AT&T and Time Warner Cable have
withdrawn advertising from the Spanish-language television talk show
Jose Luis Sin Censura (Jose Luis Without Censorship),
gay media watchdog the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation
(GLAAD) and the National Hispanic Media Coalition (NHMC) announced on
Thursday.
Two broadcasters – WSVN-TV in Miami
and KCTU-TV in Wichita – have also pulled the daytime talk show
from the airwaves.
The moves come after the groups filed
an FCC complaint and launched an online petition against the show
earlier this year.
Jose Luis is produced by the
Burbank, California-based Liberman Broadcasting and airs in Los
Angeles on KRCA,
channel 62 and 36 other markets.
The show routinely features “indecent,
profane, and obscene material, offensive language, nudity, and on-air
verbal and physical attacks against women as well as lesbian, gay,
bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people,” the groups said in a
statement announcing the move.
The show, which premiered last June,
often incites guests and audience members to “engage in verbal and
even physical attacks, especially against people perceived to be
LGBT.”
“Many episodes showed the audience
standing and shouting anti-gay epithets and profanity at guests,”
the groups said. (A video from GLAAD is embedded in the right panel
of this page.)
“AT&T, Time Warner Cable and
these broadcasters have sent a strong message by refusing to support
a show that promotes such violence against our community,” said
GLAAD President Jarrett Barrios.
“The advertisers and broadcasters
that we are recognizing today wisely chose to abandon their
relationships with this program. Not only does this demonstrate
corporate responsibility, but also that being affiliated with José
Luis Sin Censura is bad for business. I expect that others will
follow in the near future, as they realize that obscenity,
intolerance and sexism are out of style,” said Alex Nogales,
President and CEO of NHMC.