On Thursday, Fox News reporter Monica Crowley tweeted a homophobic remark regarding the announcement that Georgetown Law School student, birth control advocate, and Rush Limbaugh target Sandra Fluke is engaged. The Daily Beast announcement clearly stated that Fluke, who was recently the subject of misogynist slurs by Limbaugh, is engaged to her longtime boyfriend, but Crowley nevertheless responded to the news on Twitter with the rhetorical question ‘To a man?’
Crowley’s tweet was anti-gay and generated many responses, including from Fluke herself. Speaking on MSNBC’s The Ed Show last night, Fluke said, “What really bothers me about it [is] the blatant homophobia in the comment, and the idea that that is an acceptable thing to say publicly…It’s not offensive to me to be gay, but it was clearly meant as an insult.” After Crowley defended herself and her homophobic comment in subsequent tweets that claimed it was an “honest question,” she apologized this morning, tweeting, “Regret my tweeted question caused a stir. I certainly and unequivocally apologize to Sandra and anyone else I offended. Not my intention.”
The apology Crowley gave stands by her contention that she was asking a legitimate question about Fluke’s marital intentions and she believes it relieves her of responsibility for the homophobic sentiment her comments expressed. As the Washington Post asserted, “’Not my intention’ isn’t relevant language for an apology.”But Crowley’s first defense of the tweet was that she was “exposing the Left's total lack of a sense of humor.” Which implies that there is supposed to be something funny somewhere in those three words and their accompanied punctuation. “To a man?” Now, unless she was joking that Crowley might be “engaged in combat” or some other non-marital meaning of the word (which is not terribly intuitive, nor does Crowley strike me as much of a Star Trek: The Next Generation fan) what Crowley clearly thinks is funny is the idea that Fluke would be engaged, to be married, to someone other than a man. And unless Monica Crowley does not believe in the gender binary, there is only one other logical option. Therefore Crowley’s “joke” was pretending she was surprised Fluke wasn’t gay.
Let’s remember that Monica Crowley also compared President Obama to deposed Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak when he said he believed DOMA was unconstitional.
This apology not only belies Crowley’s history – and her own comments about what she intended by her tweet – but this apology was also not an apology. As the Washington Post asserted, “’Not my intention’ isn’t relevant language for an apology.”
