Posts
TV Station Nixes Anti-Gay Infomercial After Outrage
Monday, July 27, 2009
By 365gay News Staff
365 Gay
(Grand Rapids, Michigan) A Grand Rapids television station that found itself in the middle of the battle between gays and the conservative American Family Association has dropped plans to air a one-hour paid commercial on the “radical homosexual agenda.”
The AFA, which regularly fights LGBT civil rights legislation, originally bought time to broadcast the infomercial on Monday at 7 p.m. but the station moved it when President Obama announced an 8 p.m. news conference.
“We didn’t feel that it was the appropriate place, leading into the presidential event,” WOOD-TV program director Craig Cole said.
The station then slated the infomercial to run on Wednesday. But as opposition mounted and hundreds of e-mails began flooding the station, Cole suggested to the AFA that it run on Saturday at 2 p.m.
Late Wednesday, station manager Diane Kniowski said the AFA had not responded to the offer to run the paid program on Saturday and that it was pulling the show.
“We made a gesture of the 2-3 p.m. Saturday time period. It’s been 24 hours and we had no response,” Kniowski said in a statement.
“Our station is being bombarded with calls and messages, and we find ourselves in the middle of someone else’s fight. Ours was a fair offer and we are removing ourselves from this matter.”
It is believed the AFA is attempting to negotiate with other stations across the country to carry the hour-long program.
The infomercial, “Speechless: Silencing Christians,” is hosted by conservative talk show host Janet Parshall. In a 2006 appearance on the Larry King show on CNN, Parshall suggested Matthew Shepard’s “lifestyle” was responsible for his murder and called gay adoption “state-sanctioned child abuse.”...(Remainder.)
365 Gay
(Grand Rapids, Michigan) A Grand Rapids television station that found itself in the middle of the battle between gays and the conservative American Family Association has dropped plans to air a one-hour paid commercial on the “radical homosexual agenda.”
The AFA, which regularly fights LGBT civil rights legislation, originally bought time to broadcast the infomercial on Monday at 7 p.m. but the station moved it when President Obama announced an 8 p.m. news conference.
“We didn’t feel that it was the appropriate place, leading into the presidential event,” WOOD-TV program director Craig Cole said.
The station then slated the infomercial to run on Wednesday. But as opposition mounted and hundreds of e-mails began flooding the station, Cole suggested to the AFA that it run on Saturday at 2 p.m.
Late Wednesday, station manager Diane Kniowski said the AFA had not responded to the offer to run the paid program on Saturday and that it was pulling the show.
“We made a gesture of the 2-3 p.m. Saturday time period. It’s been 24 hours and we had no response,” Kniowski said in a statement.
“Our station is being bombarded with calls and messages, and we find ourselves in the middle of someone else’s fight. Ours was a fair offer and we are removing ourselves from this matter.”
It is believed the AFA is attempting to negotiate with other stations across the country to carry the hour-long program.
The infomercial, “Speechless: Silencing Christians,” is hosted by conservative talk show host Janet Parshall. In a 2006 appearance on the Larry King show on CNN, Parshall suggested Matthew Shepard’s “lifestyle” was responsible for his murder and called gay adoption “state-sanctioned child abuse.”...(Remainder.)
0 comments:
Post a Comment