Tell CNN to Cover The Facts About “Reparative Therapy”!
Joe Kort, MSW
This is from the PFLAG 7/28 e-newsletter. Please consider sending an email to the CNN folks listed at the bottom.
Last night CNN’s show Paula Zahn Now aired a story on “reparative therapy” organization Love in Action.
CNN completely ignored vital information on this issue. Here are some examples:
The story did NOT include statements by the American Medical Association and American Psychiatric Association denouncing “reparative therapy.”
The story did NOT talk about the virtually non- existent success rate of “ex-gay” programs.
The story did NOT discuss the serious emotional damage that “reparative therapy” can cause or the self-destructive behavior, including suicide, that “reparative therapy” can induce.
What did Paula Zahn’s story include? An interview of Love in Action director Reverend John Smid s trolling through a yard, extolling the virtues of his “ex- gay” program.
The story also included interviews with two young “Love in Action” graduates, one gay and one straight – making it appear to the viewer that the chances of success in reparative therapy are 50/50.
We at PFLAG know the chances of long-term emotional damage are very real for young men and women forced into “reparative therapy.”
We must tell the media to accurately and comprehensively report these facts!
Please send an email to the CNN employees listed below.
Tell them you expect them to report the facts and tell the truth about all issues, especially an issue like “reparative therapy” that endangers families across the country.
Please send your email to the following CNN employees and please send a copy of your email to tthompson@pflag.org:
Victor.Neufeld@cnn.com
Mark.Nelson@cnn.com
Debra.Goldschmidt@cnn.com
Deborah.Feyerick@cnn.com
Paula.Zahn@cnn.com
If you’d like to see the story, go to www.cnn.com and look for the video called Going Straight.
Warmly, Joe Kort
Joe, what do you think of the two CNN stories?
Transcript, Part I, July 27 (cited by PFLAG)
Transcript, Part II, July 28 (aired shortly after the PFLAG press release)
Joe, just to let you know, CNN is in the business of selling advertising. Like most American media, even that delivered via cable. You can complain to the media companies all you want, but their customers are not you, they are the advertisers.
Hint: if you complain to the advertisers, you might get some results.
They definitely could have done a more thorough job of presenting the facts (it was heavy on opinion). Is it just me or have these places only just recently started to make the “we can’t make you straight” claim? Is this a PR move to avoid the questions about their success rates?
Whatever they call it for legal purposes, they are doing therapy, albeit bad therapy. If they want to do this, they need to be licensed and fall under the same requirements as anyone else who practices. Is there any move to make this happen?
Raj, while I would normally agree about the advertisers, but in this case I think using that channel for complaints might just cause them to shy away from the subject entirely. Getting some information out at least brings the ex-gay mess to the forefront for people to see. I do wish they would find more than the same 3 people to discuss it.
David
I felt that the second part of the Paula Zahn story was more balanced. In that part, they did include the opinion of the APA and the AMA, and actually got the employee from LIA to admit that he was denying his true self.
I was less impressed by their debate with Warren Throckmorton and Joe Solomnese on Sunday night. Seeing Joe Solomnese up there really highlighted for me the reason that some ex-gay experts (not just gay experts) need to be more prominent in the gay community.