It appears that the Disney-owned network, ABC, intentionally edited Jef Holm’s comments on The Bachelorette about his parents being on a “mission” in South Carolina. Jef claims in The Salt Lake Tribune that “he has no idea how his on-air statement that his parents are on “a mission” was somehow removed and replaced on air by “charity work,” adding that he didn’t know who decided to dub that in.”
There is nothing we love more than when The Bachelor and conspiracy collide into one giant Bachelor conspiracy situation! And this one looks like it is rooted in reality.
According to Jef Holm, he never tried to hide his Mormon background while on the show. The Mormon question was sort of the pink elephant all season. We knew Jef was from a big family in Utah and he ran a big company that was helping build wells for people in third world countries. All signs pointed to LDS — but the word “Mormon” or “mission” seemed strangely absent.
Thus, fans were blowing up Google looking for answers to the “Mormon question”. In fact, Jef’s parents are mission presidents in South Carolina, thus their Mormonism is a pretty significant fact. Although Jef described his Mormonism as a bit less important to the press in the following statement:
“I’m not half Mormon. I was raised Mormon. And my family is still Mormon. And my parents raised
me with the standards of the church… I’m just not practicing right now. I mean, faith is something that’s a huge priority on my list and in my life. And I’m really active, you know, in church and everything. I’m just not active Mormon.”
What makes the conspiracy more intriguing is that the show’s publicists didn’t seem to want Jef to talk about his Mormonism.
A publicist cut off the question during a conference call with reporters:“I don’t think this really, honestly pertains to the happy couple and what’s going on now, so let’s try to focus the questions on this.” Wow! A future life-partner’s religious affiliation doesn’t pertain to their relationship?
Jef claims he had no intention of hiding his background. “There was no intention of hiding any part of my background or any part of the way I was raised.”
We always expect ABC to do some smoke and mirrors editing to create drama that doesn’t exist or to blow something out of proportion, but this seems a bit dirtier than usual. The fact that they actually dubbed his statement to replace “mission” with “charity work” and that they are skirting questions about the issue begs more questions about ABC’s strange aversion to Mormonism!
Stay tuned for more ABC conspiracy connections, including their support for SOPA — legislation that would effectively kill free speech on the internet.
