IMO, sometimes it really is hate (or bigotry, or racism, or whatnot) ... but that's just my opinion, and anyway it's beside the point.
The question is not your or my opinion of FR or various FReepers. It's more about how outsiders like the nice folks at Fox 5 News perceive FR.
They, having no long-term connection or understanding of FR, would base their opinions on the topics posted at the time they checked us out, and the manner in which they're discussed.
Sometimes, what you call "passionate political discourse" would leave an outsider with a very, very poor impression of what FR is all about -- even to the point of justifying an opinion that FR is a "hate site." Even though it's nothing of the sort.
Fox 5 has an agenda.
Here's what's happening: Leftist sites (like KOS and DU) have been legitimately under the gun lately for death threats, holocaust denial, support for jihadis, etc. The MSM, in an attempt to show that the Left doesn't have the market cornered on lunacy, has been frantically looking for the "equivalent" on the right, and since FR is the biggest and most influential conservative forum in the world they've taken direct aim over here. ....the truth be damned. And remember, leftists view conservatives as inherently hateful.
As I mentioned earlier on the thread, when sane and intelligent folks come over to FR to see what all the fuss is about they quickly realize that, far from being "hate site," FR is a place of thoughtful and passionate political discourse.
I for one, believe in the old adage “sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me” and “words have meanings”, incidentally, not what they have been changed or misinterpreted to mean, the true meanings.
PC is a huge rock, behind which lies hide.