BuzzFeed entertainment journalist Kate Aurthur posted a story earlier this week wondering if “Fixer Upper” hosts Chip and Joanna Gaines might be anti-gay. Her through-line centered on the HGTV couple’s Christian pastor, who preaches homosexuality as a sin and allegedly believes in conversion toward a heterosexual lifestyle.
Since then, the BuzzFeed reporter has been getting lambasted on Twitter, where she’s being called everything from “vapid and vengeful” to “bigoted” and “intolerant.” Though the money quote may be “.@KateAurthur is a McCarthyite witch-hunter,” which comes courtesy of user Justin Raimondo.
In an op-ed, The Washington Post even referred to Aurthur’s “hit piece” as “dangerous” — so it’s not just angry social media scribes turning on the popular click-bait website’s choice to publish.