The Westboro Baptist Church, founded by Pastor Fred Phelps in 1955, is notorious for its demonstrations against churches it feels are sympathetic toward gays. Members of Westboro also picket military funerals because they claim the deaths are God's punishment against the U.S. for its tolerance of homosexuality.

They wave signs with vitriolic messages such as "God hates fags," "AIDS cures fags," "Thank God for dead soldiers" and "God blew up the troops," and travel the country in an attempt to attract attention.

Westboro (not affiliated with the Baptist Church but an independent offshoot from Topeka, Kan.) says it has conducted more than 33,000 demonstrations since June 1991 and boasts on its Web site that it has "received international attention and WBC believes this gospel message to be this world's last hope."

When word came down in early May that the church was going to picket Kawaiaha'o Church, Word of Life Christian Center, Pearl Harbor, New Hope Christian Fellowship, Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace, Schofield Barracks and Marine Corps Base Hawai'i, The Advertiser and other news organizations had to decide whether to give this fringe group the publicity it so desperately craves or to ignore it.

Advertiser editors decided early on that WBC deserved no advance publicity and coverage would only be merited if conflict arose. None did and nothing appeared in our newspaper or online. Three readers asked in the days leading up to the protest that we publish something to warn readers that the demonstrations would occur. We told them that since the church's membership is so small and their views so unnecessarily provocative, we would not be covering their protests. The callers agreed with our logic.

The Star-Bulletin also decided to write nothing about the group. Editor Frank Bridgewater said his reporters monitored the protests but since they amounted to nothing, they passed and no readers called to complain.

KGMB9 and KHON2 also decided not to give attention to Westboro Baptist Church. "There was no nuisance, disruption or danger that I could see," said Chris Archer, news director. "That, combined with their past media behavior/motives, prompted us to pass on them." Said Lori Silva, KHON2 news director: "We didn't want to give them any publicity. We were only going to do something if they caused major problems on Sunday."

The other two news stations did broadcast pieces on Westboro. KHNL News 8 covered the Sunday protests with a nearly four-minute segment on its nightly newscast and a shorter piece that talked about the ethical debate that took place at the station with comments from the Poynter Institute for Media Studies. During its broadcast, the station made the ironic point that while cameras were rolling, the group was "loud and boisterous" but showed them "as silent as a Sunday service" when they didn't think they were being watched.

"You don't publish a message without it being seen and that necessarily includes the unclean media nuts," Shirley Phelps-Roper, one of the Westboro organizers, told KHNL.

KHNL news director Dan Dennison, who initially was opposed to covering Westboro, said of his station's coverage, "It is certainly one of those decisions where I'll never know whether we were wrong or right, but as you know these things are never black and white."

KITV broadcast two pieces, one on Thursday before the protest and another after the protest. KITV reported in the preview piece that local church groups urged the station to do a story about the group to warn them about the protests and hopefully avoid a confrontation. On Sunday, KITV's reporter asked Phelps-Roper why she couldn't adopt the aloha spirit of acceptance. She in turn asked why Hawai'i could not accept WBC's diverse views. The exchange was pointless.

"Given the history of the Westboro Baptist Church in other parts of the country we felt this was a legitimate story to preview and cover," said Tod Pritchard, KITV's new director.

I cannot see any reason to waste precious air time or print space on what is essentially a group of three families who travel the country espousing hatred. If the rationale for coverage is to prove that such bigotry exists, well, I think we all know that by now. To claim that it is news stretches out of whack the definition of what is newsworthy.

This group has every right to make its views known, however incendiary. And we have every right to turn our backs on those views and not allow ourselves to be used by a group whose only purpose is to grab attention from media organizations who are all too willing to provide it.

Mark Platte is senior vice president/editor of The Advertiser.