Posted on 08/21/2005 5:27:06 PM PDT by manny613
He asked everyone to stop because the station employees, who could not control whether or not he was fired, were being inundated and were being prevented from doing their jobs. He said the message had been received at WMAL loud and clear. Trouble is, the ultimate decision was not made at the station itself but at ABC/Disney.
We love you, Michael. We hope you will continue writing and speaking, and that you will tell us where your new job is. I will listen to you online, wherever you go. But in the meanwhile stay safe. I won't deny I'm concerned about your personal safety and that of your family.
Soon all the DVD's of "Aladdin" will disappear, just like "Song of the South."
When "Aladdin" is re-released, Princess Jasmine will be wearing a burqa.
I was one of those 15,000 callers .. just disgusting. That's the radio station locally that carries both Rush and Sean, so there won't be an overall boycott, and they will try to replace Michael with a conservative, so the economic options v. WMAL are few .... any suggestions?
This is a bitter disappointment. We have learned something now: nobody can publicly say a thing against Islam without fearing for his life. Free speech is essentially dead in this country, if this kind of thing happens.
For what it's worth, the people they've had substituting for Graham have really not been very good at all. And they can't discuss terrorism, naturally, so it's all been constant talk about illegal immigration, day after day after day. No humor, no charm, no energy. They must be losing listeners like crazy. Cold comfort, though.
I guess we should have known this was going to happen since it's ABC/Disney and we know how much they love terrorist loving organizations like CAIR. I fear for our future when things like this can happen. I'm just glad that Michael didn't cave to their demands to apologize. Since it appears that the folks at WMAL have absolutely no authority, who do we email with our lovely comments? I just wish that the others that work at WMAL had the backbone to walk out in protest over this but, I guess it's just wishful thinking.
bump
Ping!
I've e-mailed all the hosts there and told them to quit or be labelled as unreliable hosts. After all, we can't trust anybody at WMAL anymore to say what they believe -- they will all toe the party line or risk being fired.
Michael Graham said nothing "wrong". He is asked to apologize for his conclusions of the facts, none of which were refuted.
Frankly, I don't know how his ratings were. Maybe they fired him because they want to get a better host. That's fine with me, but until they first hire him back and apologize for their actions, I'm not listening to them anymore.
To those who asked what else to do, WBAL carries Rush Limbaugh. Sean is probably on a Richmond stations, or you can listen on internet. At least until we all write him and get him to move to a different station.
Maybe someone with a legal background could start up a petition drive with the FCC arguing that WMAL is not serving the public interest because it is stifling viewpoints.
This is the link to the Michael Graham petition, we can forward the results to WMAL and anyone else who wants to see them
http://www.ipetitions.com/campaigns/SupportMichaelGraham
I agree with you. How are we ever going to be able to trust the host, particulary the local ones, when they're always worried about being "Grahamed". I'm going to see is I can get WBAL where I'm at. I've tried in the past when WMAL was doing wall to wall college basketball and sometimes I could and sometimes I couldn't. Maybe I need a better radio. Unfortunately, as likeable as Andy, Grandy and Chris Core are, I don't think any of them has the backbone to do anything about it. I'll just listen to Laura from 9-12 and turn the radio off after Rush. They put some guy on from 3-6 on the same station as Laura, that I really don't like, can't think of his name. Anyway, I shall be emailing all the hosts, doubt it'll help though.
If you are in MD, WBAL (1090) has Rush and WCBM (680) has Hannity. WTNT (570) and ? (1230) has Laura Ingraham during Grahams time slot. 1500 has traffic on the 8's.
I would have liked to continue with WMAL but...
I agree with the post about the ACLU - let's send the petition to the ACLU to represent Michael in a lawsuit.
Thanks for the info .. I'm in NOVA, and can probably get those stations. WIll certainly TRY !!
The metastatic carcinoma..
I received this reply from the station manager:
Mr Reichley
Thank you for your email. I had not heard of Michael's decision until now. We have given him the option to return to the air. Unfortunately he did not respond and instead has decided to miscast the facts. In addition our discussions with Michael were made independently without discussion or influence by ANY third party.
Again I appreciate you bringing Michael's announcement to my attention.
Chris Berry
President and General Manager
630 WMAL
Having sent more than one e-mail to various parts of the station, I received this reply as well, from the same person:
Mr Reichley
Again I appreciate your support of Michael but I am quite puzzled by his actions. Until receiving your emails I was hoping he would return to the air.
Thank you
Chris Berry
I have written back, providing the link to the article above, and asking for comments.
I have had additional correspondence with the General Manager of the station. I'm not going to post any more of what he said right now, because I never got permission and frankly my PERSONAL opinion at this moment is that there is a chance this could be worked out.
That is to say, if both Michael and the station are currently telling me their own version of a common truth, I believe there is a compromise to be reached that would be acceptable.
I pushed such a compromise in my last e-mail to the station, and will await further mail. I could of course be all wet.
I have received information about what the station wanted, and I have explained objectively how I would have reacted to those requests. I probably am all wet, but I hope that the station will see my rational response, and modify their request in a way that Michael can accept -- one that doesn't include apology or the statement of anything which Michael would not believe.
I will say this much -- If I had been asked by the station to give them what I would be willing to do, here is what I would say:
1) I would be willing to contact all advertisers and EXPLAIN my comments to them. Not to apologize, but simply to give the advertisers a chance to express their opinion, and to hear what I really meant. That seems like a reasonable "outreach".
2) I would be willing to acknowledge the controversy of my statements, but not to disavow them. I might admit they were open to misinterpretation (BUT ONLY IF I BELIEVED THAT TO BE TRUE). I would try to work out language that I believed. For example, if I didn't mean that all of Islam was a terror organization, and it appeared the complaints were that I had said so, I would happily admit that my comments were misconstrued as a general attack on Islam, and offer my assurance that I did not mean them to be.
Anyway, until I hear or read more, I am not officially backing off of the "trash WMAL" bandwagon, although I am not anyway near the "listening to WMAL" stage. I'm giving them a couple of days to work this out. Since I already sent my e-mails and cancelled my "loyal listener" subscription, there wasn't much more to do than get to the advertisers, and I had only hit 4 so far before I stopped.
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