After receiving an offer to be on a nationally syndicated radio talk show, Topeka's Westboro Baptist Church won't picket the funerals of any of the six victims of Saturday's shooting rampage in Tucson, Ariz., after all, a church spokeswoman said Wednesday.
Shirley Phelps-Roper, a church spokeswoman, said the pickets had been called off after radio talk show host Mike Gallagher offered to have her on his radio program Monday.
After receiving an offer to be on a nationally syndicated radio talk show, Topeka's Westboro Baptist Church won't picket the funerals of any of the six victims of Saturday's shooting rampage in Tucson, Ariz., after all, a church spokeswoman said Wednesday.
Shirley Phelps-Roper, a church spokeswoman, said the pickets had been called off after radio talk show host Mike Gallagher offered to have her on his radio program Monday.
Phelps-Roper said the decision boiled down to the church being able to communicate its message with as wide an audience as possible. She said Gallagher's radio audience is estimated to be about 10 million people.
Phelps-Roper's oldest daughters, Megan Phelps-Roper and Rebekah Phelps-Roper, also will travel to New York and be at Gallagher's studio.
Phelps-Roper said her daughters could be on the program, which can be heard at www.mikeonline.com.
No question its a painful process, Gallagher told the Associated Press of allowing Phelps-Roper on his show. Believe me, Im doing this show with a heavy heart. I dont like the idea of giving them the satisfaction of this, but I believe my radio airwaves are less important than them hurting families.
He said the timing of his offer flies in the face of the debate raging over whether conservative talk radio contributed to the shooting spree in some way.
For all of the accusations that talk radio is so destructive and the claims that vitriol of conservatives has led to Jared Lee Loughners actions, heres an example of talk radio doing something I think is pretty good to stop families from being harmed by the Phelpses, Gallagher said. Nothing else has seemed to work.
The church had sparked outrage earlier this week when it announced it would protest todays funeral of 9-year-old Christina Taylor Green, who was one of six people killed during Saturday's shooting spree that also wounded U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz.
However, that protest was called off in exchange for the church being given airtime on two radio stations KXXT-AM, a 50,000-watt station in the Phoenix suburb of Tolleson, Ariz., and Canadian station CFNY-FM, 102.1 "The Edge" in Toronto.
Phelps-Roper was interviewed on the Dean Blundell Show on the Canadian station on Tuesday and is to be interviewed again on the show today.
She also is to be a guest on "The Steve Sanchez Show" on Saturday morning on KXXT-AM.
As for trading picketing at funerals for radio airtime, Phelps-Roper said, "It's always a question of where can you put the words in the most ears."
"The Steve Sanchez Show" is a live call-in radio program that airs from 8 to 10 a.m. Saturdays Topeka time on KXXT-AM radio, which serves Phoenix and the surrounding areas.
Calls from listeners may be included during the half-hour segment, which is to run from 9:15 to 9:45 a.m. Topeka time.
Sanchez said the show is heard in several major U.S. cities in addition to Phoenix and also can be heard live online by logging onto his website, www.thestevesanchezshow.com.
Sanchez said he came up with the idea to offer Phelps-Roper the airtime in exchange for not protesting at the girl's funeral on Tuesday night.
"Of course she wants her platform," Sanchez said of Phelps-Roper. "I looked at it this way: I'm a grown man, and I can stand 30 minutes of her."
Meanwhile, four other Westboro Baptist members on Friday will travel to Washington, D.C., in order to picket the memorial service for Richard Holbrooke, who was special envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan before his death in December.
Margie Phelps said she and three other members of the church would picket Holbrooke's memorial service at the Kennedy Center, as well as protest at American University and an Islamic center in Washington, D.C.
"It never takes but three or four people to handle one of these things," Phelps said. "There's always people available if we need them. It's just managing the resources the Lord gave us."