Can you say 'smear campaign'? I knew you could!

This just seems to be the day for long posts, doesn’t it? Well, bear with me — I’m flaming pissed right now, and I don’t feel like hiding all the reasons behind the ‘extended post’ link.

Earlier today, I linked to a story about how the Episcopal Church looked ready to elect the first openly gay bishop. I should have known that in the real world, this wasn’t likely to happen.

This afternoon, a string of posts was posted on Eschaton pointing out the smear campaign currently being waged against Rev. Gene Robinson that has resulted in the final vote, which was supposed to happen today, being postponed ‘indefinitely.’

First: a link to a Weekly Standard article breaking the news that one could access a porn website through links from the website of Outright a gay youth support website.

THE CONTROVERSIAL gay Episcopal bishop-elect of New Hampshire is a founder of a group called Outright that supports gay, lesbian, or “questioning” young people 22-years-old or younger and gets them together with older gay and lesbian role models. On its website, Outright had a link to a pornographic website–until the link became an issue in the fight at the Episcopal Church’s national convention in Minneapolis over ratifying the election of the bishop-elect, Gene Robinson, by New Hampshire Episcopalians. The link, indeed all links, were removed from the website today.

Eschaton apparently found about about this from a CNN broadcast, which was loosely quoted as such:

If you go to a website, and then make a few more clicks, and then leave the web site, and then make a few more clicks, you can access some erotica if you pay for it.

Go to the website, make a few more clicks, then leave the website, then make a few more clicks, then you’ll find porn if you pay for it.

Next, Atrios came up with the transcript of the CNN report he heard (emphasis mine):

Also, the vote is being postponed, we have learned from church officials, is because another group who initially came to CNN revealed that they suspect that a Web site called outright.org, an organization that counsels gay and lesbian youth under the age of 21, that if you go on to their Web site, there are a few clicks away and leaving their Web site can eventually get you, they say, to a pornographic site.

Next came the revelation that Fred Barnes, the author of the Weekly Standard article, is a board member of the Institute on Religion and Democracy, a very conservative organization of Episcopalians. Sure sounds like a possible conflict of interest to me.

Later, another CNN transcript was found, demonstrating just how easy it was to get to porn via Outreach’s site:

First, let’s show you a bit of the Web site. We will not show you all of its entirety but if you go to it and make a few clicks and then leave the Web site using various links and make a few more clicks you discover an erotica, what is described as an erotica site where you can download or view rather some photographs. Of course you have to pay to see additional photographs.

This is nothing more than a blatant smear campaign designed to discredit Rev. Robinson and block his election as a Bishop. Allegations have also surfaced involving possible “improper touching”. According to this CNN transcript (the first one linked to by Eschaton):

…one of [the allegations] has to do with an e-mail that was sent just last night from a man in Manchester, Vermont, by the name of David Lewis, who sent an e-mail to a bishop claiming that — or alleging that — Reverend Robinson had — quote — “touched him inappropriately” a few years ago at a convocation, and he’s asking the bishops to look into this.

In other words, even though Rev. Robinson has been in the news for months, along with word of his upcoming election process, these allegations only surfaced at the very last moment, when it actually looked like he would be elected to his position as Bishop. As I stated above, it looks for all the world to me like this is nothing more than a brutal, vicious smear campaign.

Rev. Robinson may have had the honor of being elected the first gay bishop of the Episcopal Church today. He may not have — having made it through the first two elections is a good indicator, but not a gaurantee, that he would have made it through the third. At this point, though, we may never know.