Huckabee denies student paper quotes

EWING, N.J., April 14 (UPI) -- A college newspaper in New Jersey released audio of an interview with former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who says the paper misquoted him on same-sex marriage.

The Perspective, the student newspaper of The College of New Jersey, interviewed Huckabee, now a Fox News Channel host, for an April 9 article titled "Huckabee Rips Steele, Romney, LGBT Activists."

"You don't go ahead and accommodate every behavioral pattern that is against the ideal. That would be like saying … there are some people who believe in incest, so we should accommodate them. There are people who believe in polygamy, so we should accommodate them," Huckabee told The Perspective in the interview.

Huckabee Monday released a statement questioning the paper's practices.

"The young college student hopefully will find a career other than journalism. I would ask that he release the unedited tape of our conversation. … Not only did he attempt to sensationalize my well known and hardly unusual views of same-sex marriage, he also inaccurately reported my views on Michael Steele as GOP chairman -- I offered my support and didn't "Rip into Steele" as his article asserted," Huckabee said.

"The young journalism student, instead, chose to focus on the issue of same-sex marriage and grossly distort my views."

The Perspective questioned Huckabee about the Republican Party's recent scandal involving donor funds spent at a bondage-themed club in Los Angeles.

"I think what's happened is horrible. The question is, how is (Steele) going to take control and how is he going to explain it? I think there does need to be a better explanation than what's come forth so far. It's been pretty weak."

"It is unfortunate that in the wake of his interview with The Perspective, Gov. Mike Huckabee has resorted to ad hominem attacks intended to cast doubt upon our credibility as a publication," the newspaper said in a statement Tuesday. "This sort of desperate tactic is not surprising, however; politicians in damage-control mode often stoop to attacking the media so they might avoid being accountable for the substance of their remarks."

The Perspective released the full audio of the Huckabee interview, saying the public could decide whether Huckabee's views were "grossly distorted."