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Update on Firing of PBS Show Host, Melanie Martinez
PBS has received over 1,700 emails and more than 5,000 people have signed online petitions (as of August 3rd) protesting the firing of children’s show host Melanie Martinez from “The Good Night Show”. Martinez, who disclosed the nature of the her PSA spoof videos to PBS on July 14th and was fired a week later, filmed the videos seven years earlier, and never expected them to gain the exposure that they did on online video sites such as YouTube. The New York Times spoke with Martinez’s partner in conceiving the videos that were first seen on technicalvirgin.com, a site that now sits dormant, with only a link to the online petition:
David Mack, the co-writer, producer and director of the videos, said in an interview that he removed them in 2004. “When we heard Melanie was auditioning for a PBS kids show, we thought it was not the sort of thing that we would want out there,” he said, adding that “it was an old joke that had run its course.”
PBS ombudsman Michael Getler, who serves as an independent critic of the network, didn’t exactly take a pro-PBS stance in response to the numerous complaints on the firing, saying “It would have been a greater bow to freedom of expression and against guilt by association for the program and PBS to stick by her.” He added, “It struck me as ironic that at the very time PBS is fighting against new Federal Communications Commission rulings about indecency that the network argues will inhibit documentary filmmakers and freedom of speech, it delivers a subjective punishment to a popular performer for something done seven years ago that was clearly a spoof.”
[tags]melanie martinez, technical virgin[/tags]
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