Florida Times-Union Fails To Contextualize Fringe, Extremist Pastor Protesting The Democratic Convention

Pastor Kenneth Adkins Previously Photoshopped A Government Official Onto Pornographic Images, Said Victims Of Orlando Massacre Got “What They Deserve”

The Florida Times-Union reported that pastor Kenneth Adkins plans to protest presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton outside of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia this week. The paper’s June 22 report failed to provide any context on Adkins and his well-documented history of rabid anti-LGBT extremism in political protesting, which includes photoshopping a government official’s face onto pornographic images and most recently tweeting about gay people “gett[ing] what they deserve” after the June 12 mass shooting at an LGBT nightclub in Orlando, FL.

Adkins rose to prominence in local media earlier this year due to his extreme antics in protest of a proposed LGBT-inclusive nondiscrimination ordinance in Jacksonville, FL. The pastor opposed the ordinance on Twitter with graphic and inflammatory images. He said the definition of the ordinance was “Giving Civil Rights to men who engage in Anal Sex with each other,” called Jacksonville City Council Member Tommy Hazouri the “anti-Christ” for supporting the ordinance, and photoshopped Hazouri's face onto pornographic images:

Last month, Adkins again made pages of the the Times-Union when he responded to the June 12 massacre at an LGBT nightclub in Orlando, FL, with a tweet saying, “been through so much with these Jacksonville homosexuals that I don’t see none of them as victims. I see them as getting what they deserve.” Adkins later attempted to deny that the tweet had anything to do with the Orlando shooting, though it came after a string of other tweets he wrote about the mass shooting.

The Times-Union’s July 22 report on Adkins’ planned protest of the Democratic convention failed to mention any of Adkins’ past tweets or extremist protest tactics:

When Democrats gather in Philadelphia to nominate Hillary Clinton as their party’s presidential candidate, Jacksonville-area pastor Ken Adkins plans to be outside, protesting their decision.

Adkins said Friday he’s part of a slate of black and Hispanic activists scheduled to represent the conservative Douglass Leadership Institute and the Coalition of African American Pastors at a press conference Monday denouncing the former secretary of state for “hypocrisy and deception” on a range of topics.

A release from event organizers puts a sharp point on that, contrasting the effects of crime and arrests among minorities with the Justice Department’s decision not to seek charges against Clinton for security lapses on the personal email server she used as secretary of state.

“Secretary Clinton has thwarted the law and perverted justice. Minorities are filling up jails at alarming rates for petty crimes and Hillary Clinton is not even indicted,” the release said. “We are tired of the lies of the Democrat Party whose goal is to keep minorities enslaved and in mental deterioration by fostering government dependency that perpetuates generational poverty.”