Good idea, Boston, but bad formating.  ;-)  This might be easier to
read.  I encourage everyone to write ABC first, and then possibly Ms
Behar and Ms Walters, although I don't consider either one of *them* to
be capable of understanding what they've done that was wrong.  They're
like Janet Jackson.  Only worse.

--Mike

email from MPwH:

Each of us at Antopia is very dismayed to hear of the negative remarks
about living with herpes, made on the ABC program "The View" on Friday
13th, their "Valentine" edition. We will be letting ABC know our own
"viewpoint" on this matter and, for your convenience, we are posting a
few different ways that YOU can also voice your opinion as well. The
alleged remarks of Joy Behar, one of the hosts, are hurtful and ooze of
ignorance, and if you do choose to be vocal about this, let's do it in a
positive and educational way, so that we can truly show that the stigma
of herpes is undeserved, and that we are just as deserving of love and a
"normal" life as are people without herpes. We want to educate the
ignorant, not lower ourselves.  We hope that if you do call to make your
feelings known, that you will be sure to include mention of some of the
excellent herpes resources on the Net, such as ASHA (ashastd.org),
GotHerpes.com, and of course MPwH.net.

Ms Behar apparently sounded off about personal ads, picking on one where
the person stated that they had herpes and calling the person a "loser"
and stating how this would be a deal-breaker in any relationship.  One
of the other cohosts apparently pointed out that you could respect the
person's honesty, and Joy Behar just poo-poed that notion.  And the
producers let the whole thing be broadcast!  As we all know, most of us
did not know we were being given herpes at the "magic moment".  Those of
us who choose to participate in our Antopia community at least are being
honest about it.  To be rebuffed in this manner sets things back a LONG
way and quite honestly, encourages people to keep quiet and continue the
spread of herpes and other worse things.

1) Email Joy Behar directly from this page: (click on link or copy and
paste into URL box)

http://abc.go.com/daytime/theview/bios/joy_behar.html

2) Email Barbara Walters directly at:

BarbaraWalters@abcnews.com

3) Email Audience Relations Department at:

netaudr@abc.com

4) Mailing Addresses:

"The View" Production Company
320 West 66th St.
New York, NY 10023

ABC, Inc.
77 West 66th St.
New York, NY 10023

ABC, Inc.
500 S. Buena Vista Street
Burbank, CA 91521-4551
Phone number: (818) 460-7477

5) Also, if you click on this link (or cut and paste into your URL box)
you will reach a page where you can email each of the co-hosts of "The
View."

http://abc.go.com/daytime/theview/index.html

6) Here's a page where you can reach the "producers" of each TV show
(make sure you direct your correspondence to Talk Shows/Daytime TV or
something like that. Plese click on the link or copy and paste in your
URL box:

http://abcnews.go.com/service/help/abccontact.html

We are proud to be a part of the fantastic "H" Community and are honored
to be able to provide a safe and sane place where we can all relate to
each other :)

Your MPwH Team

Today's follow up from MPwH:

The response to our mailing has been overwhelming and many of you have
written to "The View" to express your opinions on the commets made by
Joy Behar.

I wanted to make one minor clarification to the facts as I have them.
We first heard about this situation from an MPwH member who was in the
audience a few days previously and she relayed the comments to us.  It
subsequently turns out that the part where Joy Behar described the
person who was upfront about having herpes in his personal ad as a
"loser" was actually edited out of the broadcast transmission.  The
balance of what was broadcast was as we told you, and we hope that ABC
and the proprietors of "The View" will sit up and take note of the rash
of people who have written in with their opinions.

As someone on our Bulletin Board pointed out, the press makes heroes out
of celebrities who come forward with Hep-C and AIDS, and it is a pity
that the peculiar stigma associated with herpes does not receive the
same empathetic treatment.

We invite you to visit MPwH and see what people are writing on the
Bulletin Boards on this subject.

Your Antopia team.

Thanks!

http://www.yoshi2me.com/advocate.html

Angela
www.yoshi2me.com