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AFA JournalHOMOSEXUAL AGENDATaxpayer-funded PBS program slams Boy ScoutsAFA Journal, August 2001 EditionOnce again the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) drew sharp criticism from pro-family organizations, after it aired an attack piece on the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) over that organization’s refusal to allow homosexuals to join. Scout’s Honor focuses on the efforts of Boy Scout Steven Cozza as he attempts to rally support to convince the BSA to change its policy. Cozza, who says he is straight, began his campaign at age 12 when he founded Scouting For All, a pro-homosexual pressure group. PBS defended Scout’s Honor, which aired on June 19, as balanced and fair-minded. However, an AFA Journal review of the program noted at least 25 uses of words like “injustice,” “discrimination,” “prejudice” and “bigotry.” “The message of Scout’s Honor is that the Boy Scout policy towards homosexuals is immoral,” said Ed Vitagliano, AFA Journal news editor, who reviewed the program. “For PBS to represent this program as objective is ludicrous.” Cozza, in one scene, says that parents of Scouts who didn’t want their troop attending a “gay” pride parade “are really evil.” In another segment, he says that “being gay is normal. The only thing that’s not normal is the Boy Scout policy, which discriminates against gays.” PBS has also defended the program by stating that the BSA refused to be interviewed for Scout’s Honor, but AFA President Donald Wildmon said he doesn’t blame the Boy Scouts for their reticence. “When a producer has an agenda, nothing you can say will affect the message of his program, and I’m sure the Boy Scouts knew that,” he said. “PBS can’t defend the program’s integrity by saying the Boy Scouts wouldn’t appear; it was precisely because Scout’s Honor had no integrity that caused the Scouts to say, ‘No, thanks.’” In fact, Scout’s Honor producer Tom Shepard describes himself on the PBS website as a “social activist” who is “drawn to documentary as a vehicle for social change.” He also said that Scout’s Honor “afforded a number of opportunities to explore the shape of anti-gay bigotry in America and the struggle to expunge it.” Wildmon, himself an Eagle Scout, said, “To trash the Boy Scouts is one thing, but to use taxpayer funds to do it is an outrage. Every taxpayer ought to contact his local PBS station and his congressman to protest.” |
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