Ken Avidor: I didn't doctor Marcus Bachmann's "gay barbarians" quote

Ken Avidor says the burden of proof is on Marcus Bachmann.

​Marcus Bachmann admits his clinic will help patients get the gay out, but asserts he never called gay people "barbarians" who "need to be disciplined."

The audio clip was first heard a year ago on an obscure Christian radio show, and has since blown into a nationally known soundbite. Bachmann now claims that the tape was doctored, and he would never call gays "barbarians."

But Ken Avidor, the blogger behind DumpBachmann.com who originally posted the audio clip, begs to differ. Avidor maintains Marcus is lying and the quote is unadulterated.

Marcus Bachmann made the accusation that the clip was doctored in an interview with the Star Tribune published this morning:

"I was talking in reference to children. Nothing, nothing to do with homosexuality. That's not my mindset. That's not my belief system. That's not the way I would talk," Bachmann told the Minneapolis daily.

Unfortunately, the link to the "Point of View" radio show is now broken, and the original clip is no longer archived on the "Point of View" site. Avidor says he edited the clip only by cutting it down to less than 10 minutes so that it would fit on YouTube.

"Doctoring implies falsifying," Avidor says. "If I falsified I probably wouldn't link to the [original] podcast, which I did."

Avidor doesn't normally listen to Christian radio shows like "Point of View," but says, "every now and then you get something like Marcus [Bachmann] saying he goes on dad dates with his daughters."

"These kind of Christian fundamentalists live in a different world," Avidor says. "Sometimes they don't recognize the ick factor of what they say."

Avidor said Bachmann's quote needs to be taken in context to be appreciated fully. Here's the full quote:

Bachmann's quote from 2010 is still following him.

​"Well, certainly, there's that curiosity. But again, we, like, you know, it is as if we have to understand: Barbarians need to be educated. They need to be disciplined. And just because someone feels it or thinks it, doesn't mean that we're supposed to go down that road. That's what's called the sinful nature. And we have a responsibility as parents and as authority figures not to encourage such thoughts and feelings from moving into the action steps."

Avidor said Marcus Bachmann often refers to children as "barbarians," which may explain the use of the word in this context.

Still, Avidor stands by the clip's authenticity.

"The burden of proof is on Marcus -- or should I say Mr. Bachmann, or Dr. Bachmann, or whatever," Avidor says.

For Marcus to claim that the tape is a fake fits a pattern Avidor has noticed during his years of tracking the couple.

"They are often the victims, the martyrs," Avidor says. "And they play that very well. Saying I doctored that audio will play very well to their base."

Avidor says the Star Tribune let Marcus get away with this denial too easily. Which is why Avidor will keep bird-dogging the Bachmanns, even if the job occasionally wears on him.

"I'm really sick of blogging about these people," he says.

(Disclosure: Avidor has freelanced for CP and was named one of our 100 Creatives.)



Previous Coverage

• Andrew Ramirez tells the inside story of Marcus Bachmann's "ungay" therapy
  
• Cher thinks Marcus Bachmann is gay, wants to strangle him with her boa
• Bachmann campaign responds to "Pray Away the Gay" allegations
• Marcus Bachmann admits he will pray away your gay if you ask him