Jim Neugent's letter to ABC
NOTE: THE
FOLLOWING INFORMATION CAME TO ME DIRECTLY FROM JIM NEUGENT HIMSELF.
In 1999, Mr. Jim
Neugent DID indeed write a letter to ABC protesting the positive
depiction of gays in the TV show, "The Practice". Yes, he
did receive a nasty reply. However, there IS more to this
story. The reply Mr. Neugent received was NOT from executives at
ABC. Mr. Neugent's emailed letter went to the webmaster's
email address. An employee in the webmaster's office
created the nasty reply. After this message spread like wildfire
throughout the net, ABC found out about it through the tons of
irate mail they received, and found out who had sent the reply.
To give ABC some small credit, they did fire the person who sent
the message and did, eventually, send an apologetic letter to
Mr. Neugent.
Mr. Neugent, believing (with good reason) that the
inflammatory reply had been received from ABC, sent the message on to 10
or 12 of his friends. The message then took on a life of its own.
According to Mr. Neugent, later versions added even more inflammatory
language to the reply. The original reply is shown below. The
later additions are shown with brackets. I'm not sure why someone
felt the need to embellish the message. It was certainly bad enough
on its own.
After Mr. Neugent's letter began circulating on the web,
ABC was besieged with email regarding the awful message he had received.
ABC began sending out a generic apology to all who wrote. According
to Mr. Neugent, he also sent a copy to the ABC affiliate station in Little
Rock, Arkansas. He believes that the station must have contacted ABC
directly, because a few days later, he received a letter of apology from
Daren Benzi of ABC. While the letter did contain an apology, Mr.
Benzi continued to defend ABC's programming. This letter is also
shown below.
After receiving the information that the writer had been
fired and the apology, Mr. Neugent tried to get another email message into
circulation with this corrected info, but to no avail. No one, it
seems, was interested.
Message as it now being
circulated on the web. Brackets show additions by unknown
source to original letter.
I wrote to ABC (on-line) concerning
a program called "THE PRACTICE." One of the
lawyer's mother's decided she was gay and wanted her son to go to
court to help her get a marriage license to marry her
"partner." I sent the following letter to ABC
yesterday and really did not expect a reply. . . but I did get
one. My original message was:
ABC is obsessed (or should I say
abscessed) the subject of homosexuality. I will no longer
watch any of your attempts to convince the world that
homosexuality is OK. THE PRACTICE can be a fairly good show
but last night's program was so typical of your agenda. You
picked the "dufus" of the office to be the one who was
against the idea of his mother being gay and made him look like a
whiner because he had convictions. This type of mentality
calls people like me a "gay basher." Read the
first chapter of Romans (that's in the Bible) to see what the
apostle Paul had to say about it. He and God and Jesus were
all "gay bashers." What if she'd fallen in love
with her cocker spaniel. . . is that an alternative lifestyle?
(By the way, the Bible speaks against that, too.) Jim
Neugent
Here is ABC's reply from the ABC
on-line Webmaster:
How about getting your nose out of
the Bible (which is ONLY a book of stories compiled by MANY
different writers hundreds of years ago) and read the Declaration
of Independence (what our nation is built on) where it says
"All Men are Created Equal" and try treating them that
way for a change? Or better yet, try thinking for
yourself and stop using an archaic book of stories as your [lame]*
crutch for your existence. [You are in the minority in this
country and your boycott will not affect us or our freedom of
expression.]*
*later additions to the
Webmaster employee's original message to Mr. Neugent.
My second response to ABC:
Thanks for your reply.
Evidently, I hit a nerve from your harsh reply. I will share
it with all with whom I come in contact. Hopefully, the
Arkansas Democrat Newspaper will include it in one of their
columns, and. . . I will be praying for you. |
Here is the rest of the story:
ABC's generic reply to complainants:
I would like to send out this apology on
behalf of one of our ex-freelancers that worked with us in the Webmaster
Department. An email was sent out in response to Jim Neugent's mail
regarding his feeling offense towards an episode of "The
Practice." This person's response was by no means the views
shared by this organization, but of a personal opinion, and should not
have been sent out.
The sole purpose of the Webmaster is to fix
any problems that occur on the website and to help our users with any
technical difficulties that they may run into while using the site.
It is, by no means, to be used as a medium to express one's own personal
opinions.
Again, our Webmaster Division wished to
apologize for any misgivings that this ex-freelancer may have caused and
thanks you for bringing this concern to our attention.
ABC Webmaster Division
Reply to Mr. Neugent from Daren A.
Benzi, ABC - April 14, 1999
Dear Mr. Neugent:
We apologize for the email message that was
sent to you with comments that reflect neither the view of ABC nor of its
executives. Viewer mail is traditionally handled by our Audience
Information department for responses.
Your message was inappropriately handled by
a programmer from ABC.com. I want to assure you that the response
that you received does not in any way reflect the views of ABC Television,
and most importantly is not at all consistent with the manner in which
KATV, our valued partner in Little Rock, would ever treat their
audience/community members.
Unfortunately, as in any organization,
there are bound to be a few individuals that step out of line. To
that end, we completed a comprehensive investigation into the matter
earlier this afternoon. While the individual was deeply contrite and
wanted to apologize to you, we felt that his actions were reprehensible
and terminated him immediately.
Specifically in response to your original
concerns regarding the subject of homosexuality in our programming, the
ABC programming department has tried to treat such subjects in a sensitive
manner. We recognize that we are serving a large, diverse audience
with a wide range of attitudes towards all types of entertainment
programming. We believe that programs thoughtfully reflecting social
issues existing in our present society constitute proper television faire.
We appreciate your original comments and
take serious note of your thoughts on the potential direction of future
story lines.
We are glad that you brought the email
incident to our attention. We truly regret that this happened, and
we hope you understand by our actions that we will not tolerate this kind
of behavior from any member of our staff.
Finally, I would like to once again add
that the response that you received should in no way be attributed to our
partner in Little Rock, KATV. Ad you well know, KATV has been the
news and public affairs leader in Little Rock for years, and will be for
many more. A finer, more committed television station does not
exist. I would not want their reputation to suffer in any way due to
our mishap.
Please accept our apologies and regrets.
Sincerely,
Daren Benzi
ABC Television
Network
