Knoxville WVLT news corrects unfair ‘homosexual population’ report
See… respect, civility and kindness does work.
Would it have been easy to shoot off an angry email chastising reporter Whitney Daniels for being anti-gay in her report on the arrest of 15 men engaging in illegal public acts of sex? Yeah… it would have, but Ms. Daniels wasn’t doing that. It was nothing more, as I suspected, something she overlooked. We’re all human… it’s easy to do.
Earlier today, at about 5:00 or so, I posted a short snippet of a letter I emailed to Ms. Daniels (”Knoxville WVLT news unfairly portrays ‘homosexual population’“) noting my concern over the tone of her news report, specifically in regard to this comment:
“Knoxville police say the homosexual population has been gathering here, using the park as their meeting point.”
Ms. Daniels responded just now, notifying me of the change in her report (unfortunately, only on the text on the website, as the televised report has already gone on air):
Thank You for your e-mail. The script online has been fixed so the entire homosexual community isn’t blamed for this group’s behavior. I appreciate your kind words and thank you for bringing something I had overlooked to my attention.
The new section on the revised online news report reads:
Knoxville police say this group has been gathering here, using the park as their meeting point.
Also, the prior report put great stress on the “arrest of 15 men engaging in homosexual conduct.” The revised report now states that 15 men have been arrested for indecent exposure (the crime for which many of the men were actually charged, although some also received other minor, non-sexually related charges as well).
I want to thank Ms. Daniels and the staff of WVLT news in Knoxville, TN, profusely for their willingness to recognize my concern in how this story might possibly paint the entire “homosexual population” and community in a very negative light. As I originally stated to Ms. Daniels, the “homosexual population” isn’t to blame for these criminal activities, the individual men engaging in these actions are.
Technorati Tags: Knoxville, Tennessee, Whitney Daniels, WVLT, Tyson Park
About the Author: Matt
2 Responses to “Knoxville WVLT news corrects unfair ‘homosexual population’ report”
Matt,
Thank you for getting the story corrected.
The local daily newspaper stopped printing the names of people arrested few years ago.
Paul
Knoxville
By Paul on Jan 1, 2007
Hi Paul… I’m just happy they did it. I’m betting there were other folks who saw the story and wrote or called in to have them change it, because the changes happened pretty quickly without a fight.
By Matt on Jan 1, 2007