Falwell and the Telletubbies

One more note on the Falwell issue. Since 1999 it has been repeated over and over again that Falwell "outed" Tinky-Winky, the purple telletubby. Over eight years later, this silly story is still printed in press accounts and has featured prominently in bloggers' hate memorials to Falwell as well as mainstream media biographies after his death. But in fact, Falwell never "outed" the goofy children's show character. What happened was another writer in the National Liberty Journal pointed out, correctly I might add, that certain gay groups were claiming Mr. Winky as one of their own. This had already been on the record prior to the Liberty Journal making note of it. So, Falwell didn't write or originate the story, and the story itself was just repeating what a few gay groups were already saying. But still to this day everybody quotes this anecdote as if it was gospel truth and to show just how supposedly gay obsessed Mr. Falwell was. Too bad all the Falwell smearers have their facts wrong on this issue. Then again, I guess that doesn't matter to people who want to smear a prominent dead Christian guy.