Chad Griffin, President of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) sent out a message to thousands of HRC members and supporters urging them to send a letter to NBC.
Chad Griffin, President of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) sent out a message to thousands of HRC members and supporters urging them to send a letter to NBC, asking them to dedicate some of their Olympic coverage to the human rights crisis in Russia.
NBC producer Jim Bell has said the network won’t “shy away from reporting anything” around LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender) issues in Russia. HRC wants to make sure that a portion of NBC’s 1,500 hours of programming is dedicated to LGBT rights in Russia.
“NBC has given plenty of indications that they’ll do the right thing. They sent me a letter that makes it clear that the Russian law is in violation of the International Olympic Committee rules,” says Griffin in his letter to supporters. “They even brought openly-gay U.S. Sochi delegation members Billie Jean King, Brian Boitano and Caitlin Cahow on The Today Show to talk about the anti-LGBT situation in Russia.”
Though the coverage so far has given the organization hope that the network will “do what they have to do to report stories as they develop”, it’s still not clear exactly what that means, or what NBC’s coverage will be.
“HRC has been working on this issue for months – from our’Love Conquers Hate’ campaign raising funds for Russian human rights groups, to pressuring the International Olympic Committee and the corporate sponsors of the Olympics to speak out, to months of pressure on NBC. It all comes down to the next few days,” says Griffin.
To send your letter to NBC, or for more information on HRC’s initiative, visit http://bit.ly/1kUbwqj.
