California Newspaper Confuses Bigotry with “Family Values”

The Asracadero Gazette has lost about 11 employees and 200 subscribers in the wake of their recent cancellation of a calendar listing for a local Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) meeting. Publisher Steve Martin and editor Ron Bast both quit after the Gazette’s owners ordered them not to publish any materials that favorably portrayed gays, lesbians, or abortion. The decision has sparked protest in the community that eventually forced the Gazette to slightly revise its policy, allowing letters to the editor in favor of the gay community and abortion. Columnist Anne Calhoun quit the paper, calling it a newsletter with a political agenda rather than an outlet for journalism. At the heart of the case is the Gazette’s supposed commitment to “family values.”