PANAMA CITY BEACH, FLORIDA - The sponsoring group has canceled a military themed beach festival, blaming racially suggestive radio and television publicity for linking it to unrelated events elsewhere. <br>
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Denise Selph, president of Military Vibes, announced Wednesday that Military Beach Week, a privately organized event planned for the Labor Day weekend, was off in the Florida Panhandle resort city best known as a spring break destination -- Panama City. <br>
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Two Panama City television stations last week began running footage from black-oriented gatherings in Galveston, Texas, and Atlanta that showed people hanging out of car windows, dressing provocatively, and being led off in handcuffs as video background for stories on Military Beach Week. <br>
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Selph said the decision to cancel was based on a hostile atmosphere created by city officials, television stations WJHG, an NBC affiliate, and WMBB, an ABC affiliate, and a radio talk show she did not identify. <br>
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WMBB news director Larche Hardy said his station ran footage of the now-defunct Freaknik spring break gathering in Atlanta with an initial story saying local officials and business people were worried the event in Panama City would be similar.
