After spending over a week denying that Indiana's “religious freedom” law could be used for anti-gay discrimination, Fox News is now contradicting itself by arguing that the law has been “gutted” by new language that prohibits business owners from using it to discriminate.

On March 26, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence (R) signed the state's Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) into law. The measure initially provided a legal defense for those who refused to serve gay customers on religious grounds and sparked a widespread and bipartisan backlash across the country. Criticism of the measure eventually forced Pence and Indiana Republicans to agree to change the law. On April 2, Indiana's RFRA was amended to prohibit its use for individuals and business owners who discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.

Fox News did not respond happily to the change.

On the April 3 edition of Fox & Friends, hosts Elisabeth Hasselbeck, Brian Kilmeade, and Tucker Carlson dedicated two segments to criticizing the law's amendment, decrying the lack of “moral courage” on the part of Pence and claiming the bill had been “gutted” by adding anti-discrimination protections for LGBT people. Carlson stated that he couldn't “make any sense of [the amendment] at all, it seems like the law has been completely gutted. It says specifically you can't use this law in court as a defense against denying service on the basis of your religious faith. So like, what's the point of the law in the first place?”

The segments represent a dramatic reversal for Fox, which has repeatedly denied that Indiana's RFRA was discriminatory in intent or effect, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

On the March 30 edition of The Kelly File, host Megyn Kelly flatly asserted the Indiana RFRA “does not allow for discrimination,” even though the law could override LGBT anti-discrimination laws in cities like Indianapolis. She doubled down on this sentiment on her April 1 show, claiming that it was "not that controversial," and that the law "does not allow discrimination against gays." On the March 31 edition of Outnumbered, co-host Andrea Tantaros argued the law “was done not so that gays are treated like second-class citizens.” Fox & Friends' Steve Doocy stated the law “does not discriminate against gays,” adding “here's the thing -- [the law is] not discrimination.” And Fox's senior political analyst Brit Hume argued that the law couldn't be discriminatory because "it never mentions gay people or gay rights."

As Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist Jay Bookman pointed out in reference to similar statements of RFRA supporters in Georgia, Fox News' contradictory positions -- that the original bill was not discriminatory but an anti-discrimination amendment guts it -- are “not a logically tenable proposition” (emphasis added):