Posted on 08/22/2005 1:23:05 PM PDT by Crackingham
The First Amendment and I have been evicted from ABC Radio in Washington, DC.
On July 25th, the Council on American-Islamic Relations demanded that I be “punished” for my on-air statements regarding Islam and its tragic connections to terrorism. Three days later, 630 WMAL and ABC Radio suspended me without pay for comments deemed “hate radio” by CAIR.
CAIR immediately announced that my punishment was insufficient and demanded I be fired. ABC Radio and 630 WMAL have now complied. I have been fired for making the specific comments CAIR deemed “offensive,” and for refusing to retract those statements in a management-mandated, on-air apology. ABC Radio further demanded that I agree to perform what they described as “additional outreach efforts” to those people or groups who felt offended.
I refused. And for that refusal, I have been fired.
It appears that ABC Radio has caved to an organization that condemns talk radio hosts like me, but has never condemned Hamas, Hezbollah, and one that wouldn’t specifically condemn Al Qaeda for three months after 9/11.
As a fan of talk radio, I find it absolutely outrageous that pressure from a special interest group like CAIR can result in the abandonment of free speech and open discourse on a talk radio show. As a conservative talk host whose job is to have an open, honest conversation each day with my listeners, I believe caving to this pressure is a disaster.
I for one cannnot apologize for the truth and I cannot agree to some community-service style “outreach effort” to appease the opponents of free speech.
If I had made a racist or bigoted comment -- which my regular listeners know goes against everything I believe in -- I would apologize immediately, and without coercion. When I have made inadvertent fact errors in the past, I apologized promptly and without hesitation.
But we have now gone far beyond that, with demands that I apologize for the ideas my listeners and I believe in. It is not a coincidence that, after my suspension on July 28th, WMAL received more than 15,000 phone calls and emails protesting my removal from the airwaves.
Why such a huge response? It wasn't about me; The listeners I spoke to said they felt betrayed by my suspension because the vast majority of them agree with me on the subject of Islam. By labeling my statements as unacceptable, these listeners felt that WMAL management was insulting them, too.
I do know that Islam and terrorism will be forever linked.
As such, they act as 'agents' of the government, working to allow what's acceptable rather than unacceptable on the air. With that, in this case the radio station is promoting the religion of political correctness at the behest of government, and in fact, violate the first amendment and free speech by doing so.
See also, and read the book---
http://www.sperryfiles.com
You can catch Vannity on Sirius as well.
ABC Radio owns ten stations, listed here, with contact info:
http://www.abcradio.com/index.cfm?bay=content.view&cpid=116
FWIW.
Some alternatives for the DC/MD/NOVA areas.
WBAL, Baltimore, 1090 kHz. This 50 kW powerhouse covers the area very well day and night. Rush is on from 12-3 and Ron Smith (an interesting guy with libertarian leanings) from 3-6 PM.
www.wbal.com
WTNT, DC, 570 kHz. Covers DC and NOVA pretty well. Their line-up includes Glenn Beck and Laura Ingraham.
www.wtntam570.com
WCBM, Baltimore, 680 kHz. Covers the entire area pretty well in the day and only the Baltimore area at night. Line up includes Liddy, Hannity and Savage along with local legend Les Kinsolving.
www.wcbm.com
Of course with many stations providing streaming audio on the web, over-the-air coverage is not as much a big deal as it used to be.
Michael Graham was previously at WRVA out of Richmond before moving to WMAL. I don't think he was fired from that job, just moved to a bigger market.
wow.
ping
INTREP - the First Amendment is dead.
read later bump
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.