The missile that tragically shot down Korean Air Lines #007 also mercifully terminated the embarrassment of much of the media over the way they had been “Honeggerized.” That’s the new word for how a nobody can get tremendous access to the national print and electronic media by feeding their prejudices and sensationalizing what they want to report.
For ten days, starting with full-page treatment in the Washington Post, the national media transformed a minor employee of the Justice Department into what the New York Times called an “instant heroine.” She precipitated her celebrity billing (with the help of a media consultant) by walking out on her employer with a carefully contrived “Gone With the Wind” flourish, saying, “Frankly, my dear, I don’t think Ronald Reagan gives a damn.”
The three TV networks gave her “top of the half-hour” news coverage to play the “gender gap” like a banjo. CBS’s Diane (“I’ve got wonderful news for you tonight”) Sawyer reported with enthusiastic glee that “Ronald Reagan is having trouble with the largest bloc of voters, women.”
After days of charges and countercharges, Honegger was given a generous half hour on ABC Nightline to kick Reagan around again. But to the exasperation of Sam Donaldson, she merely repeated five times that the public should write and get her Post article. It became painfully obvious that her charges had no substance that could stand more than 30 seconds in front of the TV lights.
Barbara Honegger stayed too long at her media party; when the Nightline clock struck the witching hour, she turned into a pumpkin. The national media had failed to do their homework to find out if she was credible before they launched her as a “gender gap” star.
As the Bard said, “Truth will come to light.” More careful reporting finally revealed that Honegger, who headed a project in the Justice Department, had her degree not in law at all, but in “parapsychology.” She gets her notions about women’s rights from the occult, and she thinks she has been empowered (in her words) “by the Force, if you will, with a capital F, like in ‘Star Wars.'”
At the White House, Honegger had a reputation of being an outspoken advocate of abortion and also of being “somewhat odd.” One of her articles described “omens of power” and another described how campaign events were affected by particular groupings of stars.
Some good may yet come from the Honegger flap. Perhaps the public will now understand that the words “women’s rights” and “THE women’s movement” have been Honeggerized to mean something very different from what the general public understands.
The American people probably believe that “women’s rights” mean employment and educational opportunities, and fair treatment on the job and in the courts. “Women’s rights” activists and media spokespersons, however, believe that the paramount “women’s right” is the right of a woman to kill her unborn baby.
When Honegger and friends say that Ronald Reagan isn’t “sensitive” to “women’s rights,” they really mean that he is against abortion. This was evident in the Honegger Post article.
What the media constantly call “THE woman’s movement” is actually just two small women’s political groups whose radical agendas start with (a) abortion rights with taxpayer funding, (b) lesbian rights, and (c) defeating Ronald Reagan. These groups’ convention resolutions, bylaws, press releases, and PAC contributions make this abundantly clear. These groups use “women’s rights” and “THE women’s movement” as code words for abortion/lesbian rights/defeat Reagan.
It is also important to understand the difference between “eliminating discrimination against women” (which President Reagan supports), and the “elimination of sex discrimination” (which Honegger and her friends support). The only important “sex discrimination” in Federal law is women’s exemption from the military draft and combat duty. To eliminate such “discrimination” would force the draft registration of 18-year-old girls and the sending of women out to fight our country’s wars.
Drafting women and forcing the Army to treat women just like men is part of the Honegger definition of “women’s rights,” but it certainly is not part of what the public understands by “women’s rights.” (Incidentally, the courageous heroine of “Star Wars,” Carrie Fisher, has just abandoned her movie career to become what she calls “a traditional wife” and have a family.)
