Bob Eschliman is the editor of the Newton Daily News. He is also an outspoken conservative Christian. Yesterday he wrote an article on his personal blog entitled “The deceivers are hard at work.” You can find it here since he has taken his blog down today. Eschliman after quoting Matthew 24:4-14 wrote:

No, I’m not suggesting the end times are near, although there are days one has to wonder. Instead, I’d like to talk a little bit about deceivers among us, most notably the LGBTQXYZ crowd and the Gaystapo effort to reword the Bible to make their sinful nature “right with God.” A few weeks ago, I came across the website for the Queen James Bible (because King James was a flaming homo, don’t you know). The editors are very keen to let folks know they didn’t remove passages from the Bible, but instead reworded them to “make it more relevant.” Calling other versions of the Bible “anti-LGBT versions,” the editors are very clear about their intent. They want to erase all references to sodomy as a sin.

He went on to point out other such efforts to interpret the Bible to fit into the worldview of homosexuals and those who believe it to be perfectly fine.

Apparently somebody with an axe to grind decided to send this article to his boss and also sent it to Jim Romenesko, a national media blogger with a demand that Eschliman be fired. Rommensko wrote:

I asked Eschliman in an email if his paper can cover gay issues fairly and objectively when he’s declared gays the enemy. I also asked if he’d let one of his reporters write a similar blog post.

The Des Moines Register then jumped on this non-story as well.

I’d like to ask Romenesko and The Des Moines Register if he they think newspapers and reporters can cover conservative or Christian issues fairly and objectively when they consistently allow columnists and editorials that critique – say a traditional position on marriage or any number of conservative positions on different issues. Seriously have they read their own stuff?

Putting the topic of homosexuality aside let’s look at the root problem with this particular story. Somebody disagrees with Eschliman and demands he be fired mainly because that person doesn’t like where he stands on a particular issue.

That’s dangerous territory. Media outlets should encourage free speech. I know of journalists who won’t join anything in order to have a guise of being unbiased. That’s ridiculous. Everybody has a bias, everyone. I’d prefer to know where somebody stands and as long as they can be balanced in their reporting I’m fine. What I can’t stand is the bias of omission under the guise of being unbiased. That’s disingenuous and the examples of liberal bias towards conservatives in the mainstream media under the guise of “news” are legion.

The Des Moines Register has a liberal bias to their editorial page. Should we call on those editors to be fired? No, and they’re getting paid to share their opinion. Eschliman expressed his opinion on his person blog on his own time and he expressed it as an opinion.

Even newspaper editors have a right to their opinion, but apparently some don’t believe they do when they criticize homosexuality which, ironically, reinforces his use of the term “Gaystapo.”