLink is urging readers to "Take Action" and "Ask Keith Olbermann to  
stick to the truth when reporting on Planned Parenthood and 'comprehensive' sex 
 ed.  
Other Wright sightings  
On December 18, the Christian Post reported that a federal judge "ruled ...  
that White House visitor logs are public records and ordered the Secret  
Service to turn over information regarding the visits of nine prominent  Christian 
leaders to an advocacy group."  
Included in the group along with Wright was James Dobson of Focus on the  
Family, Gary L. Bauer, former president of Family Research Council who ran for  
President in 2000 who is currently president of American Values and on the  
board of Campaign for Working Families, Traditional Values Coalition executive  
director Andrea Lafferty and founder Louis Sheldon, Lafferty's father, Paul  
Weyrich, co-founder of the Heritage Foundation, Moral Majority, and Council  for 
National Policy, currently Free Congress Foundation, Tony Perkins,  president 
of Family Research Council, Donald Wildmon, founder and chairman of  the A
merican Family Association, and the late Jerry Falwell, co-founder of  Moral 
Majority.  
In late December, reponding to news that Jamie Lynn Spears, the 16-year-old  
younger sister of pop artist Britney Spears was pregnant, Wright praised her  
for making a "mature choice" in deciding to have the baby.  
Folding the movie "Juno," in which a pregnant teen ager decides to have her  
baby, into her comments, Wright told the Associated Press that "Too often, sex 
 is presented as having no consequences. In both of these cases, the girls 
are  pretty much admitting that they made some wrong choices, yet they are 
acting  responsibly now that they're facing the consequences. That's a mature  
response."  
Earlier this month, Wright said that the United Nations wants to integrate  
"reproductive rights and services into various agencies and U.N. programs in  
order to promote abortion and sexual license."  
Concerned Women for America was founded by Beverly LaHaye, the wife of  
longtime conservative Christian activist and co-author of the best-selling  "Left 
Behind" seriers of apocalyptic niovels, Tim LaHaye.  
If history is our guide, expect a bevy of CWA fundraising appeals heading  
your way.   

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