MEDIA WATCH | STERLING VINEYARDS

Sterling Vineyards: There Is No Room for Hate

Pulling your support from this program—and a group who finds this kind of defamation worthy of an award—takes you out of the position of having to explain why.

August 11, 2020

Tim Ford

CEO

Treasury Wine Estates

tim.ford@tweglobal.com

Dear Mr. Ford,

Amidst the correctly aimed #StopHateForProfit stand that many strong companies are taking against social media outlets, there is one organization that, for some reason, thinks they are above it all: the Television Academy.

By supporting this year’s Emmy program with your marketing dollars, you are directly supporting a show, mystifyingly nominated, which incites hate and has resulted in death threats, acts of violence and contributed to at least one murder of a church member.

Leah Remini and her “show” has done just that. Its entire purpose is to incite hatred against Scientologists, Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses. She openly admits to not vetting her sources, but what does something like the truth matter when the goal is hatred?

Your customers are members of these faiths. What are you going to tell them during this time of “we need to do better”?

Pulling your support from this program—and a group who finds this kind of defamation worthy of an award—takes you out of the position of having to explain why.

And as we’ve seen in recent months, it doesn’t take much to agitate those with hatred in their hearts to act violently against innocent people.

Now is the time to do the right thing and remove your financial support from The Emmys.

There is no room for hate.

Best,

Michael Duff