KEWI Statement Regarding Westboro Baptist Church Broadcast
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On Sunday November 20th, Razorback football player Garrett Uekman passed away of a fatal heart condition at Washington Regional Medical Center in Fayetteville. Along with the rest of the Razorback Nation, we at Saline River Media cannot even begin to express the sorrow we feel for his family, friends, and the football team.
Late Sunday evening, I was even more saddened and shocked to find out that the Kansas based Westboro Baptist Church has announced plans to protest Garrett’s funeral in Little Rock this coming Monday. Observing the reaction to this on social media, most common sense Arkansans have agreed that these protestors will not be welcomed at his services. Furthermore, most agreed that if there was a way to keep them from coming at all, it should be exercised.
After seeing that Westboro accepted a similar offer from another broadcaster in Oklahoma earlier this week, I decided to extend to them a small allotment of airtime next week, if they would agree not to have a presence at Garrett’s funeral. Earlier this morning, Westboro Baptist Church spokesperson Steve Drain and his elders agreed to accept our offer.
Make no mistake, the ownership and management of KEWI, Saline247.Com, Saline River Media, or former owner Landers Broadcasting does not agree with Westboro’s views. In fact, we fully agree with many of you that the protests of any person’s funeral to promote an extremist agenda are wrong. However, this is America where we are entitled to free speech. We would rather they make their case on our radio station than in front of Garrett’s family, friends, and teammates who simply want to say goodbye. We are simply asking them to do this, rather than witness the flurry of activity created by Westboro’s protests that cannot be ignored by family members and friends during a service. We are hopeful that by making this decision, the attention during Monday’s services will be rightfully focused on honoring the memory of this outstanding young man, and not on activities outside of the funeral.
We hope that you will join us in praying for Garrett, the Uekmans, and for the members of the University of Arkansas family who are continuing to cope with this untimely loss.
Grant Merrill
President
Saline River Media LLC
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