On the July 6, 2007 episode of The O'Reilly Factor, hosted by Michelle Malkin, a "clarification" was given, and an apology by Rod Wheeler relayed second hand, by Bill O'Reilly's guest host, for connecting the Pink Pistols to criminal lesbian gangs calling themselves "pink pistol packing groups". Malkin said, in a short, sweet statement:
"And we would like to make a clarification on a segment aired last month about gay and lesbian gangs. In that segment, Rod Wheeler, a former detective, said that some members of these gangs carry firearms that are painted pink. And he inadvertently said they call themselves the Pink Pistol Packing Group.
"There's actually a gun rights organization called the Pink Pistols that responsibly advocates for the rights of gays to bear arms. Mr. Wheeler says he was not talking about that group and has apologized for any misunderstanding."
Unfortunately, we had internal reports that the word "respectable" was used in regard to our organization, while actually, only the words "responsibly advocates" were used. But I'll take it. It was on-air.
So what happened to cause Rod Wheeler, "law correspondent" on Fox News, to issue his fateful apologies, including these words:
"Humbly, I submit to you that as a professional, I am not too proud to admit when I've perhaps made a mistake, have misspoken, or have been misinterpreted surrounding a particular issue," he wrote. "I urge all who felt personally offended by the information provided to accept my apology, and let's focus and work together at addressing the gang and other real problems in some communities here in the United States."
My goodness, I think it was a little thing called the truth.
Mr. Wheeler has been called to task by several highly-respected investigative journals, including Radar Online, Intelligence Report (from the Southern Poverty Law Center), and Reason. In addition, hundreds upon hundreds of blogs nationwide have expressed outrage at the unbelievably sensational and impossible to verify claims Mr. Wheeler has made regarding "rampaging lesbian gangs" throughout the Washington, D. C. area and across the country, including some that carry firearms "painted pink". Even GLAAD finally issued a press release denouncing the heinous anti-GLBT bigotry of his report, though the slur against the Pink Pistols was studiously ignored by that organization, unlike the vast majority of others. Another voice heard from: The prestigious journal Congressional Quarterly has also lent their voice to the issue, in their print edition CQ Weekly. (Posted with permission.)
The Pink Pistols did not ask for much from Mr. Wheeler. Since his statements led to inevitable confusion in the public's perception between these gangs and our organization, we demanded that he issue a clarification and an apology for drawing the connection, since it had great potential for causing damage to the organization as a whole, and irreparable harm, including physical danger, to our members. We requested a public apology in the same venue in which the damage had been done -- on Mr. O'Reilly's show.
We got our request, and more. We were called "respectable", on a show that typically does not respect anything done by any facet of the GLBT community. And Mr. Wheeler posted this on his own website:
During the O’Reilly Factor segment on June 21st, while engaged in a discussion on Lesbian gangs, I inadvertently stated that gang members carry pistols that are painted pink and call themselves the "Pink Pistol Packing Group." I was not referring to the gay rights group 'Pink Pistols' who advocates for the lawful rights of gays to carry weapons for protection. Further, I mentioned that there are "over 150 of these gangs" in the greater Washington DC area. What I actually meant is that there are over 150 gangs in the Washington DC area, some of which are in fact lesbian gangs. [talk about a huge difference!] Lastly, I mentioned in the segment that there is this "national epidemic" of lesbian gangs. A better choice of words would have been to say that there is a growing concern nationally, and especially in major urban areas, of increased gang activity, which includes some lesbian gang activity.
I apologize for any misunderstanding this may have caused."
(In case you didn't know the technical term for this maneuver, this is commonly referred to as an "emergency bat-turn".)
Now we've had the Michelle Malkin clarification, and an even briefer mention from Bill himself on July 9 -- just before his now-famous GLAAD interview meltdown, and plenty of apologies from Rod Wheeler, almost to the point of groveling. We've gotten some very good exposure, and some people in the blogosphere have said some very nice things about us. The only thing that never happened was that Fox News never did actually speak to us.
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