[Dash]

Great letter! You mentioned Gandhi and Marting Luther King Jr., and I too have been directing much of my spiritual effort toward understanding communication in the light of their philosophies. With that in mind (and begging no offense) I wanted to show you how I am personally inclined to edit your letter. I do not necessarily think you should take my edits to heart, since I do think you've done a great job. And, I do really hope that our readers will let me know what they think--even take me to task if they think I am misguided in my direction.

White indicates deleted text...Red text is my addition/replacement.

I’m submitting this response to KYTX CBS 19 before advising PFLAG members against speaking with our local CBS affiliate… and holding out the hope I won’t need to. Their coverage of the recent passing of the Hate Crimes bill displayed an egregious bias against our community. was reckless at best. In “researching” their subject matter, the news team focused exclusively on James Dobson’s (Focus on the Family) demonstrably false notion that the bill would somehow impose “thought crime” legislation and curtail our own religious leaders’ from being ableability to preach bible-based contempt towardcriticism of gays and lesbians citizens. Ironically, at the time of the broadcast, the legislation had already passed the House by a wide majority, after receiving overwhelming support by law enforcement agencies and the American public.

I am trying to remove any words that make a subjective moral judgement of the ones with whom we wish to be reconciled. Therefore...they are not "reckless", but the report is flawed in a serious way. I remove the quotes around the word "research" because I feel it makes a subjective, denigrating and unecessarily sarcastic judgment about their methods which does not serve to reconcile them with us. I remove the implication that that pastors want to preach hate and adopt a tone that they will agree with--they do wish to retain the right to criticize homosexuality. I also like to reinforce the legitimacy of Gay and Lesbian people in America by reminding everyone that we are citizens too.

To be clear, and despite what the newscast seemed to indicatethere are, in fact, no provisions in this bill that curtail free speech., though Mr. Dobson’s has employed this falsehood in his attempt to rhetoric successfully diverted all eyes away from any substantive issues… and KYTX took the bait. In fairness, East Texas’ own Louie Gohmert, favoring Dobson’s absurd remarks untruths over an actual reading of the bill, has also made the false claim that it contains such a ridiculous provision to arrest pastors for preaching hate. Because of Dobson’s apparent stature, however, The following official rebuttal was prepared, which specifically addresses the false claim endorsed by Dobson:

“It [the Hate Crimes Bill] does not impinge on public speech or writing in any way,'' countered Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., pointing out that the bill explicitly reaffirms First Amendment and free-speech rights. (Jim Abrams, AP)* – Unfortunately, KYTX failed to discuss the actual bill during their report.

Trying to make clear how false the claim is as portrayed in the report while removing any unecessary value judgments against Dobson and those to whom our communication is directed.

The report was submitted by KYTX “Eye at 5” anchor, Annalisa Petralia, who had been referred to me by our regional PFLAG president for an interview. I told Annalisa that the bill contained no such “thought-crime” provision… warning her specifically that James Dobson has a particularly notoriousdocumented track record on the subject of hate speech against the GLBT community (see supporting material below). I also mentioned that one in every six hate crimes is committed because of the victims’ sexual orientation and gave specific examples of three murderers here in Tyler that had selected their victim because he was gay. But then, I said a lot of things that didn’t addressYet the records and facts that I shared with her seemed of little value in light of Ms Petralia’s single-minded issue of pastoral liberty. “How could a preacher’s words cause violence against gays,” she asked me (paraphrased from memory).

“Well,” I answered, “let’s imagine you were a preacher talking about how gays aren’t really people, that they don’t deserve any consideration, because they’re evil. Now let’s imagine I was a congregant who was being told that the attack by gays on my family values was exactly like the attack on Pearl Harbor, as one of Dobson’s staff has said… well, I’m learning a type of bigotry that’s going to make it more likely for me to be violent toward that class of people.”

From this quote, and from my entire ten-minute interview, Annalisa played only the following video clip: “…well, I’m learning a type of bigotry that’s going to make it more likely for me to be violent toward that class of people …”

Removed value judgment against Dobson, and replaced it with a readiness to prove the truth of our position. Also tried to clarify how sincerely you are wishing to provide facts and truth.

What aThis is a tragic misuse of journalistic ethics and trust as laid in the Society of Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics, which state “Deliberate distortion is never permissible.” Among other obviously wholesome provisions, this Code of Ethics calls for journalists to…

“Examine their own cultural values and avoid imposing them on others”
“Support the open exchange of views, even views they find repugnant”
“Give voice to the voiceless”
and…
“Distinguish between advocacy and news reporting”

Asserting the value of an established code, and essentially inviting them to show that they too will endorse and support what many other professionals do. I think it is stronger with verifiable references to that code, which can be found online here: http://www.spj.org/ethicscode.asp

KYTX hasd an opportunity , during this newscast, to help mend issues that deeply divide our community by simply objectively reporting the facts. This opportunity wasreport has used , instead, to follow supported Dobson’s “red herring” away from while ingoring any factual material whatsoever. Then to make matters worse,Then in what seems a break with the ethical standards supported by professional journalists, she tried to use my interviewmy interview was edited so that I appeared to say mean the exact opposite of what I actually said. Where I was pleading for peace, she chose to make my interview into it gave the appearance that I was making a call for violence. I’m saddened by the lack of truth in this report. It seems more effective as a means to to stir angry passions rather than objectively cover community news.How utterly irresponsible!

First of all, I want to make it clear that the opportunity still exists for them to participate in community discussion and heal rifts between groups. Always seeking reconciliation rather than judgment. I try to let go of any animus toward the reporter herself, by recalling only what was seen in the report. I remove any unsupportable claims about what the reporter may have been trying to do. I don't know what was going on in her thoughts. Always assuming, in Gandhian fashion, the best about those with whom we disagree.

I find KYTX’s use of the airways to reinforce that hatred and violence reprehensible. Shame on them!

As if the damage caused by KYTX to our community was not great enough, Ms Petralia may have actually put lives in danger by turning a call for peace into a studio-manufactured call to violence.

This is a very important deletion, in my opinion. Those who oppose including sexual orientation in hate crime legislation claim that it is an attempt to criminalize thoughts and speech. Therefore, I think it would be counterproductive to suggest that the station's speech was an incitement to violence and should therefore (at least by implication) be silenced. We only wish them to join with us in dialogue and seeking of the truth.

Also removing any words that seem to lay shame or guilt on the ones with whom we wish to be reconciled. Gandhi makes it very clear that the practioner of nonviolence has no wish to shame his or her opponent.

I’m very disappointed in Annalisa, and in KYTX the way this report turned out. As it stands now, I’m inclined to believe our community should be forewarned warn the GLBT community against before speaking with this news station in the future. I will wait a few days before distributing this opinion further, however, in the hopes you may be interested in moving forward in a more positive light.

Expressing disappointment in the report rather than the ones we wish to be reconciled with. Indicating clearly our intention to begin noncompliance and noncooperation with a institution that will not support the truth. This is the heart of Satayagraha as I understand it...we do not comply or cooperate with those who use us in the perpetuation of injustice.
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For me this has been an exciting exercise in refining nonviolent communication technique. I hope that you do not mind my "slicing and dicing" of your excellent text. Please know it is absolutely not intended as a judgment against you, but as an attempt to further the ongoing dialogue here regarding Soulforce-inspired dialogue.

Please let me know what you think of my suggestions, but don't take them as my indication of what you should say.


Dash