Actress and "The View" co-host Whoopi Goldberg was forced to issue an apology after reporting a fabricated story that said Pastor John Hagee of Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas believed women who shout God's name during sex should be "thrown in jail."
Speaking on the ABC show on Tuesday, the 59-year-old political activist admitted that the story was fabricated and written by a satirical news source.
"We have to start by clearing something up. Yesterday we said that there was a pastor that said that women who yell 'oh God' during sex should be jailed. It turns out it was a fake story from a humor website so we apologize to the pastor. We're sorry," said Goldberg at the beginning of Tuesday's episode of "The View."
According to The Blaze, the fake story was based on a fictitious interview created by the satirical news site Newslo.com. In the story, which was picked up by various news sources including The Mirror and Daily Mail, Hagee was quoted talking about women using God's name during sexual intercourse, calling it "one of the filthiest, most derogatory and sinful uses of the Lord's name I can think of."
"If it were up to me, I would put every single woman or girl who does that in jail," said Hagee in the report. "That would be a fine example of God's wrath aimed at what is, in my opinion, a terrible misuse of our Maker's good name."
Hagee's ministry quickly responded to the story, telling Accuracy In Media that the story was "defamatory" and was demanding a "full retraction" from the site that originated the post.
"The story is a complete fabrication," read said a statement from the church. "It's written by a website that makes up these kind of stories in an effort to be humorous. All media outlets that have picked up this story have been contacted by John Hagee Ministries and will issue a retraction or face legal action."
Pastor Hagee's spokesperson, Ari Morgenstern, later told Christian Post,"We saw the Newslo post about a week ago and ignored it because we didn't think any reasonable person would take it seriously. Had the journalists at the newspapers or the producers at The View bothered to take just a few seconds to fact-check their stories, the fake story would've never been picked up and the outlets would not have been embarrassed."
He added, "I can't speak to anyone's motivations, but, as in any profession, when reporters or commentators display such laziness and pitiful judgement it reflects very poorly on them and the organizations at which they are employed."
