UPDATE: Fresno Rebuffs Anti-Gay Informercial with LGBT Faith Documentary
July 3, 2009
For the past several months, my colleagues and I have been responding to the anti-gay infomercial Speechless: Silencing Christians. Our work with community partners in responding to the deceptive infomercial paid for by the American Family Association (AFA) has led us to organize in Kansas, California, North Carolina, Ohio, Michigan and several other states.
Because of our collaborative efforts with community leaders, I have a wonderful update to share with our readers. And our latest development to debunk the myths associated with the infomercial hails from Fresno, California.
On June 22, local grassroots organizers alerted us that KMPH FOX-26 aired the AFA infomercial. I specifically received urgent tweets from Gayrainarmy, k8cch14 and jace78. After conducting some initial research, GLAAD blogged about the incident and provided contact information for local community members to share their concerns with the station. You can find that here.
One Fresno community member even contacted two other local ABC and CBS affiliates and asked them to share their perspectives on the local FOX affiliate airing the infomercial.
ABC 30 said:
We will never show anything like that and I can’t believe Fox would do something like that. We have gone through great lengths to make sure stuff like that never goes out on the air, and we will continue to.
CBS 47 also stated:
We would never do anything like that, and I’m going to have my assistant check to just to be sure that is not going on here.
KMPH station management was quick to replied to the concerns expressed by community members. I was forwarded a statement from the Senior Vice President and Director of Programming Debbie Sweeney.
Debbie Sweeney wrote:
I want to thank you for your very well thought out response to the paid program KMPH aired last night at 11:00 p.m.
Please know that the program was a paid infomercial and based on the amount of response the station has received, I guarantee you it will not air again.
Again, thank you for taking the time to voice your concerns we truly appreciate hearing from you.
The local FOX affiliate wanted to make amends and agreed to air For The Bible Tells Me So, a LGBT faith documentary exploring Christian traditions and their intersection with sexual orientation. The affiliate also agreed to air the film at no charge.
GLAAD immediately contacted Daniel Karslake who produced and directed the documentary to request permission for it to be aired on FOX-26. Daniel then spoke to The Sundance Channel that owns exclusive rights to air the documentary on television.
After some discussions with the network, Sundance granted permission to allow For the Bible Tells Me So to air on FOX-26. Now, Fresno viewers will be able to tune in this Sunday, July 5 at 11:00pm PST to watch the LGBT faith documentary. **PLEASE SEE NOTE BELOW**
GLAAD will continue to follow this story. Please check back with us for updates.
Have an update to share with GLAAD? Send me a tweet on Twitter at @Andy_Marra
*Note – We are also receiving reports about the anti-gay infomercial airing on WGRZ NBC 2-TV in Buffalo, NY. GLAAD constituents have reported it being aired on June 27 from 7:00-8:00pm EST. We will be looking into this further and update our readers after the July 4 holiday.
———-
**UPDATE: I just exchanged tweets and emails with @GayRainArmy and @jace78. KMPH will not be able to air For the Bible Tells Me So this Sunday, July 5 at 11pm PST. The station is editing out language and gestures to make it ready for Fresno viewers. KMPH is working with the documentary’s producer and director Daniel Karslake to air an edited version very soon. I’ll keep you posted on when they’re ready to air this amazing documentary.**
Anti-Gay Infomercial Resurfaces in North Carolina and California
June 22, 2009
Back in February, we blogged about partnering with LGBT community members and leaders in several local markets who were responding to an anti-gay infomercial titled Speechless: Silencing the Christians, which was produced by the American Family Association. Local expressions of concern led stations in Grand Rapids, Michigan and Columbus, Ohio to either decline to air the infomercial or postpone airing it indefinitely.
Just this week GLAAD has received three more reports of constituents spotting the anti-gay paid program on their local affiliates. One person saw it in West Hollywood, California on Independent Cable Channel, KDOC on Sunday, June 21, where it aired from 7 to 8 p.m. Another GLAAD constituent alerted us that the infomercial aired on WJZY the CW Channel 46 in Charlotte, North Carolina on Saturday, June 20 from 9 to 10 p.m. And we heard from other GLAAD constituents that the program aired on KMPH Fox 26 in Fresno, California on Sunday, June 21 (Special thank you to these twitter users for the heads up on Fresno: Gayrainarmy, k8cch14 and jace78).
We appreciate our members alerting us to this information and urge local constituents to take their cue from other local folks who saw this program in the past and spoke out about the fear-mongering rhetoric contained in the hour-long piece. GLAAD’s Senior Director of Media Programs Rashad Robinson had this to say in his Huffington Post opinion piece about this issue last February:
The infomercial was created and financed by the anti-gay American Family Association and features interviews with anti-gay activists who make a series of predictable, breathless, fear-mongering claims about LGBT people and equality.
As you would expect, the video is propaganda, pure and simple — manufactured to perpetuate a climate of hostility toward our community and to create a culture where lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people are less safe, less secure, and where our families are put in harm’s way.
Robinson also went on to advise local activists how to respond if this program comes to a market near them:
And it’s critical that local community members across the country be vigilant should the AFA try to place this propaganda in their local markets, and be ready to effectively explain why the public’s airwaves should not be used to sow seeds of fear, hostility and malice in the communities they serve.
While it is sad that anti-gay activists want to continue to perpetuate fears about our community, at the end of the day, it’s all they have left. Every day, more and more Americans are getting to know and understand LGBT people and our families. For those whose opinions of our lives are becoming more favorable, the single greatest contributing factor is knowing someone who is gay or lesbian. And as more Americans see and know us as we are, our opponents’ myths, attacks and defamatory stereotypes will continue to fall on ever-growing numbers of deaf ears.
We hope that people who live in the markets served by the three stations that are reportedly now airing this anti-gay infomercial will reach out to the stations using the contact info below. Help them understand why you are deeply concerned that they could be providing a platform for an out-of-state anti-gay group to create a climate of fear and hostility in your community.
As always, please use a respectful, approachable tone and appropriate language when voicing your concerns about this program.
KDOC-TV- Santa Ana, California
Janice Mansfield, Program Director
(949) 442-9800
jmansfield@kdoc.tv
John Manzi, General Manager
(949) 442-9800
jmanzi@kdoc.com
WJZY-TV (The CW)- Charlotte, North Carolina
Joe Heaton, Programming Manager
(704) 944-3340
jheaton@wjzy.com
Will Davis
Vice President and General Manager
(704) 944-3305
KMPH FOX 26-TV – Fresno, California
Debbie Sweeney
Program Director
T. (559) 453-8850
dsweeney@kmph.com
Jack Peck
Vice President & General Manager
T. (559) 453-8850
viewercomments@kmph.com
Related Posts:J.R. Jackson
General Sales Manager
(559) 453-8850
jrjackson@kmph.com
