Yeah. Was that really necessary? If you want "fair and balanced," ask someone who makes intelligent arguments against gay marriage (no matter how much I don't agree with them) for an interview. If you do ask someone like Phelps, don't disguise his hate speech by talking about everyone sharing a laugh, not challenging his use of the word "fag," and reminding us how pleasant he is.

I too question the authors motives. His tone regarding the good pastor seems somewhat reverential.

and then there is this nugget:
" 'Oh, and Obama, and his fag agenda. He's a celebrity too, you know?'

We all had a brief laugh for a moment."

cause it is so funny (not to mention "fair and balanced") to use a sexual slur. They wouldn't be laughing if it was the "n-word" being used.

Disgusting.

As someone who has written for the ist network, I can say that the general tone that's asked of writers is one of bratty snark and holier-than-thou hipster sarcasm. What usually results is a bunch of completely failed attempts at satire and sometimes general assholery.

There are some great writers in the ist-o-verse, but what occasionally happens is a failed novice attempt at journalism.

No excuse by any means,but I don't actually think the intention was for "fair and balanced reporting," more an attempt at sensationalized mockery that fell flat.

I was watching a television bit about Phelps (here in France) and his church, and it occurred to me that if you added up the number of news stories that I've seen about them it would likely be higher than the number of members they have. It's like 20 assholes in a basement- I have no idea why the news can't get enough of them.

On one level, I understand why they do this. Fred Phelps is so easy. Everyone knows the gist, but no one knows exactly what he's going to say, and he always, always delivers. He gives unbelievable soundbite-type quotes that you can title an article with to drum up readership.

However. Egomaniac that he is, the only reason he's still doing this is because he's being allowed to. If the press would ignore him, he and his brainwashed family -- oops, I mean "church" -- would crawl back into the woodwork, which is exactly where they were until the Matthew Shephard funeral when Fred first started getting publicity.

It's not worth the story -- stop paying attention to them, and they'll go away! How hard is that?

yeah, Sfist is kind of the "gawker" of San Francisco politics. I wouldn't worry that being fair and balanced was the plan, as much as the plan was making fun of Fred Phelps. Still seems like a huge waste of time to even acknowledge him.

If you want "fair and balanced," ask someone who makes intelligent arguments against gay marriage (no matter how much I don't agree with them) for an interview.

Are there any "intelligent arguments against gay marriage"?

To me it came off as very tongue-in-cheek. Not necessarily hi-larious, but particularly the "we all had a good laugh" line made me giggle.

But yeah, Phelps doesn't seem like the kind of guy who cares whether he's being made fun of, as long as he's getting publicity, and feeding his ego doesn't help anyone but him.

At least the people reading SFist are on our page. Some of the comments made me smile, knowing that at least not everyone is actually taking this guy's garbage for real:

"shame on you sfist.
shame shame shame shame

i know you're trying to be balanced like the bigkid media, but let me fill you in on something: THIS GUY DOESN'T NEED ANY MORE VALIDATION." -gba

"Oh you courteous provocateurs!" -OrangeDrink

"The thing about Phelps and company is that he's not just anti-gay, he's anti-America, by his own admission. That fringe is to the right of Pat Robertson. He's so loony and random and contradictory, he makes the right doubt its own position on everything.

Just as I am absolutely convinced that Ann Coulter is really a liberal plant, slowly unfolding her master plan to expose the lunacy and idiocy of the right, I believe that the Phelps clan is just fucking with us. It's all a big joke, guys. They don’t really mean what they say! Mark my words: one day, Fred Phelps will remove the death facemask and reveal himself to be Michael Moore." -Tendernob

(I'm having difficulty discerning whether that last one is sarcasm. Hmm...)