Lafayette Democrats Win Free TV Time for Healthcare Reform

Big developments in the Lafayette Democratic Executive Committee's objection to KLFY TV 10's decision to air a rebroadcast of an all-Republican healthcare forum that originated in Shreveport on Wednesday night. KLFY ran the Shreveport forum on Thursday afternoon at  4 p.m.,  despite a formal letter of objection from the Lafayette DPEC that was delivered by hand on Wednesday and by registered letter on Thursday morning. The original story is here.

The program was so egregiously partisan that it apparently embarrassed the management of KLFY.

Thursday evening around 6 p.m. the Lafayette DPEC received an offer from KLFY for one hour of free air time to conduct a healthcare reform panel from the Democratic perspective.

On Friday, the Lafayette DPEC, through our chairman John Bernhardt, accepted the offer.

Details will be finalized next week, but the station has asked for about 30 days to work out the logistics.

This is a huge win for Lafayette Democrats! But, it is also a huge win for those of us who believe that main stream media has an obligation to treat issues of public importance in an even-handed way.

That was the point we made in our letter to KLFY.

It is the point I believe we should press on the other stations that carried the GOP forum to carry the Democratic program that will originate in Lafayette. They should also be obligated to carry that program in the same time slot that they carried the GOP program.

In the case of KTBS in Shreveport, that would be in prime time.

More on this next week as details become available.

Good things happen when you stand up for fairness.