All those target-worthy, right-wing groups apparently are the same to ABC news. In reporting a shooting at Family Research Council’s Washington, DC, headquarters, reporter Jason Ryan headlined a piece entitled “Gunman shoots guard at James Dobson’s Group’s DC Office.” As reported by Twitchy, tweets sent with the same message incorrectly seem to indicate the shooting was at Focus on the Family, the non-profit organization in Colorado Springs founded by Dr. James Dobson in 1977. Dr. Dobson was president of Focus on the Family until 2003 and chairman of the board of directors until 2009, when he resigned from all formal involvement.
Family Research Council (FRC) was founded in the early ‘80s by a group that included Dr. Dobson but he hasn’t been affiliated with the organization for years. “Dr. James Dobson was one of the people involved in the founding of the Family Research Council,” spokesman Darin Miller told The Washington Times. “He is no longer involved in running the organization, or on the board, however. Tony Perkins now heads FRC.”
Family Research Council and Focus on the Family are well-known as two discrete entities with separate, though complementary political and cultural goals as well as different ways of pursuing those.
