Petitions Call on APT to not air Controversial Documentary
About a dozen people including religious leaders, Alabama Public Television employees and community members delivered two petitions to the APT headquarters in Birmingham Thursday, calling on the Alabama Educational Television Commission to not air a controversial documentary series and to reinstate two top executives.
It’s the latest action prompted by the unexpected firing of former executive director Allan Pizzato and former chief financial officer Pauline Howland. The commission fired the two executives in June with some commissioners stating they wanted to take the network in a new direction. Critics contend the firing came, in part, because Pizzato and Howland refused to air a historic documentary series produced by David Barton.
Barton is an evangelical minister and conservative activist who runs the Texas-based WallBuilders LLC organization. Detractors say his view of history is not accurate.
“David Barton is not in any remote sense a historian,” said Mark Potok, Senior Fellow at the Southern Poverty Law Center. “David Barton is simply a propagandist and a propagandist who lies.”
One petition, which originated with the group Faithful America, says Pizzato and Howland were right to object to airing the Barton series. It calls on the commission to rehire the two executives and “keep Religious Right hate” from airing on APT. Organizers say that petition has 14,000 signatures.
A second petition developed by the progressive organization CREDO action calls on APT to not air any Barton programming. Organizers say 100,000 people signed that petition. Between the two documents, they say 3,250 signatures are from Alabama residents.
“It’s important to recognize that there are that many Alabamians who signed it, but also to recognize what a national issue it’s now become,” said Lutheran pastor Darryl Kiehl. “People who trust public television everywhere are upset that this kind of material could intrude into public television. It’s sort of like the proverbial camel’s nose under the tent.”
Alabama Public Television chief operating officer Charles Grantham accepted the petitions and thanked the petitioners for their support. He said they would be delivered to the commission. Grantham said at this point there are no plans to run the David Barton series.
“As long as I have a voice in it, it will not be aired,” Grantham said. “But the commission does have the authority to fire me, demote me, send me home and do whatever they wish to do.”
Grantham added he believes the majority of APT staff do not have confidence in the commission
Earlier this week Grantham sent a letter to Governor Robert Bentley expressing concerns that the controversy could harm APT.
CORRECTION: Updates the number of Alabama petition signers. Faithful America originally stated 3,500 signatures.
A proposed Bessemer data center faces new hurdles: a ‘road to nowhere’ and the Birmingham darter
With the City Council in Bessemer scheduled to vote Tuesday on a “hyperscale” data center, challenges from an environmental group and the Alabama Department of Transportation present potential obstacles for the wildly unpopular project.
Birmingham Museum of Art’s silver exhibit tells a dazzling global story
Silver and Ceremony is made up of more than 150 suites of silver, sourced from India, and some of their designs.
Mentally ill people are stuck in jail because they can’t get treatment. Here’s what’s to know
Hundreds of people across Alabama await a spot in the state’s increasingly limited facilities, despite a consent decree requiring the state to address delays in providing care for people who are charged with crimes but deemed too mentally ill to stand trial. But seven years since the federal agreement, the problem has only worsened.
Ivey appoints Will Parker to Alabama Supreme Court
Parker fills the court seat vacated by Bill Lewis who was tapped by President Donald Trump for a federal judgeship. The U.S. Senate last month confirmed Lewis as a U.S. district judge.
How Alabama Power kept bills up and opposition out to become one of the most powerful utilities in the country
In one of the poorest states in America, the local utility earns massive profits producing dirty energy with almost no pushback from state regulators.
No more Elmo? APT could cut ties with PBS
The board that oversees Alabama Public Television is considering disaffiliating from PBS, ending a 55-year relationship.
