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 Entertainment | January 2007 
Church-Owned PBS Station Skips Program on Sex Scandals
 Associated Press
| | Viewers who called Thursday were told that “Hand of God” did not air because it was not provided to the station on time. |
Harlingen, Texas - A public television station owned by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brownsville did not run a “Frontline” program about the child molestation scandal in the Archdiocese of Boston.
The station instead repeated the previous week’s program.
Phil Zimmerman, a promotions assistant for “Frontline,” said Harlingen-based KMBH-TV was one of only two PBS affiliates in the nation not to run “Hand of God.” He said the other station didn’t air the program because of a scheduling conflict.
“To our knowledge, (KMBH) is the only station that did not broadcast it due to content,” Zimmerman said.
Gerald Brazier, a member of the church reform group Call to Action RGV, said people who called KMBH Tuesday were told the station’s general manager, Monsignor Pedro Briseno, wanted to preview “Hand of God” to see if it was appropriate for local viewers.
Viewers who called Thursday were told the program did not air because it was not provided to the station on time.
Carrie Johnson, senior director of Prime-time Publicity for PBS Media Relations in Washington, D.C., said the episode was fed in the standard manner.
KMBH on Friday referred The Associated Press to a response issued by Briseno on the station’s Web site. The response says that “Frontline” changed its programming after the station’s program guide had closed.
A spokeswoman for the Diocese of Brownsville said the Catholic church owns the station but does not influence programming decisions.
Of the 340 stations in the PBS system, only KMBH and KBYU of Provo, Utah, are owned by a religious organization, Johnson said. KBYU is owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. |
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