Frauds, Scams & Hoaxes Frauds, Scams & Hoaxes Home | Contents & Index Frauds | Scams & Cons | Hoaxes & Myths | Online Resources
Taxpayers Funding Gay Smut - The 1994 nation-wide airing of Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City on PBS outraged conservatives and the Christian right, because it blatantly flaunted homosexuality and drug use. The Christian right claimed that taxpayer dollars were being used to fund smut and immorality, and called for the U.S. Congress to end public funding of PBS.
While it's true that outraged Christians took their case to Congress, Tales of the City was NOT funded using taxpayer money. The UK's Channel Four financed the entire production, leaving PBS to do nothing more than air the remainder of the series. Due to pressure from Congress, PBS backed out of the deal. Future installments of the series eventually aired on Showtime and continued to be financed by Channel Four. Congress ultimately backed off their threat to end funding of public television, and the NEA (National Endowment for the Arts), which had it's own scandal brewing with homo-erotic photos by Robert Maplethorp.
Vice President's Daughter Wants to be Iraqi Human Shield - In March of 2003, the London-based Arabic daily Al Quds Al Arabi reported that Dick Cheney, the American Vice President, would soon travel to Amman Jordan to talk his daughter out of being a human shield in Iraq. This is not true. Neither of the VP's daughters is in Jordan, and neither has plans to travel to Iraq.
Do You Have Comments or Questions? Click Here