A conservative radio host told Fox News on Thursday that Phil Robertson, star of the reality TV show Duck Dynasty, should not have been suspend for homophobic remarks --because he was just doing what Martin Luther King Jr. would have done.
Fox News host Martha MacCallum asked radio host Mike Slater if it was right for A&E to get its "ruffles up" (so they're "girly," right, Martha?) and suspend Robertson after he said that homosexuality was a sin like "bestiality" in a recent interview with GQ magazine.
"He was asked, what in your mind is a sin?" Slater noted. "It's the bizarre hypocrisy from [LGBT rights group] GLAAD in particular. They want tolerance for their sexuality, but they are not willing to be tolerant of, in this case, Phil's Christianity."
MacCallum wondered if there was a double standard because gay men on a reality show would not have been suspended for expressing disgust about heterosexual sex.
"In 1958, a young boy wrote a preacher a letter, saying that he was struggling with homosexuality," Slater said. "And this preacher wrote back, 'Son, don't worry, there's a solution to your problem.' That preacher was Martin Luther King Jr."
"I guarantee you that Martin Luther King Jr. loves that boy just like Robertson [family]," he added. "The point is the Robertson family loves everyone, that's the point here."
Liberal radio host Richard Fowler, however, found the comparison to be outrageous.
"That stretches just way too far, that is a total straw man," Fowler insisted. "Beyond that, this GQ interview was loaded with hatred. It's not only his talk about homosexuality, but he goes on to talk about how African-Americans were doing pretty well during Jim Crow."
"The fact is that this guy's language in this interview was so absurd that there was no way for A&E to even keep him on the show without having some public backlash from the American people," he pointed out.
Slater has previously quoted Martin Luther King Jr. on Fox News, claiming the civil rights leader would have opposed President Barack Obama's health care reform law.
