NYC Pride announced that WABC-TV will be its official television partner and broadcast the 48th NYC LGBT Pride March on Sunday, June 25, 2017. The NYC Pride March started in 1970 as a civil rights demonstration on the 1-year anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising. Today, it is one of the world’s best known LGBT events, with 350 marching contingents and more than 2 million spectators in 2016.
WABC-TV will broadcast the annual trek down Fifth Avenue from Noon – 3 p.m. on Channel 7 and also stream the event on its website, abc7ny.com. This important new partnership comes at a time of political and social turmoil in many communities. “We’re excited to have Tri-state viewers welcome us into their homes for what will be an unprecedented opportunity for the LGBT community’s collective voices to be heard,” said Chris Frederick, NYC Pride Managing Director.
WABC-TV joins a vast array of nonprofits, community organizations, corporate partners, small businesses, political candidates and activists who participate each year. “Channel 7 prides itself on being able to bring important, local celebrations of community spirit to as many people as possible,” said Dave Davis, President and General Manager of WABC-TV. “We look forward to making this year’s March the best ever.”
In addition to the live broadcast, the station will also provide coverage of other essential NYC Pride events: PrideFest – the annual LGBT street festival, Pride Luminaries Brunch, the Rally, and Pride Island – a new three-day LGBT cultural experience.
This year’s theme, “We Are Proud,” speaks to the LGBT community’s unwavering ability to rise and be proud, even in the face of the existing political environment. The American Civil Liberties Union, Brooke Guinan (trans woman, FDNY firefighter), Krishna Stone (Director of Community Relations, GMHC), and Geng Le (Founder, Blued) will helm 2017’s iconic March.
LeAnn Rimes has been announced to perform at the LGBT street festival, and Grammy Winner Nelly Furtado is set to perform at Pride Island event, both on Sunday, June 25.
Fox News has finally issued an apology for pushing a false story about the death of DNC staffer Seth Rich last summer.
On May 16, a story was posted on the Fox News website on the investigation into the 2016 murder of DNC Staffer Seth Rich. The article was not initially subjected to the high degree of editorial scrutiny we require for all our reporting. Upon appropriate review, the article was found not to meet those standards and has since been removed.
We will continue to investigate this story and will provide updates as warranted.
Sean Hannity has made the story his current obsession. In doing so, many feel he’s using his airtime with this story to deflect from President Trump’s ongoing FBI investigation.
But in perpetuating the story, he’s basically terrorizing the Rich family.
The Rich family wrote an op-ed for the Washington Post today about their loss and ongoing tragedy.
The op-ed read in part:
Still, conservative news outlets and commentators continue, day after painful day, to peddle discredited conspiracy theories that Seth was killed after having provided WikiLeaks with emails from the DNC. Those theories, which some reporters have since retracted, are baseless, and they are unspeakably cruel.
Seth’s death has been turned into a political football. Every day we wake up to new headlines, new lies, new factual errors, new people approaching us to take advantage of us and Seth’s legacy. It just won’t stop. The amount of pain and anguish this has caused us is unbearable. With every conspiratorial flare-up, we are forced to relive Seth’s murder and a small piece of us dies as more of Seth’s memory is torn away from us.
Earlier today, Media Matters issued a call to action asking folks to reach out to Hannity’s advertisers about his terrible behavior.
Hannity is now freaking out:
IMPORTANT! Mediamatters is trying to silence me, get me fired, pressure my advertising on radio & TV. Liberal Fascism. I need your help!!
I said publicly over and over to the Rich Family they are in my thoughts and prayers. I m trying to find the truth as the Mom Dad bro asked https://t.co/op11hVRlWW
Two men received 83 lashes with a cane in Indonesia’s ultra-conservative Aceh province today for the crime of having consensual sex in the privacy of their home.
The men, aged 20 and 23, became the target of vigilantes when in March neighbors barged into an apartment, harassing the men, filming them with the intention of shaming them publicly.
