Starnes began his journalism career as a teenager, sweeping floors for a small newspaper in Louisiana, but his post-college years included stints at Chattanooga Times Free Press and Blue Ridge News Observer. In January 2000, he was hired as a staff writer for Baptist Press, the news arm of the conservative Southern Baptist Convention and an outlet that no one will accuse of being “fair and balanced.”
At Baptist Press, Starnes proved to be both unashamedly conservative and journalistically unreliable. He published articles decrying “the homosexual agenda” in America, warning of “pro-homosexual attitudes” at Baptist colleges, and even bemoaned the “profanity, anti-God lyrics” of the band Nine Inch Nails. But Starnes landed in hot water in April 2003 when he published a profile of then U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige.
According to Starnes, Paige said he “would prefer to have a child in a school that has a strong appreciation for the values of the Christian community, where a child is taught to have a strong faith.” The profile spawned national headlines and created outrage both among civil-rights groups and church-state watchdogs. And when at least a dozen members of Congress publicly called on Paige to either apologize for the remarks or resign, the secretary almost lost his job..... Starnes was promptly fired by Baptist Press due to “factual and contextual errors” and “misrepresentations” in his reporting.