Apr 29, 2005  |  By: DYANA BAGBY  | COMMENTS     

Detroit public television station WTVS Channel 56 recently fired the host of “America’s Black Journal,” a weekly show discussing issues relating to blacks, after he grilled a local pastor for supporting gay marriage bans and other conservative viewpoints.

Darrell Dawsey, a veteran journalist, was fired earlier this month by Jeff Forster, the station’s vice president for production. Dawsey is the author of “Living to Tell About It,” a book about young black men in American society, and co-author with comedian Bernie Mac of the book, “I Ain’t Scared of You.”

Before Dawsey was fired, he had taped an interview with Keith Butler, a former Detroit City Councilmember and founding pastor of Word of Faith International Christian Center Church, based in Southfield, Mich. Butler announced his candidacy April 12 for the Republican U.S. Senate nomination and is a vocal supporter of President Bush’s faith-based initiatives.

Dawsey told the Michigan Citizen in a story published April 20 that station officials used the controversial interview with Butler, which was never aired, as a “convenient excuse” to fire him.

Dawsey also said in the interview that the station did not like his progressive views.

Dawsey could not be reached for comment by press time.

But Forster of WTVS said Dawsey’s firing had nothing to do with Butler.

“We disagreed on the direction of the show,” Forster said. “We didn’t think it should be done the same way. It has nothing do with Keith Butler. [Dawsey] thought it should be one way, I thought it should be another way. We certainly support gay rights at Detroit Public Television.”

Dawsey also told the Michigan Citizen that Butler was reluctant to be on the show and that he also did not want to interview the conservative preacher.

Butler finally agreed to the interview with Dawsey, which centered on Butler’s support for the “Black Contract with America on Moral Values,” a six-issue platform released Feb. 1 in Los Angeles.

The No. 1 point of the contract is supporting the definition of marriage as only between a man and a woman as part of the “reconciliation of family.”

Butler declined comment for this story.

THE STATION WANTED Butler on Dawsey’s show “because he’s in the African-American community and we like to have all points of view,” Forster said.

During the interview with Dawsey, Butler became upset and said he would not answer any more questions. Dawsey then compared Butler to Rev. Frederick “Ike” Eikerenkoetter, a television preacher who has a reputation for pursuing money, according to the Michigan Citizen.

Butler’s Web site states “God wants us healthy and wealthy. If Christians are not healthy and wealthy it is because of our lack of faith and/or knowledge.”

Butler “bristled, looked like he wanted to come after me, hurled a very un-Christian insult at me, threw off his mike,” Dawsey told the Michigan Citizen. “In an effort to avoid telling him what I really think of him and his politics and his cult ministry, I walked off the set and went to my other job.”

The station never aired the interview and it was erased at Butler’s request, according to station officials.

“American Black Journal” is recognized as the nation’s longest-running, locally produced program on African-American issues, according to the station’s Web site.

Currently, guests including John Mason, the public-address announcer for the Detroit Pistons, are hosting the program, Forster said.