CHATSWORTH, Calif. - Conservative authors Melanie Morgan and Catherine Moy said on Fox News Channel’s “Hannity & Colmes” program Monday that they felt there was a bias against former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., by the media because it has not also focused on an alleged addiction to porn chat sites by liberal anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan.
The two women, who are co-authors of the just-released American Mourning: The Intimate Story of Two Families Joined by War, Torn by Beliefs (WND Books, October 2006), said that Sheehan’s purported interest in online porn should be compared by the media to sexually explicit instant messages former Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL) allegedly sent to underage congressional pages, the liberal watch dog group Media Matters reported.
Foley remains under investigation.
“American Mourning” is said to be a biography of two families who lost soldiers in Iraq, including the Sheehans, who lost their son, Army Spc. Casey Sheehan. In the book, Morgan and Moy claim Cherie Quartarolo, the sister of Sheehan’s former husband Pat, said that, after Casey's death in Iraq in April 2004, that Cindy Sheehan had become addicted to online sexually explicit chat rooms. They also claim that she been communicating with many men and even carried on an affair with one of them. But the book offers no other information substantiating Quartarolo’s assertions but later refers to Sheehan’s purported porn addictions.
But co-host Alan Colmes objected to these claims during the show: “I find that going after Cindy Sheehan the way you are is despicable. This is a woman who lost her son. Everybody grieves differently. In your book, for example, you talk about Cindy Sheehan having an affair with Lew Rockwell. You say she’s addicted to online porn, which has nothing to do with anything, as far as I’m concerned.”
Moy then responded with: “This just fills out a little bit of the story. It had to be in there. I mean, we talk about instant messages with other people now, don’t we? And I know you talked about it, because I’ve heard you.” Colmes later asked: “Is Cindy Sheehan a policymaker? Is she an elected representative?”
“She thinks she is,” Morgan replied, explaining what she felt there was a double standard in reporting by the media against conservatives.
