Badpuppy Gay Today

Friday, 13 June 1997

Televangelist Pat Robertson's 700 Club opened on each of Wednesday's three time-slotted daily programs (CBN News, morning, afternoon, night) by clearly reciting the address of Badpuppy's GayToday.

Pat Robertson's newscaster, Lee Webb and TV journalist, Paul Strand, specifically called attention June 11 to GayToday's continuing series on cloning, and, generally, the subject of cloning itself, one that has recently enjoyed a resurgence in interest, because of Clone Rights United Front (CRUF) activism and the Bio-ethics Commission meetings, in mainstream news.

On May 25, Randolfe Wicker, founder of CRUF, the world's first pro-human-cloning activist group, was the focus of 16-"cloned" New York Times Magazine photos. Earlier coverage in March (such as that by Billy Cox's in Florida Today, by Anita Manning's in USA Today, by Christopher Rapp in Heterodoxy, and, in April, by the international news provider, the Associated Press) included GayToday's Badpuppy address.

As Wednesday's 700 Club program begins, two self-conscious substitute co-hosts, Scott Ross, and Lisa Ryan, introduce themselves. Mr. Ross carefully assures his audience that he is not Pat Robertson, a fact some may not have otherwise noticed. Both of the nervous hosts make awkward attempts to be subtly "with it" by talking about--what else?-- the Internet.

"I have a website incidentally," says Scott Ross, "....and there's something we'll be talking about on this program in just a few moments, about cloning."

Ms. Ryan, trying to look startled, asks "Yes?"

"What if there were two of you?" Ross jokes.

"Oh, Lord forbid. My husband would say Noooo!" Ms. Ryan croons.

"Marcus, your husband?"

"Yes."

"This (cloning) is becoming an issue," says a suddenly serious Mr. Ross.

"It is," agrees Ms. Ryan, equally serious.

"Not your cloning, but cloning,"

"People who want to clone themselves as a form of reproduction." explains Ms. Ryan, sounding suddenly authoritative.

"There's something to think about," says Ross as his fumbling co-host attempts to deliver her CBN audience a pensive glance of girlish confusion.

Next, Lee Webb, anchorperson with CBN News, tells of Republican and Democratic financing squabbles following North Dakota's massive floods, and then, jumping quickly to a new story, Webb utilizes Whitewater rumors to Hillary-bash, quoting Arkansas'-prison-bound McDougal: "The institution (prison) I'm going to is co-educational, and I think there's an excellent chance I might see Hillary there."

This "cheerful" partisan prediction is followed by a purposefully worrisome report on findings about human cloning from the President's Bio-ethics Commission.

"Will it soon be time to send in the clones?" asks announcer Webb. "Ninety percent of Americans say they want human cloning forbidden..... but, as Paul Strand reports from Washington, there may well be some cloning loopholes and some cloning terrors ahead." An analyst is shown saying the Commission has put no teeth into its recommendations that such cloning be banned but that certain Congresspersons and President Clinton have taken up the anti-cloning cause.

The President, however, is portrayed as standing behind what "appears to be" his Commission's ban, when, in fact, it is not a ban that will work. This is where Congressionally proposed bans are hailed by CBN News as serious efforts.

"But while Congressmen up here are trying to seal the lid tight on human cloning," reports Strand, "others are pushing for exactly the opposite: absolutely no limits on cloning. We have here some documents faxed to us (by Randolfe Wicker) by the Clone Rights United Front, a group obviously affiliated with gays, since their Internet address is gaytoday.badpuppy.com.

"They're pushing a clone bill of rights that declares, "Every person's DNA is his or her personal property and they're using the rhetoric of the abortion rights crowd, saying 'A person's ability to clone themselves is quote 'part and parcel of his or her right to control his or her own reproduction.' Homosexuals are declaring cloning a perfect solution for them: 'Reproduction without compromise'."

"A number of homosexual groups have come forward," insists an analyst incorrectly, saying we would like to go ahead with this. (Editor's note: polls indicate only 10% of gays actually approve of cloning. CRUF does not consider itself a gay group, and no other gay groups support cloning at present.) It does get the heterosexuals out of control by eliminating the (straight) monopoly (on reproduction). Most Americans, 90% of Americans want a ban."

"Still," continues CBN newscaster Paul Strand, "cracks are already appearing in the wall being thrown up against human cloning." Sadaam Hussein is reported to be spending millions to see himself cloned. A Montreal "cult" is asking big donations from individuals who want to be cloned. The newscaster worries about how long humanity can resist the urge to clone, and raises the specter of brain-dead bodies used for transplants, suspended en masse in cold storage as in the movie, Coma, from which clips are shown.

"In fact some homosexuals are already declaring the old-fashioned way of making babies may no longer be acceptable. As one put it in this article, Gay Clones, (See GayToday Archives, "Heterosexual Reproduction Is Obsolete", Viewpoints, May 27) 'I don't think people are going to settle anymore for this random collision of random sperm and random egg. Do you really just want to just settle for what pops out of the womb?' End of quote. "

Paul Strand signs off, "CBN News, Capital Hill." and is followed, finally, by anchor Lee Webb who concludes ominously, "Now the science of cloning is so new and so shaky, that, if they're allowed, experiments with humans can lead to many horrible tragedies."

The 700 Club's daily attempts to paint same-sex affection in lurid colors have thus seized upon new nerve-rattling subject-matter, cloning.

The 700 Club's CBN News, a polemical arm of Pat Robertson's Christian Coalition, made Wednesdays cloning presentation at a time when Pat Robertson was away, standing at the side of his newly-installed director for the Christian Coalition. It was clear to observers that the two top CC men were not identical clones, but instead held tightly to identical superstitions.

A recently-published book detailing televangelist Pat Robertson's most worrisome behaviors is titled The Most Dangerous Man in America?: Pat Roberston and the Rise of the Christian Coalition by Robert Boston, published by Prometheus Books. (order 1-800-421-0351).