When’s the last time you met a gay-hating, Obama-hating (they think he’s literally the anti-Christ), Muslim-hating, Catholic-hating (conservative Baptists think Catholics worship Satan) evangelical Baptist church that was full of Democrats? Oh yeah, they also really really don’t like Jews. Well, if you believe Fox News (your first mistake), Fred Phelps’ Westboro Baptist Church is really a bunch of liberals. Albeit, liberals who hate gays, Obama, Muslims, Jews and have the same view of Catholics as the Republican-loving religious right.

Other than that, very liberal.

This story is a perfect example of why Fox News is not a “news” network, but rather, is little more than a propaganda arm of the Republican party. And the far right wing of the GOP, at that.

As you may know, the evangelical anti-gay activists at the Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas regularly picket the funerals of gay people. They’re the kind folks who operate the “God Hates Fags” Web site (those are also generally the type of signs they hold at their protests). Over the last several years they’ve started to picket the funerals of non-gay people as well, including US service members, though it’s not entirely clear why, other than as a means of getting attention.

Well, this time they’re picketing the funeral of the dead children in Newtown, Connecticut. Anonymous hacked the church’s Web site after the protests were announced, and it’s still rather difficult to pull the site up – I was finally able to get to their home page: GodHatesFags.com. Here it is, in all of its “left wing” glory:

Hmm… Let’s see. The Democratic party is on the record supporting gay marriage. The Republican party is on the record opposing gay marriage. And the Baptist “God Hates Fags” church is virulently opposed to gay marriage. Let’s all guess which political party is more like to garner their sympathies. But that didn’t stop Fox News. Fox thrives on the fact that their viewers are dumb, unaware of the facts, and awfully gullible. Nothing better than a gullible blank slate if you’re trying to peddle lies. So here is how Fox News describes Phelps’ church when it was protesting the funerals of the children mass-murdered by a gun nut in Newtown, Connecticut (check the description under the photo):

Did you catch that?

“Bikers turn out to protect Newtown mourners from left-wing Westboro cult”

Left-wing Westboro cult.

Uh huh.

This is how Fox News operates. You can argue that MSNBC has a bias, and the network does – now, and in response to Fox. But while MSNBC has a liberal bias, Fox just lies.

Now, as Kerry Lauerman points out in this Mother Jones piece from 1999, Fred Phelps was a Democrat before he went bonkers over 20 years ago. Yeah, and I was a Republican back then as well. I’m not a Republican now. And it would be factually incorrect to call AMERICAblog a “right-wing Web site” because its founder was a Republican over twenty years ago before his political views shifted markedly. Same goes for Fred Phelps, who was a Democrat over twenty years ago, before he ventured into anti-gay crazyland, but then turned on Democrats when he saw the party embracing gays in the 1992 presidential election. That’s when Phelps’ anti-gay animus exploded.

But don’t tell that to Fox News. Fox News isn’t about nuance. Fox News isn’t about the truth. Fox News is the propaganda wing of the Republican party, and truth isn’t their goal. Electing Republicans is their goal. At all costs. That’s why their viewers are routinely found to be the most uninformed of any, and why studies have found that you’ll be more informed on the issues if you simply don’t watch Fox News.