MORE ON THE SHEPHERD STORY
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Focus on the Family's CitizenLink reports that NBC refuses to apologize for Katie Curic's 1998 reporting of the Matthew Shepherd story in light of an ABC News feature exposing the killer's real motivation for their crime:
NBC News has refused to apologize to Christians maligned by "Today" show host Katie Couric's insinuation that biblical teachings on homosexuality in part prompted the 1998 murder of gay teenager Matthew Shepard.
In a Dec. 8 letter to Focus on the Family, a network executive rejected the ministry's call for an apology, made in light of a recent news report on ABC's "20/20" that debunked the longstanding notion that the attack on Shepard was a homophobic "hate crime."
That report, in which the men who killed Shepard said they singled him out because they needed drug money and thought he'd make an easy robbery victim, prompted Focus President Don Hodel to ask NBC to disavow Couric's anti-Christian comments in the days after the crime. On Oct. 12, 1998, she asked the then-governor of Wyoming, where the attack took place, whether "conservative political organizations like the Christian Coalition, the Family Research Council and Focus on the Family are contributing to this anti-homosexual atmosphere" by suggesting that gays can change their sexual orientation." That prompts people to say," Couric added in her question, " 'If I meet someone who is homosexual, I'm going to take action and try to convince them or try to harm them.' "
NBC News Executive Producer for Broadcast Standards David McCormick defended Couric's comments in denying Focus' request for an apology, noting that in the days after the critically injured Shepard was found tied to a fencepost, "there was a great deal of speculation that the crime may have been motivated by hate."
—Kenneth Tanner6:00 PM
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