OCProgressive.com gets the credit for catching this first, but the Gay N Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation says it received complaints about the re-emergence of an anti-gay infomercial titled Speechless: Silencing the Christians–and among the stations around the country that just showed it apparently was Santa Ana-based KDOC-TV/Channel 56.
According to glaadBLOG, a West Hollywood resident contacted the alliance after seeing Speechless
on KDOC from 7 to 8 p.m. on Sunday. Other viewers informed GLADD it aired over
the same weekend in Fresno and Charlotte, North Carolina.
KDOC's online programming schedule only goes back as far as Monday, but individual infomercials are not listed by title anyway. An infomercial is slated to air in that same time slot next Sunday. Station managers have been contacted for confirmation and comments, and this post will be updated should they respond.
Ironically, among the gay-embraced attractions shown daily on KDOC are Magnum, P.I.'s moustache, James “Wild, Wild” West's tight slacks and brother Niles on Fraser. Meanwhile, the station's iconic image is called “The Woodie.”
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Produced by the American Family Association, Speechless
“features interviews with anti-gay activists who make a series of
predictable, breathless, fear-mongering claims about LGBT people and
equality,” Rashad Robinson, GLAAD's senior director of media
programs, wrote in a Huffington Post opinion piece in February as the
informercial was appearing elsewhere around the country. “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.”
According to glaadBLOG, stations
in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and
Columbus, Ohio, either declined to air the infomercial or postponed it
indefinitely after receiving local complaints in February. The alliance
suggests that Southern California viewers who were offended by the
program–or the very idea of KDOC showing it–should contact the
station and “please use a respectful, approachable tone and appropriate
language when voicing your concerns.” The following contact information
was supplied:
KDOC-TV, Santa Ana
Janice Mansfield, Program Director
(949) 442-9800
jm********@kd**.tv
John Manzi, General Manager
(949) 442-9800
jm****@kd**.tv
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.