Uncensored2008
Libertarian Radical
- Feb 8, 2011
- 110,434
- 39,503
Who the hell is Anita Bryant, is that Kobe's sister? j/k but really who is that
And thanks del for saying you answered then pretending you dont have the time to quote it. neat trick
Seriously?
Anita Bryant was a beauty queen and actress who got involved with the Billy Graham crusades. During the 70's she became the spokes person for the Florida Orange Growers. She got in involved with Falwell's "moral majority" and spoke out against the homosexual movement.
GLAD launched a boycott of Florida Orange Juice to pressure the growers to fire Bryant. The boycott fizzled and had no effect.
BUT then the party media got involved. It was the first time I ever had seen a fully coordinated party blitz to destroy a person. The party newspapers, NY Times and Washington Post ran daily attacks on Bryant. The party newscasters, Peter Jennings and Dan Rather opened every segment with attacks on her, even Johnny Carson did his duty for the party on the Tonight Show.
Sure, we've seen this many times since with people like Sarah Palin, but I had never witness an unrelenting attack like that before that time. The party had denounced her and named her as an enemy, and every single facet of media attacked.
I didn't even agree with her, but I was still shocked that such a thing could happen in a country which I had at the time naively thought was free.