Fox News Radio Host Apologizes for "Anti-Gay" Comment

The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) issued a press release yesterday about "defamatory, anti-gay comments" made by a Fox News Radio host. Today, EDGE has radio host Scott James' side of the story.

On the July 31 broadcast of his KCOL program, Ride Home with the James Gang, the show's host and program director reportedly made a comment equating members of the LGBT community with child molesters--a common, and spurious, association frequently made by anti-gay organizations and individuals.

James had been responding to a listener's text-messaged inquiry. The topic was whether proposed federal hate crimes protections for LGBT individuals would criminalize anti-gay commentary, such as that which emanates from certain talk shows and religious organizations.

As worded, the proposed legislation recently introduced in Congress--which was temporarily withdrawn from consideration last month when the larger spending bill to which it was attached failed to gain traction--specifically criminalizes only violent actions against people based on their actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity.

James compared the "thought crime," as it has been described by anti-gay groups of late, of holding anti-gay views with the case of an alleged pedophile who claims never to have acted on his impulses, asking whether the potential sexual predator should be arrested for crimes he been tempted to commit, but never actually perpetrated.

The man in question, Jack McClellan, whom the New York Times wrote of in a July 27 article as a self-described pedophile, has alarmed and angered parents in Washington state and in Los Angeles for blogging about children, posting descriptions of young girls and sharing with other pedophiles information on places where children gather.

Mental health professionals recognize pedophilia as a pathology and make a distinction between pedophilia and homosexuality, which was removed from the official list of mental health disorders in the early 1970s.

An estimated ninety-six percent of pedophiles are heterosexual.

GLAAD responded quickly to the on-air comments, contacting the station and James, who GLAAD said was "unapologetic."

"There is no room on the airwaves for these types of hateful comments," said GLAAD Senior Director of Media Programs Rashad Robinson.

Continued Robinson, "Irresponsible statements like those of Scott James only serve to perpetuate negative stereotypes of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community."

GLAAD called on Scott James and KCOL Fox Radio to offer an apology for what GLAAD called James' anti-gay remarks.

Responding to an e-mail from EDGE, James explained his perspective on events.

"I would like you to know that it is never my intention to offend and it deeply upsets me when my words have that affect [sic]," wrote James to EDGE.

"My comments on our program on 7/31 were a mistake--a slip of the tongue combined with my inability to express in the moment my reaction to an instant message I received from a listener," James continued.

"The conversation in question occurred as a small part of a larger conversation on hate crimes. The 'instant messenger' stated that some proposed hate crime legislation went as far as to propose criminalizing those who would stand in a pulpit and condemn homosexuality."

James went on to describe how he chose to illustrate his point by making reference to McClellan. "I brought [the subject of] Jack McClellan in to the conversation," James wrote, providing a link to the July 27 New York Times article on McClellan ( ).

"This man is obviously a pedophile," James wrote, "but claims to have never acted on his perverted thoughts. Therefore, he has broken no laws.

"Punishing him for his thoughts would be every bit as wrong [as] punishing someone who speaks out against homosexuality for their thoughts. That is the parallel I was endeavoring to illustrate," continued James.

"Obviously, I did a very poor job of verbalizing my thoughts and offended many in the process."

Clarified James, "I certainly did not mean to equate homosexuality to child molestation and after reviewing the recording of that program I certainly understand how members of the GLBT community would take my ill-spoken words as offensive and I most certainly owe them an apology.

"I'd like to offer that apology on the air to Paul Karr, Director of Media Field Strategy for GLAAD, as his schedule permits early next week," offered James. "Additionally, I'd like to discuss issues facing the GLBT community with Mr. Karr and be able to ask honest questions about perceptions and probable misunderstandings I have about the GLBT community."

James went on to lament to EDGE the breakdown of civilized discourse in the national dialogue, telling EDGE, "I am of the opinion that in today's politically charged media climate if individuals on opposing sides of issues would stop attacking one another, take a deep breath and actually talk / listen... to one another, a more civil tone would prevail."

James praised America as being "great" for allowing participants in the public dialogue about policies to "disagree," but, said James, "the disagreement should be more civil and the respect should increase.

"My only request of Mr. Karr is that he would issue a 'GLAAD Alert' informing recipients of our intended conversation and encourage recipients to listen to our conversation either on the air or online at 600KCOL.com," James told EDGE.

"I was branded an insensitive homophobe with the stroke of a keyboard," James continued. "I hope Mr. Karr would be as quick to brand me as someone apologetic for a mistake and open to respectfully discuss issues that affect our community."

James concluded his note to EDGE with, "Please accept my apology for any offense taken."

Fox News has frequently been the object of similar criticisms as the one offered by Mr. James. GLBT groups, among others, have pointed to Bill O'Reilly and other Fox News figures in their own laments regarding civilized and respectful discourse being shunted aside in favor of sensationalistic reportage.