This is the first incidence of gay men being caned under Sharia law in the province.
The public torture began at 9AM local time today and ended four hours later.
Throughout the punishment, locals cheered the canings.
One of the men was in his final year of medical school, but his hope of becoming a doctor is gone now. The school has kicked him out.
The student told the BBC, “I just want the caning to be over and to go back to my family, I have been deeply depressed. I am trying to pull myself out of a deep black hole.”
MSNBC finished first in the key 25-54 demographic and in total viewers against its cable news rivals last week for the first time in its 21-year existence, according to Nielsen Research.
Overall, MSNBC finished second in all of basic cable, only falling to TNT, which aired several NBA playoff games.
Fox News finished third in primetime for the first time in nearly 17 years.
For the week of May 15, MSNBC’s weekday prime averaged 2.440 million total viewers, with Fox second with 2.405 million and CNN third with 1.649 million.
For adults aged 25-54, MSNBC averaged 611,000 viewers. CNN finished second with 589,000 and Fox third with 497,000.
The big winners?
“The Rachel Maddow Show” at 9PM was #1 most-watched nonsports program for the week in all of basic cable.
The 8PM time slot was won by CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360.”
The third place winner for the week was Lawrence O’Donnell at 10PM with “The Last Word.” Even with his strong ratings, though, O’Donnell’s contract is set to expire June 4 and is rumored to be on the chopping block.
The last time Fox News finished in 3rd place for the week (Monday-Friday) goes all the way back to June of 2000.
Apparently, when then-FBI Director James Comey failed to comply with President Trump’s request to “drop” the investigation into former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn’s communication with Russia, Trump turned to the Director of National Intelligence and the National Security Agency Director for similar favors.
In separate appeals, Trump asked them to publicly deny the existence of any evidence of collusion during the 2016 election.
The President’s treatment of Comey has raised questions about whether he abused his powers by seeking to discredit the FBI investigation or risked giving the impression that he was obstructing justice, a debate now given new life by the latest revelations.
Trump spoke to Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and National Security Agency Director Adm. Michael Rogers after Comey revealed in March that the bureau had launched a probe into alleged collusion. Both Coats and Rogers were uncomfortable with the nature of the President’s request and refused to comply, the sources with knowledge of the situation told CNN.
Coats declined to comment during a Senate armed services committee hearing Tuesday, that had been previously scheduled.
The White House declined to comment on the details of Trump’s contacts with Rogers and Coats.
The revelations deepen the intrigue over alleged links between Trump’s campaign and Russia, and follow the President’s firing of Comey and subsequent statement he sacked him because of the Russia probe.
After the first story regarding Trump and Comey, you could almost buy into a “well, he’s new with governmental politics.” “He’s a little naive about how these things work.”
But bouncing from Comey to Coats to Rogers, clearly Trump knew he was asking something far outside normal protocol.
The sound of explosions thundered through a concert arena in Manchester, England, on Monday night just as a performance by the pop star Ariana Grande was ending. The police reported multiple deaths and injuries as the panicky crowd of spectators, which included children, fled.
There was no immediate word from the police on the cause, but it immediately evoked the terrorist attacks in Paris in November of 2015, which included a deadly assault inside a concert arena where the Eagles of Death Metal had been playing.
People at the concert at the Manchester Arena said they heard what sounded like explosions at the end of the show.
One concertgoer, Sasina Akhtar, told The Manchester Evening News that there had been an explosion at the back of the arena after the last song. “We saw young girls with blood on them, everyone was screaming and people were running,” she said.
Preliminary reports indicate 19 dead and 50 injured.
It’s that time of the year when “Plebes,” having reached the end of their first year at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, must climb the lard-laden Herndon Monument and replace an underclassman’s hat at the top of the monument with an upperclassman’s hat.
Only then can they begin their summer.
This year’s class completed the task in 2 hours, 21 minutes and 21 seconds.
Shirtless, hunky Naval Academy freshman climbing on each other. What’s not to like? 😉
