rTîTïïîTlneivs
t was supposed to be lesbian entertainers
day on The Roseanne Show — and it was in
most other parts of the country— but not
in Portland.
The program, which was taped at the
end of March and aired nationwide May 27, fea­
tured, among others, lesbian comedians
Suzanne Westenhoefer and Kate Clinton, the
singing group the Murmurs, and Chastity Bono.
The Roseanne Show airs on Portlands KGW-
TV weekdays at 3 p.m.
Portland-based
talent
agent Tam Martin, who repre­
sents Westenhoefer, says when
she sat down to watch the
episode via KGW, she was
chagrined to see it was a no go.
“It was a [RoseanneJ show
about women athletes,” she
says, adding that the television list­
ings indicated Westenhoefer and company
were to be the guests that day.
Martin says she knows the episode aired else­
where because she’s spoken with people who
watched it.
So what’s the deal in the City of Roses?
Seems Brenda Buratti, KGW ’s programming
director, took issue with some of the episode’s
content and decided to pre-empt it.
“Kids are home at that hour,” she says,
adding that Roseanne is a program which, in her
view, is more designed for the late-night hours.
“This isn’t the first time we’ve pre-empted
the show,” Buratti stresses. “We’ve done it three
or four times.”
Other Roseanne episodes to get the KGW
bump include one that offered pole-dancing tips
and another touted as a “Fashion Show for Pros­
titutes.”
•
PATHOLOGY
•
Rose City's KGW-TV cans lesbian episode of The Roseanne Show,
KOIN-TV draws fire from concerned queers by Inga Soren sen
None of the prior quashed episodes dealt
with gay or lesbian issues, says Buratti.
Given that, what was the problem
with this particular install­
ment?
Buratti says she thought
the Portland audience
would react “very negative­
ly” to parts of the program
that she construed as "pro­
moting lesbianism.”
ÌO W
It wasn’t the topic or
the guests who gave her
pause, she says. Instead, it was Roseanne and the
show’s producers who did some things that
Buratti felt were “inappropriate for the Portland
audience.”
For example, says Buratti, the show featured
a list of the “Top 10 Reasons for Becoming a Les­
bian,” and a sapphic version of the / Love Lucy
opening— you know, the heart thing— which
instead said “1 Love Lesbians.”
Says Martin: “It makes me wonder what else
I don’t get to see!”
O
ver at Portland’s KOIN-TV, meanwhile, it
seems Lars Larson, who hosts “The
Buzz"— billed as “a double shot of opinion
espresso”— during the local newscast, is upset­
ting some viewers.
"Lars Larson is entitled to his opinion,” says
POLARITY
•
Martin Mullins, an up-until-now KOIN viewer
who recently called the station and Just Out to
voice his concerns.
In a recent installment, Mullins says, Larson
was discussing legislation currently in the Ore­
gon House that could severely restrict civil
rights for gay and lesbian citizens. He says Lar­
son took the position that if same-sex couples
were allowed to marry, who would be next?
Polygamists? Fathers and daughters?
“Really ridiculous analogies,” says
Mullins.
Still, that wasn’t what got him so
peeved. He says Larson’s only guest
was one of the sponsors of the
anti-gay bill.
“So it was the two of them.
There was nobody with an oppos­
ing view,” Mullins says, adding,
“What about fairness?"
Furthermore, KOIN has regular­
ly aired clips of Focus on the Family’s
James Dobson giving advice on family
life during its morning news program.
As one letter writer to Just Out protested:
"For months, anchors Elaine Murphy and Craig
Cheatham have [introduced) his packaged video
clips as actual news, with no warning that what
follows is commentary from a far-right political
organization with repulsive misogynist and
homophobic views.”
y
positive note, The Oregonian
( V / ca came a more
out strongly against House Joint Res­
olution 29, which would write into the Oregon
constitution a definition of marriage as the
union between a man and a woman— even
though state statute already stipulates as much.
The measure would also prohibit state and
local governments from providing gay and les­
bian employees the same benefits provided to
married couples.
The May 27 editorial, titled “Bride of Mea­
sure 9,” starts off: “The need to
confine those home-wreck­
ing gays and lesbians
must
have
over­
whelmed the Legisla­
ture’s defenders of
decency.
Since
there’s no com­
pelling state inter­
est here, that’s the
most
rational
explanation for the
leaders of the Ore­
gon House pushing a
wholly
unnecessary
defense-of-marriage law."
The piece concludes:
“Lawmakers who support HJR29
won’t do anything to protect the institution of
marriage, but they will show themselves to be
enemies of equal protection for all citizens. Now
that would be indecent.”
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W ar of the R oses
Just Out’s phone call to KOIN went unan­
swered, but the station’s Internet site invites
viewers to e-mail comments about “The Buzz”
directly to Larson at lars@koin.com.
■
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