Eugene TV station KVAL covered our wonderful PRIDE event very nicely--except for this last paragraph:
 
"There were no protesters at the event when KVAL News was there. But to be fair and to get the other side, KVAL News called Defense of Marriage, an organization that opposes gay marriage."
 
Yes, I was appalled, too!
 
I complained to the reporter, Molly Blancett, who apologized to me personally, but as yet there's been no acknowledgment to KVAL viewers or the community at large. They must think this will blow over and they don't have to take responsibility for insulting the LGBTIQ and allied community. If you object to this inflammatory "reporting" and think the community deserves an apology, please let KVAL know. The reporter's contact info is:

Molly Blancett
Reporter, KVAL TV
541-520-0893
mblancett@kval.com
 
The newsroom contact is:
kvalnews@kval.com
(541) 685-KVAL (5825)
 
At your back,
 
Sally
 
Sally Sheklow, Coordinator
Back to Back: Allies for Human Dignity
A program of Community Alliance of Lane County (CALC)
 
P.S. FYI, my letters to the reporter and her responses below
 
(Monday, August 10)
> Hi Molly,
> 
> Thank you for your report on our local PRIDE Festival this past Saturday (8/8/09). I thought it was very well done, except for that last awful paragraph. Why in the world did that get tacked on? "To be fair" to whom? To the people who fuel anti-gay hatred?
 
Does that mean that if nobody protests at Fiesta Latina this year, KVAL will try to get a comment from some skinhead vigilante group? If nobody protests the NAACP dinner, will you seek a racist quote from the Ku Klux Klan? I think you can you see how out of line that would be.
 
> Surely you're aware of the incident in Tel Aviv just last week when two young people were killed and many more injured when an anti-gay zealot opened fire in a gay community center? (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090802/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_israel_gay_shooting "The dead were identified as a 26-year-old man who was a counselor at the center and a 17-year-old girl. Eleven people were wounded, four of them critically.")
Our community is already painfully aware of how vulnerable we are to anti-gay violence -- we have hateful zealots right here in Eugene. Does KVAL want to be responsible for fanning that fire? Surely, less callous journalistic ethics must apply.
 
Contacting an anti-gay marriage group might make sense if you're covering a demonstration for gay marriage -- which PRIDE is not. If there HAD been demonstrators at PRIDE, it would be reasonable to interview the protesters about what they were doing there. But you -- or whoever inserted that paragraph -- made up the phantom protesters out of the blue. I find it grossly irresponsible to mention protesters when there weren't any and to toss out the name of some random unrelated anti-gay group in the name of being "fair."
 
The PRIDE festival is a treasure in our community. There's no reason to invoke hate over such a lovely, family-friendly event that was open to all and commenced with the mayor of Eugene's welcoming proclamation. Raising the specter of oppositional protest and naming an anti-gay organization was unnecessary, inflammatory, and way out of bounds. I'm absolutely shocked that anybody at KVAL would find this appropriate. An apology to your viewers/readers is in order.
 
Sincerely,
Sally Sheklow
 
(Two days later)
> Dear Sally,
> 
> Thank you for your e-mail. I understand why the "To be fair" part seemed unnecessary and unfair. As a journalist, I know there are different viewpoints to many issues and I want to be sensitive to those views. However, I realize in this instance, I was wrong. It was not needed. I apologize for my error in judgment.
> 
> I appreciate your feedback. I take viewer e-mails and reaction very seriously and use them to grow as a person and a journalist.
> 
> Sincerely,
> Molly Blancett
 
(My immediate response)
Sent: Wednesday, August 12, 2009 11:59 PM
To: Blancett, Molly
Subject: RE: Your PRIDE report
 
Hi Molly,
Thank you for your acknowledgment of the judgment error. Apology accepted. The bigger offense, though, is to your viewers and readers. Will there be a public apology? Your desire to be sensitive seems to lead in that direction. I think it's called for.
Thanks again,
Sally
 
(Nine days later)
From: Blancett, Molly [mailto:mblancett@kval.com]
Sent: Wednesday, August 19, 2009 10:22 AM
To: back2back@calclane.org
Subject: RE: Your PRIDE report
 
Sally,
 
I will talk to my News Director about a public apology, but I cannot guarantee anything.
 
Molly Blancett