A Michigan
television station has rescinded its offer to air an
hour-long antigay "infomercial" produced
by the American Family Association this weekend on the
heels of a campaign by the Human Rights Campaign to
have the program yanked from airwaves.
Speechless: Silencing Christians had originally been scheduled to air on Grand
Rapids NBC affiliate WOOD TV Monday night prior to
President Barack Obama's 8 p.m. news
conference. After briefly being moved to Wednesday,
the network scheduled it to air sometime this weekend.
Early Wednesday
afternoon the HRC launched an online action campaign to halt
the weekend airing of the program.
"Make no
mistake ... this is the opening salvo in a campaign designed
to denigrate LGBT Americans and deny us our basic
rights," HRC president Joe Solmonese said in a
statement. "Just as our community is at a point where
measures protecting millions of Americans heads to Congress
and a willing president, the AFA unleashes 60 minutes
of lies and distortions to scare voters. The AFA and
its allies have never been 'speechless' when it comes
to promoting their own agenda, and that's driving a wedge in
the very places where LGBT Americans work, live, and
even pray."
Just an hour
after the release went out, WOOD TV released a statement on
its website that the station no longer planned to air the
program.
"We made a
gesture of the 2-3 p.m. Saturday time period," WOOD TV
general manager Diane Kniowski said in a
statement. "It's been 24 hours and we had no
response. 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."
"I am so proud of
our members who answered the lies and distortions of
the AFA and stopped this campaign of hate and deception,"
Solmonese said in a follow-up statement. "Our community
stood up and would not let those lies stand."
Earlier this week WOODTV program director Craig Cole told the
blog JoeMyGod that he had received
about 100 letters on the documentary and said opinions on
whether the station should air it are evenly split.
The HRC says the
documentary is the centerpiece of the AFA's newly
relaunched website, which features a plea for donations.
A letter from the
American
Family Association arguing in favor of airing
the documentary reads that most Americans receive
"information about the homosexual movement from the
secular news media and Hollywood, which not only
support but promote the gay agenda. What people know is
tainted by pro-homosexual propaganda." (Ross von Metzke,
Advocate.com)
