« Go back a post || Return to G-A-Y homepage || Haul tail to next post »
08/20/2013
Aggressively anti-gay David Caton claims to be decimating Al Jazeera America's advertising
The name David Caton may not ring a bell, but you surely know at least one of his campaigns. He's the guy who flies banners over Disney World whenever the "Gay Day" event comes to the Magic Kingdom, warning anyone in the area of the pesky LGBT people who might dare to see themselves as equally as entitled to riding Splash Mountain as anyone else.
Caton has also gone after several different TV shows and networks for being too inclusive of LGBT human beings. For example, he claims to have convinced advertisers to pull from the hit Modern Family "because the show labels a same-sex couple with an adopted child as a modern family and attempts to normalize homosexuality by contrasting it with heterosexual couples that the show characterizes as abnormal." Another was Degrassi, which Caton went after for "affirming the homosexual and transgender lifestyles" coupled with attacks against the network, Teen Nick, for airing public service announcements "which lead children and teens toward, not away from embracing these behaviors."
Oh, and Mr. Caton also uses "facts" from discredited researcher like Paul Cameron (PAUL. CAMERON!) to go after programs that are designed to support and protect LGBT youth. Just this year, Mr. Caton flew another round banners over Lady Gaga concerts reading "not born this way" in protest of the Born This Way Bus and the LGBT organizations (Bron This Way Foundation, Trevor Project, Campus Pride, etc.) involved.
But it's not just LGBT. Oh no, no, no. Mr. Caton, who waged such a high profile onslaught against the All American Muslim TV show a few years back that it lead the New York Times to describe Caton as "Waging a One-Man War on American Muslims", has determined that 2013 will be the year that his organization takes on "countering the Islamist agenda in America" as its top priority.
Which leads us to Caton's latest. In a campaign you'll likely hear more about in the days to come, the longtime anti-LGBT activist is now taking on Al Jazeera America, which launches nationwide today. Caton is claiming that his efforts have influence a whopping one hundred eighteen companies—ranging from small to massive, in all industries—to pull their advertising from the network. The claim:
CurrentTV officially became Al Jazeera America and started airing Al Jazeera content on August 20, 2013.
Al Jazeera America made their start with no major companies advertising on the network thanks to the support of thousands of Florida Family Association supporters.
Florida Family Association’s:
--Weekly contact with top officials at the companies that advertised on Al Jazeera America influenced 105 companies to stop advertising.
--Supporters who sent emails to companies that advertised on Al Jazeera America influenced 13 companies to stop advertising.
--Overall efforts influenced 118 companies to stop advertising. See list posted below.
KEEP READING: All major companies stop advertising on CurrentTV before official name change to Al Jazeera America. [FFA]
Now, first I'm going to question if this is even completely true. A few years back, I caught Mr. Caton claiming to have forced MTV to cancel the LGBT-inclusive Shot of Love reality show, when in fact the show was just on summer hiatus. That show came back a few months later with even more bisexual and lesbian women than it had prior to Caton's campaign. So you'll have to forgive me if I fail to trust all of Mr. Caton's declared "successes."
But if there is even a degree of truth to this, then these companies need to know what and who, exactly, is behind this campaign. In Florida, there are two "values" groups working against us and the Florida Family Association is the much more extreme one. This is not just some political organization with pragmatic concerns. This is a one-man organization that claims the Boy Scouts' acceptance of gay minors will "in all probability create more cases like Penn State’s Jerry Sandusky." This is a one-man organization that goes after organizations like the AARP for pushing what it calls "special rights for immoral behavior" (but the rest of us all call inclusive military service, adoption rights, etc). This is a one-man organization that goes after everything from comic books to hotels that dare serve the LGBT consumer.
And yet major American companies pull advertising because this one-man organization and its one leader tell them to do so?! Something is wrong here. We need some answers.
Your thoughts
comments powered by Disqus
