This is absolutely unbelievable. Wait a second, no it’s not, it’s just East Texas.
The NBC affiliate in Tyler, KETK, along with a local radio station, KTBB, asked viewers and listeners this morning, “Will the acceptance of homosexuality be the downfall of this country?”
Based on their “news report,” it sounds like the stations definitely feel that it will be.
UPDATE: We spoke with some folks at KTBB, and they said we’d have to talk to the owner, Paul Gleiser. Unfortunately, Gleiser is working out of his Dallas studio today and won’t be available, they said. In the meantime, you can call the switchboard at the station, at 903-593-2519. They said the host of the program, Garth Meier, likely will be back in this afternoon. We’ve also left a message KETK. The main number for the TV station is 903-581-5656.
Not all of east Texas feels this way. Remember this is the same station that has censored Ellen and a few other gay themed shows before.
I would encourage those concerned with this (and hopefully its most everyone) to file a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). You can do so on their Website,
https://esupport.fcc.gov/complaints.htm
To make imputing the information easier, use the following information:
Name of the Company: ComCorp of Tyler, Inc.
Station Call Sign: KETK
Channel: 56
Network: NBC
Program Name: Morning Local News
Date: 10/27/2010
Time: 7:30 a.m.
Raise you voices!
Surprisingly most of the callers featured were preaching acceptance and tolerance.
As an East Texan, a Christian, and a huge supporter of gay rights and gay marriage, your comment, “This is absolutely unbelievable. Wait a second, no it’s not, it’s just East Texas” is pretty offensive. Just as the others who have commented stated, there are plenty of East Texans who called in and had no negative opinions on this issue. Unfortunately, the people who did (and who clearly are idiots) stood out.
Please don’t combat judgment with more judgment. Not everyone from East Texas believes members of the LGBT community shouldn’t be given the rights they deserve. Though I was raised in East Texas, I live in Massachusetts now, and my state government might be a supporter of gay rights, but there are plenty of small-minded, uneducated individuals – just like the ones in this clip – here as there are in the Piney Woods. This is a nationwide issue of intolerance.
Laura, while John’s comment was a bit offensive for me, too, it’s exactly what I was thinking. I live in L.A. now but was born and raised in Tyler (I knew that KTBB number by heart from calling Bob Peters here and there for the weather, lol). But you’re definitely right in saying there are just as many people against gays in areas with supportive governments. I’ve heard about more random harassment (people from cars driving by yelling “faggot”) in San Francisco than I did going to college in Dallas (where some kids yelled “Get the niggers out of Texas” to me and my mom just two years ago in Southlake).
It’s not right to judge just because you’re being judged, but i think here we’re more judging the East Texas media and other outlets that would plan a segment like this and proceed with it on air. They’re definitely not the only ones in the country to do so, though.
https://esupport.fcc.gov/complaints.htm
That’s the link to file an FCC complaint. A station using the public airwaves can lose its license for promoting hatred or violence against a group. Justin, above, lists all the information necessary to file the complaint.
The station is using public airwaves. It’s not cable or a privately owned newspaper or the Internet.
you people actually thing that the FCC is going to actually care about what you think?
the FCC isn’t going to care; I know better because I know the FCC rules and regulation’s and as thing’s were broadcasted there was nothing wrong with that broadcast at all.
the news station had full rights to do what they did as a new station and as a radio broadcaster chipping in over skype; that is perfectly legal! they werent promating hatred at all it was a 50/50 split down the middle there was no hatred at all other then the callers calling in that were aired on the airwaves…
to better say this… look up MEDIA ILLNESS… it might do you all a lot of good because obviously the media has portrayed your mind in one way of thinking just like everyone elses… look at this all from a psychology stand point… you all are RIDICULOUS and to make it better i AM HOMOSEXUAL and am i getting mad over what was said? no i am not it’s all media and BS
“It’s not right to judge just because you’re being judged, but i think here we’re more judging the East Texas media and other outlets that would plan a segment like this and proceed with it on air. They’re definitely not the only ones in the country to do so, though.”
Really good point, Anthony. I highly doubt I would see a segment like this on any Boston news affiliate! In light of the serious issues going on recently regarding the bullying of young GLBT teenagers leading to suicide, it certainly was insensitive of this station to even consider programming this segment when it’s clear that some callers would say things that were insensitive and hateful.
