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The right-wing media's shameful history of defending pedophilia and
sexualizing children

Various right-wing figures have defended child molesters, worked with sex offenders, and attempted to normalize teen pregnancy and forced child
marriage



Written by Justin Horowitz

Published 06/12/23 10:05 AM EDT

Over the past year, the far right’s obsession with accusing its opponents
of pedophilia has become a staple of the modern Republican playbook. Conservative media stars and GOP elected officials have used baseless accusations of sexual abuse and child “grooming” to attack Democrats and demonize the LGBTQ rights movement across the nation.

A review of the right’s hypocrisy on pedophilia and abuse found that conservative media personalities have repeatedly made comments promoting
the sexualization of children, while others have defended figures who have
been accused of abuse or pedophilia — and several reported abusers have
even worked in right-wing media themselves.

The right-wing fixation with pedophilia dates back decades and has been a central facet in dangerous right-wing conspiracy theories including
Pizzagate and QAnon, both of which have led to real-world violence.
Baseless pedophilia accusations have been used by the right to discredit
and attack the LGBTQ rights movement and any figure or symbol that they disagree with — from Elmo and public libraries to a plethora of businesses
and organizations.

The moral panic behind these accusations puts the real lives of LGBTQ
people at risk. These groundless allegations have led to neo-Nazi
encroachment at Pride events and calls for violence against pro-LGBTQ
people and organizations, including children’s hospitals.

As we enter Pride Month — a time of the year that has invigorated right-
wing extremists in their attacks against LGBTQ people — allies, political leaders, and businesses must not succumb to bad-faith actors making
groundless accusations against these underrepresented communities.

Here is a non-comprehensive breakdown of right-wing media figures and organizations who have either made comments that promote or mock the sexualization of minors, or supported or defended figures who have been
accused of abuse or pedophilia:
Jump to section

Promoting the sexualization of children and teens

In unearthed audio, Media Matters found that former Fox News host
Tucker Carlson made numerous perverted comments about underage girls on the Bubba the Love Sponge Show between 2006-11. In appearances on the shock
jock’s radio program, Carlson minimized and defended statutory rape, said
he “would love” the idea of young girls experimenting with their sexuality
at boarding school, laughed about violence against women, and described a
Miss Teen USA contestant as “appealing” and said she would be “probably a pretty good wife.”

Nazi-sympathizer Milo Yiannopoulos resigned from his position as an
editor at Breitbart in 2017 after making comments condoning pedophilia.

Former president and reality TV star Donald Trump reportedly walked
into a Miss Teen USA 1997 changing room where girls as young as 15 years
old were changing and allegedly said, “Don’t worry, ladies, I’ve seen it
all before.” (Trump has been accused of sexually assaulting dozens of women dating back to the 1970s, and a federal jury recently found him liable for sexually assaulting journalist E. Jean Carroll in the 1990s.)

Child pornography was reportedly found in Infowars head Alex Jones’ personal documents that were sent to lawyers during his Sandy Hook
defamation case in 2019.

Right-wing outlet The Daily Caller has repeatedly mocked survivors of childhood sexual abuse, including a whole category of tags on its website
for stories of teachers having sexual contact with their underage students.

White nationalist streamer Nick Fuentes has promoted teen pregnancies. Fuentes recently said that he wanted a “16-year-old wife, probably when I
turn 30,” claimed he was “not against grooming” children as long as they
are being “groomed” for marriage, and tweeted “17 years old? What is even
the big deal”.


https://www.mediamatters.org/diversity-discrimination/right-wing-medias- shameful-history-defending-pedophilia-and-sexualizing

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