c9: (explosion)
[personal profile] c9
For those interested in what's up with Beals, here's a slight update from a friend of a friend...

"Just to follow through on [a friend's email that was sent after I
sent out my original email]. I called Aliant and was told that
they are having someone come in to solely deal with this issue because
they have had so many outraged phone calls. She said the person will be
in this Monday morning from 8 a.m. to 9. pm and to call and register the
complaint during those hours. She also told me they are pulling the ads
but not until the end of February. I told her if the company was as
outraged as she had indicated that the ads should be pulled immediately.
If they don't, I am going to tell the person tomorrow that I am going to
switch companies. I am going to annouce this in my classes and give my
students the number to call.

I don't know if there is going to be an official protest at the actual
event in Dartmouth but I'm going to take my family and go down anyway.
I'm sure some kind of response will be mounted. One can truly appreciate
the irony of an African Canadian singing at an anti-equality rally. Next
he'll be singing for the Klan. I also emailed CBC and am encouraging my
students to do so as well, the program this morning was excellent. I
taped it for my classes and my children."

Date: 2004-02-16 05:38 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] nihilicious.livejournal.com
What was on the cbc?

Re:

Date: 2004-02-16 05:42 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] c9.livejournal.com
Oops, forgot to explain that. CBC broadcast a live gay wedding yesterday morning. *gasp!* The original plan was to have some anti-equality types there to participate, but the bad guys cancelled so they could put out a press release about cancelling. :)

Re:

Date: 2004-02-16 05:44 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] finfinaud.livejournal.com
Guess they didn't want to be seen on tv showing THIER true colors... a little bit about Irony. Lets all go protest. And then tell everyone to cancel thier Aliant services, thus putting [livejournal.com profile] bartok out of a job, but its for a good cause!

Re:

Date: 2004-02-16 06:04 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] kdborg.livejournal.com
I should really listen to the CBC more often.

Tricky part for Aliant is figuring out what to do and when. If they pulled the ads early, they could be seen as favouring the gay side. If they pulled the ads later, they could be seen as favouring the anti-gay side. Tough spot to be in.

Re:

Date: 2004-02-16 06:15 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] c9.livejournal.com
Nope, it's simple. They wouldn't ask Stephen Harper or Jack Layton to hawk their wares, because they're partisan. As soon as Beals says "I'm doing it anyway" he becomes a political participant, and they should drop him if they want to be seen as neutral.

If someone says Aliant is being pro-gay, they are falsely positioning the question.

Re:

Date: 2004-02-16 06:36 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] kdborg.livejournal.com
I agree with what you say. However, I do think some people on both sides would try to spin a situation so that Aliant would look like Aliant is favouring one side.

Re:

Date: 2004-02-16 06:38 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] c9.livejournal.com
Agreed. Which is always the way people debate, which sucks. Facts should rule whenever possible.

Date: 2004-02-16 06:15 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] nihilicious.livejournal.com
Oh right, I read about that.

Their arguments were along the lines of "We didn't feel the debate would be fair and reasonable given the emotional trappings of airing it at the same time as an actual wedding ceremony."

Translated: "We don't think people are capable of supporting our arguments in the face of the reality of what a gay wedding is really like. We don't want our nice clean hatred getting all messed up by any hint of real people's lives being affected."

Actually, I think they raise a decent point, which I'm sure they'll follow up on by basing their abortion arguments on sound rational principles rather than pictures of little foetuses and screams of murderer. (When I was escorting at the clinic in Fredericton, I actually had one come up to me and say "So you like killing babies, do you?" There's fair and reasonable debate for you.)

Re:

Date: 2004-02-16 06:18 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] c9.livejournal.com
Yeah, there's some debate on the Egale list about whether it's "balanced" or not, and someone finally pointed out that it's not necessarily our responsibility to ensure that everything we participate in is 50/50, since the bad guys (my generic term, rather than say "conservative, traditionalist, and/or religious") certainly don't. From the debate:

"The broadcast [the same-sex wedding with no anti views] was the balance."

Date: 2004-02-16 06:47 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] nihilicious.livejournal.com
Well, the CBC is in a tough spot. As a news item, I think they have a greater obligation to be "balanced". As a documentary, I don't think I'd expect so much of them. And how far can you really be balanced when the kid at the other end of the seesaw decides to go home?

Re:

Date: 2004-02-16 06:52 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] c9.livejournal.com
Excellent metaphor. I just read that there may have been some balance, some theologian spoke (the emailer said she muted it, "heard that before"). Also, it was very documentary-ish I think. But since I didn't see it, it's all dancing about architecture.

Re:

Date: 2004-02-16 08:56 pm (UTC)
From: (Anonymous)
Huh? Maybe some of the anti-equality types cancelled, but there were still ten or so in the studio including two minister/priest types.

S.

Re:

Date: 2004-02-17 01:07 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] c9.livejournal.com
Cool. I didn't see it at all. Did you find it excessively balanced?

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