East Texas stereotypes aside, I agree that this was very poor decision making by KTBB.
What is PsychoMedia?Psycho: mentally-ill (Roget’s New Millennium Thesaurus – 2007)
Media: the means of communication, as radio and television, newspapers and magazines, that reach or influence people widely: The media are covering the speech tonight. (Dictionary.com Unabridged)
PsychoMedia: the combined effect of exploitation movies and biased news reports which stereotype mental health recipients leading to the implied conclusion that all people labeled mentally-ill are violent and deranged
How media-driven stereotypes are perpetuated?
widespread belief: the stereotype is argued to be true because it is widely held to be true
prejudicial language: negative value or moral judgement is attached to the stereotype
intentional exclusion: evidence that would or could disprove the stereotype is hidden or concealed
misleading generalization:the evidence is unrepresentative of the population cited as a whole
emotional appeal: the audience is persuaded to agree through emotion, not through logic or facts
PsychoMedia is a phenomenon peculiar to members of the media who are driven by the need to exploit and sensationalize. Employing psycho movie stereotypes the media cleverly equates depraved and demented movie characters as accurate depictions of “the mentally-ill,” so whenever an article about mental health is reported in the news the media will generate an angle linking the story to violence. This justifies denying all people labeled “mentally-ill” their most basic constitutional rights. In 1956 a proposal was introduced in Congress to purchase one million acres of land in the Alaskan wilderness to warehouse “the mentally-ill” until the American public got wind of the American style Gulag and quickly shot it down. Repackaged versions of this proposal are currently swirling around Congress. Is history about to repeat itself?
Basically in a sum’ed up point of view the media try’s to find a way to make the general public look at everything in a negative way.
have you watched the news or tv commercials? they are all linked together in some form or fashion to only talk about or show the negative information to get people to believe what they want them to believe to get people to over-react and freak out over something that doesn’t even need to have a reaction to it or have people freaking out.
next time you watch the news or a commercial think about what was just on your tv and then think back to this!
How can this even be a question? The downfall of America? How about a Medicare and Social Security system that can’t be funded, or extreme, out of control, big government spending and corruption combined with a non functioning government illegal immigration costs which bog down our already strained public service systems. How can someone being attracted to one sex and not the other bring down the entire nation? They really give us a lot of credit! We are more powerful than all of these challenging issues!
I grew up in East Texas. My parents still live there. Sad to say, but this IS typical of what I hear when I go back. The local media is so stupid as to be unwatchable. And while it is true that you can find homophobia, gay baiting and anti-gay rhetoric in many parts of the country, the East Texas strain of the virus has a particularly ignorant, fundagelical, racist, bigoted DNA signature. The difference in this case is that a media outlet would feel so comfortable in appealing to its audience with this kind of patently dishonest, patently biogted piece of gay bashing.
The premise of Garth Maier’s segment is that Obama’s appointment of openly gay officials will result in moral decay and divine retribution–that if Obama appoints gays to positions of responsibility and authority, the country will be punished. He was appealing to that segment of the station’s listenership/viewership who subscribe to the Fundamentalist LIteralist interpretation of the Bible. Those were the responses he was trying to incite, and that is what he got. This was as much a swipe at Obama as it was about gays and lesbians, a Texas twofer as it were. Cat nip for Far Right religious extremists.
(Continued)My parents (and their friends, and my extended family) think like this too. In fact, they have their own variation of it. They SEETHE that Obama has appointed so many African Americans to positions within his administration. They are convinced that Obama’s misguided appreciation of diversity will result in the appointment of less-qualified, less intellectually capable individuals to positions responsibility, and that the nation will suffer as a result. My parents, you see, are racists. Just as Garth Maier is an anti-gay bigot. I strongly suspect that a bigot like Garth Maier knows (or at least intuits) that there’s a HUGE overlap in his audience of people who oppose Obama because of his race, and people who are anti-gay bigots. Maier was just leveraging the latter in to stir up the former.
interesting video ,
Good work,
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I grew up in East Texas (just outside of Tyler) and would have to agree with the stereotype presented. Though I escaped to D. C. for college (Go AU Eagles!), I still have not so fond memories sitting in class while my peers and teachers went on and on about how they were the image of tolerance, but thought homosexuals should be treated as second class citizens. My aunt who fled to Fort Worth likes to joke that East Texas is where time stops.