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. Of course, there are plenty of those, and they’re simple to share.
Here’s a handful of the Twitter blowback:
Chip and Joanna Gaines do not owe @KateAurthur & @BuzzFeedBen an answer about their views on same-sex marriage.
Respectfully,
A gay dude— Steven Porter (@reporterporter) December 1, 2016
https://twitter.com/seanmdav/status/804132213977739264
.@KateAurthur is a McCarthyite witch-hunter. She smears 2 people loved by gays all over America. She's probably str8 https://t.co/hSOzmI24i4
— Justin Raimondo (@JustinRaimondo) December 1, 2016
We have terror attacks where Islamists kill people for not sharing their beliefs but no, @KateAurthur thinks the GAINESES are the problem.
— Dana Loesch (@DLoesch) November 30, 2016
https://twitter.com/dpd176/status/803991677572698112
A must-read op-ed on why @kateaurthur's barely-reported @buzzfeed article on #FixerUpper hurts journalism: https://t.co/CzSSAMv3Wq
— Natalie Fertig (@natsfert) December 1, 2016
https://twitter.com/ProducerKen/status/804699575718182912
https://twitter.com/KTea7/status/804521103536324608
To the amazement and shock of absolutely no one (except maybe @BuzzFeedBen and @KateAurthur ) https://t.co/Ctp8wVlw5C
— Kathleen McKinley (@KatMcKinley) December 1, 2016
https://twitter.com/MiltonPuma09/status/804456870815612928
.@DLoesch @RichardRSmithJr @ImFarToTheRight Who is this? –> @KateAurthur. She appears to be a vapid and vengeful #LWNJ. Is that accurate?
— Zaphod Beeblebrox (@MidAmericanGuy) December 2, 2016
To be fair to Aurthur, her initial post on “Fixer Upper” has been seemingly endorsed by other websites like Jezebel. And, as in any Twitter bout, the response has not been totally one-sided.
As for the reporter herself, Aurthur seemed to take the negative responses in stride. She tweeted out the following:
I have been yelled at all day, BUT THIS IS A BRIDGE TOO FAR. https://t.co/00nZK0PC11
— Kate Aurthur (@KateAurthur) December 1, 2016
She also retweeted this post:
https://twitter.com/JacobBSims/status/804162624103600128
Poor Kate A-r-t-h-u-r. Spelling matters, kids.
When reached by TheWrap for comment, Aurthur told us that she’s just happy HGTV responded to her piece with the following statement: “We don’t discriminate against members of the LGBT community in any of our shows. HGTV is proud to have a crystal clear, consistent record of including people from all walks of life in its series.”
She also pointed us back to her Twitter feed, where she more-recently posted these:
The people calling me a "cunt" and wishing death upon me have a strange interpretation of what Chip and Joanna Gaines would want.
— Kate Aurthur (@KateAurthur) December 2, 2016
And to the people who (more civilly) have wondered about the LGBT population of Waco, #FixerUpper can manipulate things however it wants!
— Kate Aurthur (@KateAurthur) December 2, 2016
Especially considering that the whole house-hunting part of the show is faked: https://t.co/Q03gzwpEJs
— Kate Aurthur (@KateAurthur) December 2, 2016