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'Homophobic' show spurs angry calls, e-mail to WFLA

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By KEITH MORELLI

kmorelli@tampatrib.com

Published: June 28, 2009

TAMPA - A flood of telephone calls and e-mail cascaded into News Channel 8 on Saturday afternoon and evening about the airing of "Silencing Christians," a paid program that some say contained overtly hateful speech against gay people.

Before the hourlong program ended at 8 p.m., the station had fielded hundreds of telephone calls and more than 1,000 e-mails, all from people protesting the broadcast.

Stratton Pollitzer, deputy director of Equality Florida, has seen the program and says its message was clearly hateful.

"I think this program is a piece of homophobic propaganda, and it has no place on a major network like NBC," he said just after 7 p.m., as the program was airing.

The show was hosted by author and commentator Janet Parshall who, at the outset, said the homosexual community has established a plan for widespread acceptance at the expense of Christian morals and values.

"And to run it the same day as Gay Pride festival in St. Petersburg just adds insult to injury," Pollitzer said. "While tens of thousands of people in the Tampa Bay area are celebrating diversion, WFLA is broadcasting homopho- bia."

"It's a dangerous show," he said, and stations in other markets have refused to run it because of its controversial content.

Pollitzer said he spoke with station executives about 4 p.m. Saturday and was told the program would be screened and a decision would be made. At 7 p.m., the show aired.

During most of the afternoon and even after the show started, phones rang nonstop at WFLA.

"We have 20,000 members in the Tampa Bay area," Pollitzer said. "We reached maybe 10,000 through the e-mail network. And, we only sent this to the greater Tampa Bay area, to folks within this media market. All the calls are from people who watch WFLA.

"By broadcasting this homophobia," he said, "WFLA is willing to make a profit off the dehumanization of the Tampa Bay gay and lesbian community."

The thrust of the show, according to a Silencing Christians Web site, is that Christians in America are losing freedoms at the hands of the "liberal minority" that is "undermining the morals and values of mainstream America."

Before and after the show, a disclaimer ran saying it was a paid program and that views expressed were not those of News Channel 8.

Mike Pumo, WFLA general manager and president, said Saturday night the program has aired on other stations, including at least one other Media General station. Richmond, Va.-based Media General owns WFLA, Channel 8; The Tampa Tribune; TBO.com; and 17 other TV stations.

Reporter Keith Morelli can be reached at (813) 259-7760.

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