Anti-Gay Lobbyist Violated Broadcast Standards
TV just got a lot more intelligent! Charles McVety, president of Canada’s largest anti-gay lobby group, the Canada Family Action Coalition, had his television program, Word TV, yanked from the air by its own distributer after McVety was found to have repeatedly violated industry broadcast standards.
The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council, a self-regulatory body created by the broadcast industry, developed codes of ethics in 1990 to which all members have agreed to adhere. Responding to a complaint, this council investigated McVety’s program, discovering multiple violations of these codes.
While the CBSC panel went out of its way to affirm that McVety is free to disagree with gay people and voice this disagreement on the air, they found that he had breached journalistic standards against purposefully misrepresenting truth as well as those prohibiting blanket attacks on identifiable groups. This included statements that the Ontario school curriculum was designed to turn children into homosexuals, that gay people have an “insatiable appetite for sex, especially with young people,” that it is illegal in Canada to speak out against homosexuality, and that the Toronto Pride celebrations promoted sex with children; all verifiable lies.
“McVety,” the CBSC wrote, “may not like homosexuality. That is his entitlement, but to leave the totally unsubstantiated impression that gay and lesbian adults have a predilection toward young, underage people is insidious and unacceptable.” In all, the panel found that McVety violated several clauses from three different broadcast codes.
McVety, of course, has learned nothing from this experience, informing supporters that his program was pulled “for using the term ‘sex parade’ and opposing the proposed Ontario Sex Ed curriculum,” painting himself as a martyr for having opinions.
Defending distortions with bigger, more easily verifiable distortions. It’s a little like rebuilding a snowman with a blowtorch, isn’t it? Then again, that’s our Charles McVety!
