One Less Reason to Watch ABC

Which, according to my calculations, brings their tally to —1.

Max Blumenthal reports that last night ABC ran ads placed by supertwat and major homobigot James Dobson’s Focus on the Family during its season finale of some television show I’ve never seen (but it sounds disastrous), “Supernanny.” The ads were promoting Focus on the Family’s

"Focus on Your Child" program, which advises parents on how to implement the parenting principles outlined in his best-seller, "Dare to Discipline." These include spanking with "sufficient magnitude to cause the child to cry genuinely." Children have to be taught respect for authority at an early age, Dobson preaches, or they'll never develop respect for governmental authority or God.

In and of itself, that’s not really a strike against ABC—after all, networks need cash, so although taking money from a religious-based group advocating corporal punishment may be distasteful, whatever, it’s capitalism, gotta make a buck, right?

See, the problem is, last December, ABC, along with NBC and CBS, rejected an ad from the United Church of Christ because its message was one of tolerance and inclusion. The UCC’s press release described the ad as:

part of the denomination's new, broad identity campaign set to begin airing nationwide on Dec. 1, states that -- like Jesus -- the United Church of Christ (UCC) seeks to welcome all people, regardless of ability, age, race, economic circumstance or sexual orientation.

Not particularly controversial, one would think, but it was too controversial for ABC, who would only run the ad on the ABC Family Channel, but not the primary network. For some inexplicable reason, however, they find an ad promoting a religious-based program that endorses spanking, a decidedly controversial topic, and devised by a virulently anti-gay religious leader, perfectly acceptable for airing during primetime programming.

If you’d like to ask ABC what the fuck they’re thinking, here’s their contact info:

ABC, Inc.
500 S. Buena Vista Street
Burbank, CA 91521-4551
Phone number: (818) 460-7477

You can also ABC's Audience Relations Department at netaudr@abc.com.

And while you’re at it, give a shout to the FCC, too: fccinfo@fcc.gov.