Fundies: Christian TV special (translation: anti-gay hate TV special) being stifled

[marmar]

from the American Family Assn's OneNewsNow:



Christian TV special being stifled
Charlie Butts and Jody Brown - OneNewsNow - 2/12/2009 7:55:00 AM

Updated 10:30 a.m Central


The American Family Association (AFA), a pro-family group based in Mississippi, has encountered resistance in its attempts to air a television special called Speechless: Silencing the Christians.

According to the website SilencingChristians.com, the majority of Americans get their information about the homosexual movement from Hollywood and the secular news media -- outlets that deliver what AFA says is a message "tainted by pro-homosexual propaganda." That is why the pro-family group produced the 14-episode Speechless series that initially aired on the INSP Network, and then put together a one-hour special based on the series.

AFA is now buying prime-time slots on the nation's television stations to present that special to provide factual, Christian-based information on the topic. But the pro-family group reports it has run up against blatant "silencing" of that message. "There's a real threat to our First Amendment and free-speech rights because Christians are being shut down and shut out and shut up by the very people who say they champion freedom of speech," asserts AFA president Tim Wildmon.

For example, WSXY in Columbus, Ohio, has refused the air the program. WSPA in Greenville, South Carolina, aired it, but then ran an apology from the station manager. And in Grand Rapids, Michigan, WOOD-TV agreed initially to air the show Monday evening, then bumped it to Wednesday, then proposed to run it on Saturday afternoon -- and now has cancelled it entirely.

WOOD-TV general manager Diane Kniowski told The Grand Rapids Press that the station made a "fair offer" to AFA, but received no response regarding the Saturday airing.

"Our station is being bombarded with calls and messages, and we find ourselves in the middle of someone else's fight," Kniowski stated. "Ours was a fair offer and we are removing ourselves from this matter."

Wildmon sees outright irony in what is happening. "It's ironic that the very issue we're bringing up -- that Christians are being rendered speechless when they talk about this issue -- is actually happening to us when it comes to the program itself," he observes.

Why are stations responding that way? According to Wildmon, they are reacting to complaints from homosexual activists about airing Speechless. " just giving us the runaround," he says. "They've heard from a few of the homosexual, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered supporters out there -- and so they haven't heard massively from our folks yet."

But the AFA president predicts they will. He argues that the TV special simply tells the truth -- and he urges people to visit SilencingChristians.com, where segments of the show can be viewed. Wildmon also encourages people in cities where the show is scheduled to contact their local TV station and voice their support for airing it.


http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=418356 (if you get Rick-rolled by OneNewsNow's Christian soldiers, the story's in the onenewsnow area of www.afa.net )

[closeupready]

1. They should join forces with the Mormon church and see if

that gets things done. :sarcasm:

[Mist]

2. Hey Wildmon, your right to speech isn't being silenced; you are however being denied

"public" airwaves for unscientific hate speech.

[MineralMan]

3. Hey, Wildmon...buy your own damn television station,

and you can run your hate video 24/7.

[pipi_k]

4. OH NO I'VE BEEN TAINTED!!!!

"According to the website SilencingChristians.com, the majority of Americans get their information about the homosexual movement from Hollywood and the secular news media -- outlets that deliver what AFA says is a message "tainted by pro-homosexual propaganda."


Those silly asses actually believe that people's support for equal rights for everyone is a "taint" perpetrated by Hollywood. Well, what can we expect, really...most of them need someone to tell them what to believe, otherwise their poor empty little heads would cave in.

Anyway, they've got a point as far as Free Speech goes.

Let 'em expound away as much as they want. As far as I'm concerned, the crazier and more hateful they sound, the more people they'll end up repelling.

I have a couple of religious-zealot friends who have tried desperately for nearly 20 years to try and convert me. Little do they know, they've only managed to turn me further away.


So anyway, let the crazies have their say. Most times the only ones they end up screwing over is themselves.

[HillWilliam]

10. Good. Kick them in the taint. And when they come up for air

kick what's on either end of it. I'm tired of extending an olive branch to these nuts when each and every time they snatch it from our hands and beat us with it. I'm long past the mood for negotiating or playing nice with them.

If they want to continue to lie, let them lie amongst themselves. The public airwaves is no longer their playground for spreading bigotry and hatred. They can wear their sheets some damn where else.

[NeedleCast]

12. Disagree with you about their free speech being violated

No one is violating their right to free speech. They are not being silenced. The problem they are encountering is that it appears that very few want to listen to them. The right to free speech gives you the right to say (almost) anything you want. It does not guarantee you an audience. People have just as much a right to not listen to you as you have a right to speak freely.

[JNelson6563]

5. At least they have another reason to drag their crosses about

Boo-hoo! We can't spew our hateful shit! We're so persecuted! Just like Jeebus hisself!

Oy.

Julie

[BanzaiBonnie]

6. Perhaps they want to bring back the Fairness Doctrine

heh heh heh

[foxfeet]

7. "Factual, Christian-based information "is an oxymoron in the AFA's usage.

Facts have no merit with this bunch, nor does Christianity, for that matter.

[Javaman]

8. Well it works like this..

insane people don't know they are insane and when they are told they are insane, they think that those people are insane.

or it could be that the program in question is a colossal pile of bigotted shit that looks as if a 3rd grader on crack shot it.

[sinkingfeeling]

9. Gee, and I thought there were like 3 or 4 TV stations that were exclusively 'christian' I have to

constantly skip over them to get to HGTV!

[NeedleCast]

11. They sent me that E-mail yesterday

I have no idea how they got my E-mail address. I told them to get bent.

Just further proof that fundies don't have the first clue as to what free speech is all about. Yes, they have the right to say (almost) anything they want, but that doesn't mean they are guaranteed an audience to listen to it. They just don't get that free speech works two ways. You have a right to speak, I have an equal right not to listen. No part of the first amendment suggests that because you have an opinion, someone has to listen to it.