Posted on 08/23/2005 6:39:18 AM PDT by OXENinFLA
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 wouldnt 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 commentwhich my regular listeners know goes against everything I believe inI 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 e-mails 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 cannot speak for anyone else, but I care about the listeners of 630 WMAL. I respect them and I appreciate the amazing support they have given me.
I could not dishonor their principled support for free speech by giving into these demands. I cannot join ABC Radio in bowing to CAIRs wishes. And I will not apologize for my opinions or retract the truth.
The whole point of the Michael Graham Show is what my listeners and I call the natural truth, those obvious facts about modern life that the P.C. police and mainstream media believe should never be discussed. That includes the tragic, but undeniable relationship between terrorism and Islam as it is constituted today.
The conversations my listeners and I had on this subject were not offensive or bigoted in the least. In fact, Ibrahim Hooper of CAIR (who has appeared on my show several times) credited criticism from talk radio in part for the recent fatwa against terrorism issued by a group of US Muslim scholars. Ironically, it was issued the day before I was suspended.
Thats the real tragedy here. The people who most need free speech and open dialogue on the issues facing Islam today are America's moderate Muslims. These are people of good will who have the difficult job ahead of reforming and rescuing their religion. They need all the help they can get.
The decision to give CAIR what it wantsa group with well-publicized ties to terrorists and terror-related organizationswill make it harder for the reformers to successfully face Islam's challenges. Still worse, silencing people like me will make it easier for Islamist extremists to dismiss all sincere calls for reform as mere "bigotry."
When CAIR is able to quell dissent and label every critic a "bigot," the chilling effect is felt far beyond ABC Radio and 630 WMAL. If anyone is owed an apology, it is the moderate, Muslim community who have been failed once again by the mainstream media.
A very special note to everyone who emailed and called on my behalf:
Again and again through this ordeal, as people pressured me to just give in, say what CAIR wanted to hear and get my job back, I thought of you. I cannot express how much your support meant to me. I don't know that I'm doing the right thing by fighting this fight. I only know that I believe it's the right thing, and I believe it with all my heart.
Your support, your words of encouragement, your anger that the forces of P.C. fear have this much powerthese all helped me do what I needed to do. Thank you.
In the coming days, I hope I'll have some good news for you about how we can continue our conversation. So please stay tuned, please stop by here each day and check it.
Trust me, this isn't the last you've heard from me.
Michael, are you sure you've been fired?
I've had several people tell me that ABC Radio says I'm not really fired, that I have "chosen" not to go back to work. I don't know what to say to that except that I received a hand-delivered letter very late Friday announcing that I was "terminated immediately." If there is some other definition of that other than "you're fired," I am not familiar with it.
Exactly. Conservative talk radio is above all a business. Next it's either ego or competition. Then it's a key part of a truly free press.
Bob Grant was fired from an ABC radio station for commenting on the (at the time) unknown identity of the lone survivor of the crash that killed everyone else on board including Ron Brown.
Lee Rodgers said this morning on an ABC radio station, KSFO, that the firing is entirely up to the local station. No self respecting person would ever work for WMAL, it didn't seem to affect WABC though. The latter is my comment. It probably won't affect WMAL. It's a business and we have the choice to do business with WMAL or NOT. Whoever takes that job should be aware of that.
I agree. My only problem with what he said was his assertion that his First Amendment rights had somehow been violated.
How has Michael Savage gotten away without CAIR's wrath?
Actually the first ammendment does apply. Radio stations are companies that have to operate within a certain governance because of their lisence to use public airwaves.
Did they violate free speech within that context? I think they probably did, but there will be no way to stop them from doing so, as the governance of the issue is weak. They may not say what they will and kill whatever speech that they don't like. They are controlled through their usage of public airwaves and must provide accountablility.
If someone wants to do them damage (and i think we should) for what happened they should bring complaints of misuse of public airwaves, and accusations of a relationship with a special interest group that has definite ties to terrorists organizations. CAIR has had definite ties to those type organizations and that is without a doubt indisputable.
As to the muslim religion producing terrorism? Out of 80 wars taking place world wide muslim radicals are involved in 79. That should be enough proof for any logical or reasonable person to conclude that there is definitely a tie to the religion and terrorism. There are 1 billion muslims alive today. 1/10th of the muslims alive today are radical. That means that 100,000,000 of them are radical and hate the west, isreal, and any other modern influence in their spheres of influence.
The government's response under Bush has been to try to define this narrow line of "all muslims are good, only a select few would do anything bad," allthe while making it sound like the threat posed in this war on terrorism is just a random act of any potential person; that is why grandma is being searched at the airport and the 18-35 year old middle eastern man goes through.
