After numerous attempts, we finally got someone at Bank of America to speak to us about the controversy surrounding the TLC reality show All-American Muslim, and attempts by the Florida Family Association, a Florida right-wing “Christian” group, to peel away the show’s sponsors. Yesterday we reported that although local attention was focused on Lowe’s, which publicly admitted to caving in to the Islamaphobic group, other companies, including Bank of America, were also listed in the group’s press release as having pulled their ads from the show.
Yesterday, we traded e-mails with Bank of America spokesperson Ernie Anguilla whose first response was, “We’re not commenting on this one.” After we asked Anguilla whether the “no comment” was final, in view of BofA’s name being bandied about all over the country as having bowed to a bigoted religious nut group, Anguilla gave another response: “We purchased a single ad and our airing schedule is now complete,” implying that BofA had only planned to buy one ad on the show and the FFA’s campaign had no bearing on the bank’s ads that are no longer airing during All-American Muslim. Exactly how well the bank’s implication reflects reality (the statement could also mean that BofA did respond to the FFA by stopping its advertising) is unclear — as it’s supposed to be, in the wake of such expert word-spinning. More later, when we find more.
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This article appears in Dec 13-19, 2011.
i am glad to see advertiser pulling their ads from this farce of a show. since they edit out anything that makes them look bad and portray a false image i hope tlc shuts this show down i wont watch them ever
^Oh, so NOW you care about what is misrepresented and what is 100% true in your reality programming? Please, give us your real excuse.