Idaho press won't recite Pledge on House floor

IDAHO VALUES ALLIANCE

PRESS RELEASE

March 24, 2008

To: News Desks/Assignment Editors

Contact: Bryan Fischer (208) 841-2546

Executive Director, Idaho Values Alliance

www.idahovaluesalliance.com

bryan@idahovaluesalliance.com

MEMBERS OF PRESS CORPS REFUSE TO RECITE PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE ON FLOOR OF IDAHO HOUSE

Boise – A number of legislators belonging to the Idaho House of Representatives, including Speaker of the House Lawerence Denney, recently observed that members of the press corps refused to recite the Pledge of Allegiance when on the House floor.

The Pledge is recited by the entire House immediately after the prayer by the House chaplain each morning at the beginning of the day’s business.

Heath Druzin, a reporter for the Idaho Statesman, acknowledged this morning that he is at least one of the members of the press corps who has refused to recite the Pledge.

Druzin says he faces the flag and places his hand over his heart, but does not verbalize the words of the Pledge, saying instead that he “internalizes” the Pledge.

When asked why, if he loves his country, he refuses to verbalize that, he simply repeated that for him it is an internal matter, and indicated he will do the Pledge “the way I’ve always done it” if he’s on the House floor again when the chamber recites the Pledge.

The refusal by members of the press corps to recite the Pledge prompted a letter from Speaker Denney to the head of the legislative press corps, Betsy Russell of the Spokane Spokesman-Review.

The March 7 letter read as follows:

“Today we had media people on the Floor of the House during the Pledge of Allegiance. It was noted by several members of the Body and myself that they did not verbally participate in the Pledge.

“Please inform members of the press that if they choose not to participate in the Pledge they have ample time following the Pledge and before the 11^th order to join us on the Floor.”

Sincerely,

Lawerence Denney

Speaker of the House

Freelance journalist Nathaniel Hoffman, who writes for the Boise Weekly, defiantly said that when reporters go on the floor, “[We] will continue to say the Pledge any way we damn well please.” To which leftwing blogger Jill Kuraitis, who covers the legislature, said, “Couldn’t have said it better myself,” and added that she refuses to say “under God” when she recites the Pledge “because I don’t believe in mixing religion with government or patriotism.”

“This would have been news to the Founding Fathers,” said Idaho Values Alliance Executive Director Bryan Fischer, “since they established the political foundation of our form of government on the concept that our rights are an inalienable gift to us from the Creator. The United States was founded on a religious concept, and the Pledge is a simple way of reaffirming today the original vision of Thomas Jefferson and the rest of the Founders.”

The editor of the Idaho Statesman, Kevin Richert, calls the whole matter nothing more than a “kerfuffle,” dismissing the matter as of minor importance. At the end of his editorial on the subject, he says, regarding discussion of doings at the legislature, we “should keep the pledge out of it.”

Said Fischer, “Reciting the Pledge is hardly a ‘kerfuffle.’ Apparently Mr. Richert hasn’t been listening to Sen. Obama, who insists that words do in fact matter. The media doesn’t seem to get it, that the public is hardly likely to trust their reporting if they don’t appear to have even a basic allegiance to the Republic we all belong to.

“Speaker Denney was right to direct them to stay off the floor unless they are prepared to recite the Pledge right along with everybody else.

“The Pledge is an essential, bottom-line, foundational matter of citizenship. If the media isn’t prepared to practice even this most basic expression of citizenship, what reason do we have to believe their reporting will not be biased against the country we love?”

Continued Fischer, “We can verbalize loyalty to our country without demanding that it be perfect, just like we tell our children we love them even though they’re not perfect.

“The essential question here is, ‘Do these members of the media have any kind of loyalty to the United States?’ If they do, then why won’t they say so? And if they don’t, why should we trust anything they write?

“C.S. Lewis once observed that if we sneer at honor, we shouldn’t be surprised to find traitors in our midst. A corollary is that if the media sneers at patriotism, we shouldn’t be surprised to find anti-Americanism in their reporting.”

A call and an email to Betsy Russell, the head of the legislative press corps, had not been returned by the time this release was sent.

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