The government's response under clinton was to allow us to be set up for all this through trying to deal with these attacks as a police issue instead of an issue of an act of war. Clinton was supporting the muslim side of Bosnia etc. He was along side of the people who were supplying the radicals in europe, al quaeda. We said it then, and now it is being said in a wider format of some media outlets.
The real deal is as it stands. Muslim radicals are behind almost every aspect of terrorism in our world today, and are behind every act of international terrorism today. In the past it was radical socialists/communists that did these acts of terror to destablize countries and push them toward socialism/communism via government breakdown and the breakdown of law and order. Today it is the muslim who has been on a hundreds of years old war against the west. This is just the way it is. They conquered countries in the middle east and africa that were formally Christian and have been in a state of war since then. Every one of them was behind Hitler and the Nazi's over the rabid hatred of Jews.
We have all this time been in a war that we haven't fought until it stepped down into our world. We will only win this war when we stop the Bull-sh%t over trying to placate the muslims and demand that they get out ahead of the curve and stop this type thing. If it is really an issue of their religion being hijacked then let us see them prove it by how they go to war against the muslim leadership who supports it.
The only single event of "fragging" we have had against our troops in this war has been that of a muslim soldier killing his fellow soldiers over Islam. In the Vietnam era we had hundreds, maybe even thousands of "fraggings" none of which had to do with anything but people wanting to kill their leaders in the hope of getting out of the war. This time it was a muslim troop who saw this as a war against Islam and chose which side he was going to be on.
We need to be honest and admit this is a war against Islam, but not Islam in general, Islam in as far as it allows itself to be guided and directed by radicals. This problem today is that Islam is hijacked by the radicals and we need to understand that all through history this was the case. It is completely reasonable and feasable to understand that Islam may not be able to operate without being led by the radicals. There may be no such thing as a "peaceful Islam" in that Islam does not mean "peace" as it has been reported, but, means submission.
Our national approach should be to war with enemies both within and without. That includes any religion that cannot keep itself from killing the innocent. That is the only way to see things if we expect to win this war.
I'm guessing you don't remember the FCC "Fairness Doctrine." Reagan canned it 1987.
Modern talk radio took off. A truly free press was restored. I recall hearing countless callers tell Rush, et al. that they had no idea that others believed as they did. So tight was the control over radio because liberals threatened every station owner's license.
Getting government involved in this is the last thing you want to do.
Firings for on-air comments by radio personalities are fairly common and - to my knowledge - do not normally have a First Amendment defense. Obscenity is a separate issue. Radio personalities are hired to talk, and if their talk is boring and loses listeners, or is offensive to listeners and/or management, they can be fired with impunity. The First Amendment free-speech provision refers to actions by government, not private employers.
Thanx for the O'Reilly heads up...
Suing CAIR is a great point. Michael Savage has discussed several times his plans to sue any organization that gets him kicked off the air. He and lawyer advisers have their battle plans all laid out. He's gone after some who have threatened to try or have succeeded at a local station.
I am sure that there is some legal technicality that is an
all encompassing "moral clause" in his contract.
However, I am sure that if he had said the same thing about Christianity or Judaism, he would not have been fired.
My problem is the hypocrisy of CAIR using our Consitution against us -- we are slowly (well, maybe not so slowly)committing suicide.
The only point I would take issue with is that most fraggings in Nam were by soldiers hoping to 'survive' their tour of duty. We lost our entire local chain of command one day. Fortunately they were relieved of duty by CID before the fraggings would have started.
Otherwise, I agree. I am still waiting to see how the 'peaceful' religion of Islam polices its 'terrorist' element.
I said truly free press -- perhaps I was remiss in not mentioning how it used to be when Walter "North Viet Nam Communists' most trusted man in America" Cronkite, et al. were the gate keepers of information.
Sorry, it's not a First Amendment issue. WMAL is subject to government regulation to the extent that the public considers that its use must be in "the public interest" and that if the public considers its use is not in the public interest its license/corporate charter could be revoked. The 1st is not applicable unless/until the public decides it is and specifically states by law that the stations cannot determine their own content. It hasn't done so to date and the people's recourse would only be to revoke WMAL's license/charter. Free speech only exists on a public street corner, and freedom of the press only exists for those who own a press. WMAL/ABC may be weasels but so far by law, they're entirely within their authority to determine what content they air so long as they aren't inciting riots, etc.
Great idea!
It should go further. ACLU, SPLC, NLG. An elected official in Idaho is starting RICO action against a company that fired all it citizen worker bees and hired ILLEGAL aliens. I believe that a similar RICO case is ongoing against a carpet company in Georgia.
Great idea!
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