Dallas morning show host Amy Kushnir stormed off the set of KTXD-TV’s “The Broadcast” on Tuesday following a heated discussion of whether ESPN should have broadcast Michael Sam kissing his boyfriend on hearing the news he had been drafted by the St. Louis Rams.
“When parents do not have a choice about whether or not they want their children to see this, it is wrong,” said Kushnir. “I don’t call it a moment of celebration, it’s being pushed in faces. I wanna say get a room. I don’t want to see that. I don’t want to see cake in your face, kissing each other.”
Kushner asserted that “ESPN would not have aired any of it had he been kissing his wife,” and was not the only host that objected to the kiss.
Host Suzie Humphreys (second from right) declared, “I’m shaking my head because people don’t have a right to express how they feel if it offends somebody else,” seemingly unaware that she and Kushnir were doing just that on live television.
Hosts Lisa Pineiro (far right) and Courtney Kerr (far left), star of Bravo’s “Courtney Loves Dallas,” tried to defend the broadcast, although Kerr was often confused between racism and homophobia, or at least avoided making that distinction about her co-hosts.
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Update:
On Wednesday afternoon, KTXD-TV issued this statement:
“The debate between our four hosts [on Tuesday] got unusually heated and ended with one host – Amy Kushnir – leaving the set. Ms. Kushnir’s action was a signal of frustration on her part, as she felt she was unable to express her own views correctly.
“While KTXD-TV neither supports nor condemns opinions shared by our hosts, we stand behind both ‘The Broadcast’ and Ms. Kushnir. We wholeheartedly stand behind their right to voice their opinions as an integral part of our program. We have clearly ruffled feathers, and in doing so we hope we have advanced the dialogue on this important issue.”
