Last year, Candace Cameron Bure kicked off her first holiday season as the Chief Creative Officer for Great American Family by stirring up a massive controversy with her remarks on how the network will “keep traditional marriage at the core.” The situation got so bad that even Bure’s Full House co-star Jodie Sweetin spoke out against the anti-LGBTQ stance.
With the backlash seemingly in the rearview, Great American Family CEO Bill Abbott made some odd and weirdly late remarks about the controversy. Notably, he attempted to distance the network and Bure’s comments despite the fact that she was speaking as the CCO of the company.
Via Variety:
We’re proud to have her here, and she works so well with the team alongside me, and we have a really talented and dedicated team that’s committed to high-quality faith and family content. In terms of her personal views, it’s like the disclaimer you see at the end of a movie or a series that says, “The views reflected here are not necessarily those of the company.” Candace has such a high profile that when she speaks, she’ll speak on a lot of topics, and she has a wonderful podcast that is fantastic. But when she speaks on that, she’s not speaking on behalf of Great American Media.
Naturally, Variety was confused by this stance because, again, Bure is the CCO of Great American Family. Abbott’s follow-up response didn’t help.
“Candace speaks for her own brand when she is talking to the world at large,” he said. “For me, all I do — all I live, breathe and sleep — is Great American Media. So when I talk about something, it’s very different, because I’m representing the company and only the company. When Candace talks about something, obviously she has a lot of other audiences and platforms.”
At this point, you might be thinking that Great American Family must have a different view than Bure and is open to including LGBTQ characters if her views are entirely her own. Guess again!
“Certainly, it will be something to think about,” Abbott said after being asked if the network would feature same-sex couples. “I think right now, we’re just so focused on profitability, being successful, doing the right thing for our shareholders, making sure we’re integrating PureFlix within our family. We have so many things on our agenda that we need to stay focused on the core part of the business right now and then down the road, as our world grows and changes and becomes different, then we’ll see.”
(Via Variety)