GLAAD blasts The View in full page ad in Variety

In a full page ad running in today’s Variety Magazine, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) the Black AIDS Institute and the National Black Justice Coalition (NBJC) call on the ABC Television Network and its popular morning program The View, to correct misinformation put forth on the June 22 edition of the show.


The ad reads in part, "On June 22, ABC’s The View aired inaccurate information about HIV, blaming African American gay and bisexual men for increased HIV rates among straight African American women. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has publicly disproven this myth. And since June 22, thousands of people have written to ABC, asking that The View Provide correct information to viewers. Unfortunately, those requests have been greeted with silence from both ABC and The View."
The Variety ad placement comes nearly three weeks after inaccurate comments during The View’s "Hot Topics" segment.  That day’s discussion centered on the FDA’s ban that prevents gay and bisexual men from donating blood.

"ABC now knows that it put out dangerous and false information about HIV/AIDS on its airwaves, yet the network still refuses to take responsibility," said Rashad Robinson, GLAAD’s Senior Director of Programs. "ABC and The View’s refusal to correct these inaccurate remarks comes at the expense of African American gay and bisexual men, straight African American women and millions of audience members who need facts about HIV/AIDS, not myths.  It’s extremely disheartening to see a program that usually covers our community with respect, unwilling to correct this serious lapse in editorial judgment."
See the segment, view transcript excerpts and read about GLAAD’s Call to Action on this issue. Over three-thousand people have sent letters to ABC urging an apology and correction.