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Whose Book?
Whose Book?
by
Libby Post
Lynn and I settled in recently to watch the premiere
of The Book of Daniel on NBC. Our interest was piqued
by the network promos and everything we had heard about the show. There's
a gay male leading character, a lesbian supporting character, a gay screenwriter
and the American Family Association has called upon its membership to
call their local NBC affiliates to pull it from the air.
Anything with that kind of set-up was worth
a try.
The show stars Aidan Quinn as the
Rev. Daniel Webster, an Episcopal minister. Quinn, by the way, was one
of the first Hollywood actors to tackle the AIDS epidemic in the 1985
TV movie An Early Frost, a groundbreaking undertaking twenty years ago.
A multi-dimensional man of the cloth,
Webster gives unconventional sermons, counsels would-be married couples
who then decide to just live together and grapples with church hierarchy,
all the while struggling to be a good father and husband. At the same
time, he's got a Vicodin problem and has an on-going and honest dialogue
with Jesus Christ.
NBC describes the show as provocative,
edgy and compelling. The American Family Association describes it as anti-Christian
– another cog in the wheel of their perceived war on Christianity.
According to the AFA website, Webster
is a drug-addicted Episcopal priest whose wife depends heavily on midday
martinis and who regularly sees and talks with a very unconventional white-robed,
bearded Jesus. They go on to describe Webster's family as including a
23-year-old homosexual Republican son, a 16-year-old daughter who is a
drug dealer, and a 16-year-old adopted son who is having sex with "the
bishop's daughter."
In their usual myopic style,
they forget to tell you the greyer areas of the story line: that the gay
son is grappling with the loss of his twin brother and hasn't conveyed
a political affiliation yet, only that he doesn't want to be a "gay
poster child." That the daughter got busted for selling pot to finance
the publication of a comic book and has promised not to do it again. And
that the adopted son isn't sleeping with the bishop's daughter, he's actually
in love with the daughter of one of the church elders.
But beyond these little inaccuracies,
the AFA has asked its members to use this information and call the NBC
affiliates in their area with a message to cull the program from its broadcast
roster. Additionally, AFA members are asked to call the program's advertisers
and tell them to yank their advertising. While the AFA hasn't come out
with a full-fledged boycott, it is once again using heavy-handed tactics
to try and erase the lesbian and gay community from our culture and society
– not to mention keep folks from seeing a complex portrayal of a
Christian minister.
Let's not forget, these are the same
people who boycotted Disney because the company provides domestic partner
benefits and sponsors Gay Days at Disney and who recently targeted Ford
because of its pro-gay philanthropy and marketing.
Like past actions, they weren't that
successful this time around either. Less than a handful of stations capitulated.
Almost all of them, not surprisingly, are in the Bible Belt.
WTWO in Terre Haute, Indiana, KARK in Little Rock, Arkansas and four stations
in Kansas owned by Emmis Communications have pulled the show. In a statement,
KARK defended pulling the show by saying, "As broadcasters using
public airwaves and leaders in the community, we don't believe it's in
the best interest of our community to air a program that a large number
of our viewers find deeply offensive." Considering
that WB42, the WB affiliate in the Little Rock market, decided to air
the show and has since been besieged with threats, KARK unfortunately
may be right about their viewers.
Juxtapose KARK's statement with the
response from Jeff Lee, the General Manager of WBIR in Knoxville, Tennessee,
which did air the show. "We at WBIR find ourselves in a no-win situation.
Regardless of our decision, some of our viewers will be upset. We don't
like upsetting even one viewer. The Book of Daniel is a TV program
– that's all. We think you should make up your own mind as to whether
or not to watch any TV program."
WIS in Columbia, South Carolina came
to a similar conclusion. Mel Stebbins, the Senior VP and General Manager
said, "We believe we have a greater responsibility to air the program
to viewers who are interested in seeing it than we have to those who want
us to censor content they find objectionable."
While the AFA attempts to claim
victory, the hundreds of affiliates across the country that did air The
Book of Daniel far outweigh the few that did not. They, like Lee
and Stebbins, recognize it is just a TV show, and we're old enough to
decide what we do and don't want to watch. Besides, the book that really
matters is the one titled Neilsen Ratings. That will decide the real future
of The Book of Daniel.
Libby Post is the founder of OutMarketing.biz, president emeritus of the Capital District Gay and Lesbian Community Council, and founding chair of the Empire State Pride Agenda. Her commentaries can be heard Thursdays on WAMC public radio in Albany.