18-Month Campaign Led By GLAAD, NHMC Results in Removal of Hateful Program From Daytime Broadcast Los Angeles, CA - August 9, 2012 - The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) and the National Hispanic Media Coalition (NHMC) today announced that "José Luis Sin Censura," produced and broadcast by Liberman Broadcasting, Inc. (LBI) on the EstrellaTV network, has been permanently removed from the broadcast schedule. NHMC and GLAAD were informed of this development in a letter from Winter Horton, LBI's Chief Operating Officer. The removal of the show comes after a campaign that included 18 months of sustained effort from GLAAD and NHMC, during which dozens of organizations and thousands of individuals were mobilized, many via a petition at Change.org. At the outset of the campaign, GLAAD and NHMC filed a nearly 200-page formal complaint with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and contacted dozens of major advertisers whose ads appeared during the program. The campaign resulted in an ongoing investigation by the FCC and a number of advertisers withdrawing their support of the show including AT&T, Time Warner Cable, and Western Dental. To view video footage and photos of the delivery of the Change.org petition calling on LBI to take action regarding the show visit: http://www.glaad.org/jlsc Recent episodes featured audiences chanting "puta" ("Whore! Whore! Whore!") at a female guest. In addition, audience members were allowed to chant "puto! puto! puto!" (or "f*ggot") at a man they thought to be gay. In the past, the show often included the words "pinche" ("f*cking" in English) and "culero" ("assf*cker"), anti-gay language, including epithets such as "puto," "maricón," "joto" and "puñal" (or "f*ggot"), anti-Latino slurs, such as "mojado" ("wetback"), and anti-female terms such as "piruja" and "puta" ("whore"). The program frequently featured blatant nudity and female guests were shown in violent fights. Guests and audience members were often incited to engage in verbal and physical attacks. Many episodes showed the audience standing and shouting anti-gay epithets and profanity at guests. "This is a hard-fought victory for tolerance, inclusion, and decency and it is further proof that programming that degrades or threatens the safety of entire segments of our population has no place in this country. For broadcasters that choose this path, this will always be the outcome. Spreading hatred and bigotry is not a sustainable business model," said Alex Nogales, President & CEO of NHMC. "Content that appeared on this show fueled violence against our community, which is growing and impacting so many families. Thanks to thousands of LGBT, Latino Americans and allies, LBI took action," said GLAAD President Herndon Graddick. "The company should now join so many other Spanish-language broadcasters in presenting stories that inspire and create change, not fuel a climate of intolerance and violence." The National Coalition of Anti Violence Projects this year found that the overall number of hate murders of members of the LGBT community has increased by 11%. In the letter received by the organizations earlier this week, Winter Horton, COO of LBI, pledged to work together with GLAAD and NHMC to "create positive experiences for the LGBT, Latino and Spanish-speaking communities" in the future.]]>
