Chip and Joanna Gaines are at the height of their popularity. They host the well-liked remodeling show Fixer Upper on HGTV, have a bestselling book, and recently appeared on the cover of People. They are also devout Christians from Waco, Texas, so it was probably just a matter of time before the left launched a cultural inquisition against them.
It happened like this: On November 26, Kevin Fallon, senior entertainment reporter for the Daily Beast, tweeted, “My blood-boiling suspicion that every couple featured voted for Trump has ruined [HGTV’s] House Hunters for me.” BuzzFeed‘s entertainment reporter Kate Aurthur responded, “and Fixer Upper.” On November 29, Aurthur posted a story at BuzzFeed headlined “Chip and Joanna Gaines’ Church Is Firmly Against Same-Sex Marriage.” The ravenous online ecosystem started feasting—it was picked up by Cosmopolitan, Us Weekly, and Jezebel among others. Never mind that the BuzzFeed piece had reported nothing of substance except statements from the couple’s pastor reaffirming biblical sexual ethics. The point of the story is summed up in this paragraph:
If that sounds like an incredibly thin reed to hang a story on, consider that in 2013 the satirists at the Onion ran a piece titled “The Onion Once Again Condemns Actor Eric Bana For His Continued Silence On The Issue Of Gay Marriage.” It was a joke.
However, Aurthur undoubtedly knew there was already a template in place for a public shaming campaign. In 2014, HGTV canceled David and Jason Benham’s show Flip It Forward one day after a blog noted that the hosts’ father was director of Operation Save America, a Christian activist organization, and that the Benham brothers had attended or led abortion and same-sex marriage protests.
But that was then, and it’s Trump’s America now. NBC News reporter Benjy Sarlin observed of the BuzzFeed hit, the “HGTV thing gets to something I heard from Trump voters: Fear of being publicly shamed by sudden new standard.” BuzzFeed‘s editor, Ben Smith, spent much of the day engaging critics on Twitter trying to do damage control, but by the next day the number of voices condemning BuzzFeed—even some from the left—was a deafening chorus. The Washington Post, where just a few years ago the ombudsman said there was no obligation to report both sides of the same-sex marriage debate, published an op-ed by a gay Christian, Brandon Ambrosino, “BuzzFeed‘s hit piece on Chip and Joanna Gaines is dangerous.” Ambrosino did not pull punches:
As of this writing, HGTV has taken no action. But it’s clear from the wide condemnations that BuzzFeed has taken a big hit. Deservedly so. The media’s culture warriors need to learn that you don’t spread tolerance, religious or otherwise, by constantly hunting for heretics.
