人兽性交

Lord help us. Alabama Public Television (APT), a voice of reason in a state that often seems to have very little, is apparently succumbing to the crazies.

Last week, the two top executives of the network were summarily fired by the Alabama Educational Television Commission, APT鈥檚 governing body, after they resisted an effort by a new commissioner to air DVDs produced by a far-right theocrat who has been roundly condemned by historians. In the days that followed, three members of a foundation set up to raise money for APT also resigned.

The videos were produced by , an evangelical propagandist who claims falsely that America was founded as a Christian nation and has also become Glenn Beck鈥檚 unofficial 鈥� and completely untrained 鈥� 鈥渉istorian.鈥� The DVDs were suggested by commissioner Rodney Herring, an Opelika-based chiropractor who was appointed to the panel last year and elected its secretary in January.

Immediately after meeting in executive session June 12, commissioners ordered APT Executive Director Allan Pizzato and his deputy, Pauline Howland, to clear out their desks and leave APT鈥檚 Birmingham headquarters. Pizzato had been APT executive director for 12 years; Howland was his deputy director and the network鈥檚 chief financial officer.

Pizzato would not comment on the reasons for the firing, other than to say commissioners were seeking to go in 鈥渁 new direction.鈥� But Howland, in an interview with Current.org, a news service of the American University鈥檚 School of Communication, said that Pizzato and his staff had 鈥済rave concerns鈥� about airing the videos, which strongly advocate a religious interpretation of the past that historians say is simply wrong. She said she was 鈥渂affled鈥� by the firings but recalled Pizatto asking his staff for advice on how to respond to Herring鈥檚 proposal.

Commission Chairman Ferris Stephens disputed Current鈥檚 report in an interview with The Associated Press, but gave no specifics. Herring, for his part, claimed that disagreement over the Barton DVDs played an 鈥渁t best minimal鈥� role in the firings, which he described as part of an overall restructuring effort. 鈥淲e believe it to be a positive change,鈥� wrote another commissioner, conservative talk radio host J. Holland, in response to AP鈥檚 queries about the firings. 鈥淪imple as that.鈥�

As simple as that? Call me a conspiracy theorist, but I don鈥檛 believe it.

Stephens told the AP that Barton鈥檚 videos had been discussed in the last meeting before the one that produced the firings last week. He said there was another item related to Barton鈥檚 organization, WallBuilders, on the agenda for last week鈥檚 meeting, but that the commission didn鈥檛 get to that item before adjourning. Herring, for his part, denied knowing that Pizzato and Howland had any opinion at all about the DVDs, although Howland told Current that Pizzato had made it clear that he thought the films were 鈥渋nappropriate鈥� for APT.

Why is it that Pizzato and Howland were fired just as the matter seemed to be coming to a head? Why won鈥檛 Stephens and the other commissioners cough up the real reason for the firings, if it wasn鈥檛 what seems obvious? When the AP story ran last week, Herring was quoted saying the station may indeed broadcast some of the Barton videos. In fact, he said the commission had consulted attorneys about that possibility. That鈥檚 a funny thing to do if you鈥檙e just deciding whether to show a film on public television, not making controversial personnel decisions.

The sad truth is, this kind of extremism is getting to be par for the course in Alabama. We passed the immigrant-bashing H.B. 56 and, when legal problems with it came up, our legislators responded by actually making the draconian bill even worse. Last month, the same legislature, after the John Birch Society warned hysterically about a United Nations global sustainability plan, actually passed a law saying that property here cannot be confiscated as part of Agenda 21 鈥� even though that entirely voluntary plan does not and could not require that. One of our current congressmen even claimed a few years back that he knew of 17 鈥渟ocialists鈥� in the U.S. Congress 鈥� although, like Joe McCarthy, he declined to name them.

Why does Rodney Herring want to show Barton鈥檚 videos? He isn鈥檛 saying. But what Barton has to say should make Alabamians鈥� hair stand on end.

Barton doesn鈥檛 only not believe in global warming 鈥� he thinks reducing carbon dioxide emissions would actually devastate the planet. Barton fought to have the names of Martin Luther King Jr. and labor activist Cesar Chavez removed from public school textbooks. He says God set the borders of nations, so immigration reform is unnecessary. He argues that homosexuality should be regulated because gay people 鈥渄ie decades earlier than heterosexuals鈥� and more than half of all gays have had more than 500 sex partners 鈥� both falsehoods.

It isn鈥檛 only liberals who dislike Barton. Derek Davis, director of the J.M. Dawson Institute on Church-State Studies at Baylor University, says 鈥渁 lot of what he presents is a distortion of the truth.鈥� J. Brent Walker, executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee, says his writings are 鈥渓aced with exaggerations, half-truths and misstatements of fact.鈥� Mark Lilla, a scholar who has taught at University of Chicago and Columbia University, says Barton鈥檚 work is 鈥渟chlock history written by [a] religious propagandist鈥� and uses 鈥渟elective quotations out of context.鈥�

But none of this apparently came up when the commissioners, in their great wisdom, decided to fire Allan Pizzato and Pauline Howland. Instead, it looks like Barton鈥檚 backers succeeded, by a reported 5-2 vote, in silencing their own eminently sensible executives, and then refusing to come clean with the public about their action.

Once again, Alabama will be the poorer. Lord help us.