Peoria Pundit: Phelps' Westboro cult protested East Peoria marine's funeral

Yesterday, I posted that it appeared that Fred Phelps' Westboro "God Hates Fags" cult didn't show up to protest the funeral of USMC hero Terry Ball of East Peoria.

Well, I was wrong.

The Peoria Journal Star covered the funeral, but no mention of Phelps' group protesting the funeral.

But the protesters from the Westboro Hate Cult were there. Bill Dennis, who writes the superb Peoria Pundit blog reports:

The Westboro Baptist Church is headed by the Rev. Fred Phelps. They gained nationwide notoriety by protesting the funerals of gay hate crime victims. They are the ones who carry those “God Hates Fags” signs. Their message these days is that God is mad at the United States for people insufficiently intolerant of homosexuals, so He is responsible for killing soldiers and Marines fighting in Iraq.

It’s not a pretty message. But the fact they were doing this is news. It was a national story before we all learned that Terry Ball passed away.

More than once, I’ve read the opinion that the media shouldn’t give Phelps and his people any “publicity.” Whether or not any particular groups gets publicity from news covering isn’t important. The news media needs to cover the news, whether or not it’s news we want to hear.
It’s not the media’s job to keep us from having to hear ugly messages. The people who work in the information business need to reject the notion that the public is better off when it is kept in the dark. We wouldn’t tolerate the government doing that to us. Why does the media think it has the right to keep unpleasant news away from us?

It’s the news media’s job to answer questions, not to turn their head and pretend they didn’t hear the question.

Ball will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

Thanks, Bill.

Later this morning, the Phelps hate cult will protest the funeral of Marine Corporal Nick Bloehm in Renton, WA.

Did you hear that, MSM???

Marathon Pundit commenter Michelle weighs in:

Those asshats were there. From Peoria TV station week.com

A group from Westboro Baptist Church, out of Topeka, Kansas, protested outside of the memorial this afternoon. The group has been holding protests outside military funerals across the country. The pickets are not in objection to the war in Iraq, but rather to further their own political agenda.