One Million Moms: Victory Over Oxygen

One Million Moms is claiming another win.

Dear Joe, VICTORY! After tens of thousands of One Million Moms members contacted NBCUniversal on Monday concerning their new reality show, the network announced yesterday that they have halted any plans to continue the "Babies' Mamas" project. The network contemplated airing a controversial reality special titled "All My Babies' Mamas," but Oxygen, owned by NBCUniversal, has given it the axe after hearing from you. In a statement issued Tuesday, Oxygen said, "As part of our development process, we have reviewed casting and decided not to move forward with the special." The cast included a man who fathered eleven children by ten different mothers, but the show has now been dropped before the first episode aired. Praise the Lord!

What One Million Shrews conveniently fails to mention is that the show was also the subject of a massive complaint campaign launched by the civil rights group Colors Of Change, which is headed by former GLAAD executive Rashad Robinson.  Today the Washington Post credited Colors Of Change for the programming decision made by Oxygen Media.

The overwhelming response from more than 40,000 ColorOfChange.org members, combined with widespread outrage from the African American community, sent a clear message that exploitative television shows like “All My Babies’ Mamas” are unacceptable. The national petition claimed that images like that of the show’s main character, Atlanta-based rapper Shawty Lo, present black men and women as hyper-sexual and unfit parents, and can result in real-world consequences for our families — less attention from doctors, harsher sentencing by judges, lower likelihood of being hired or admitted to school, lower odds of getting loans and a higher likelihood of getting shot by police.