Rolling Stone published an article over the weekend vilifying Speaker Mike Johnson for being a Christian who actively protects his teenage son from the damaging effects of porn.
In the clip scrutinized by Rolling Stone, Johnson readily explains to a crowd at Cypress Baptist Church in Benton, Louisiana, that he uses a subscription-based accountability software called Covenant Eyes to notify him if his son views vile imagery and sexual content online.
Johnson testified to the efficacy of Covenant Eyes by noting that Jack has “a clean slate” and does not appear to regularly view internet porn, something that can’t be said for 73 percent of his son’s teenage peers.
The speaker’s attempt to protect himself and his son from content that negatively affects sexual and mental development is admirable parenting and often hailed as best practice in evangelical circles around the country.
Rolling Stone, however, led its article by dishonestly accusing Johnson and his son of “monitor[ing] each other’s porn intake,” of which Johnson already indicated there was none. The publication then framed Johnson’s vigilance as “creepy Big Brother-ness” that matched his track record as a “faith-obsessed, election-denying, far-right Christian nationalist” with a staunch belief in traditional marriage and in the sanctity of life in the womb.
The publication tried to suggest that the scorn it directed at the Louisiana native is rooted in concerns that the third-party technology company “might ‘compromise’ Johnson’s devices.”
But Rolling Stone’s use of the word “admits” in its headline reveals the paper’s belief
