WAPA: We Are Not Organizing Anti-Boycott Pages Nor Condoning Homophobic Statements

This afternoon, we received a statement from WAPA in response to our requests for comments about how a staffer for the “SuperXclusivo” show was caught sharing disparaging homophobic conspiracy theories against the Boicot La Comay movement.

We submitted questions for WAPA about the public social media posts of “SuperXclusivo” staffer Dagmarie Berrios, who publicly mocked LGBT activist and boycott supporter Pedro Julio Serrano, and who also posted a pro-Comay Twitter pic from inside WAPA’s building. Since we raised these questions, the social media profiles in question have been deleted from Facebook and Twitter. You can see the screen captures here (English version, Spanish version).

Besides telling us that WAPA president Joe Ramos is not giving interviews “at this time,” here is what a WAPA spokesperson shared with us:

“WAPA is not organizing the anti-boycott page. We do not condone derogatory language of any kind. We were made aware of the postings by an alleged employee of SuperXclusivo late last week. Today is the first day the SuperXclusivo staff is back from their holiday vacation, and we are working with them to look into the matter.”

“Wapa no maneja ni controla la página anti-boicot. No apoyamos ni toleramos el uso de ningún tipo de lenguaje despectivo. Nos enteramos de comentarios escritos alegadamente por una empleada de SúperXclusivo la semana pasada. Hoy, la producción y empleados del programa regresaron de sus vacaciones del periodo navideño y estamos trabajando con ellos para investigar este asunto.”

We have asked WAPA to update us on any further developments, since there are questions that they have not answered yet. Here are three topics and developments we have shared with them:

• We were approached for an interview by a Facebook profile claiming to be Kobbo Santarrosa, the actor who portrays La Comay on the air. We have record of that conversation, even though the profile is no longer on Facebook.
• There are allegations that people associated with “SuperXclusivo” have been involved with the administration of anti-Serrano and pro-Comay pages on Facebook.
• In addition, WAPA’s statement did not mention whether Ramos has talked with leaders of the boycott, which he promised he would do so during a HuffPost Live segment on December 20.