My CAIR-Inspired Firing [Michael Graham]

Front Page Mag ^ | 8-23-05 | Michael Graham

[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 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 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 CAIR’s 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.

That’s 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 wants—a group with well-publicized ties to terrorists and terror-related organizations—will 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 power—these 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.

[weegee]

Good thing is that FR has no advertising for CAIR to lead a boycott of.

Besides, CAIR was already exposed as having some members who condoned terrorism.

I'd need an impartial organization to get upset before I "care".

[Gabz]

Be wary of involving the government in private businesses just because we don't like them.

CAIR is a tax exempt organization - much different than a private business which actually pays taxes.......and both WMAL and ABC radio are licensed by the government under certain guidelines.

Look - I despise government intrusion into private business - but I also dislike some special interest group using government to attack a private business and a private citizen. I may not know it for fact, nor be able to prove it, but I don't doubt for one second that CAIR di threatened ABC and WMAL with the FCC.

As to my dislike of CAIR - my position here has nothing to do with that. I have taken the same stance against other so called tax-exempt non-profit special interest groups when they have used the same or similar tactics.

Prior to the mainstream advent of the internet, it happened all the time....and at times now it is even worse because these special interest groups have big bucks and know exactly how to go after the achiles heel. But at least the little guy now has a bit more of a fighting chance.

[Victoria Delsoul]

I could not dishonor their principled support for free speech by giving into these demands. I cannot join ABC Radio in bowing to CAIR’s wishes. And I will not apologize for my opinions or retract the truth.

I totally agree. And don't apologize for telling the truth.

[Truth29]

On one of the Michael Graham threads posted in the past day or two is a list of the WMAL advertisers (the same list that CAIR also used against WMAL). The way to get WMAL's attention is to contact advertisers and get them to pull their business from WMAL and perhaps transfer it to 570AM or 1160AM.

[JLO]

Bump!

[isthisnickcool]

I was never hired by PBS to engage in commentary. Michael Graham was hired by WMAL for that express purpose. Once hired, it is implicit that, as he was using GOVERNMENT OWNED airwaves to make his point, that the 1st Amendment applied.

You are saying because it was implied by his hiring for "commentary" that he has carte blanche to say whatever he wants without recourse? Because of free speech rights you think are derived from his broadcasting on the "public airways? He simply does not have the first amendment right to broadcast on the public airways or any other airways. As Rush Limbaugh basically says, "you have the right of free speech but no right to be heard".

[vin-one]

I hope so, and thanks for the ping. Hope things have been going good for you.

[Coop]

Things are going well, thanks. But looks like my guess was off the mark. I heard MG is heading to a station on the West Coast. WMAL's loss.

[texasbluebell]

Paul Sperry, author of INFILTRATION:How radical Muslims masquerading as "moderates" are infiltrating our government, our military, our prisons, our schools -- and even the Department of Homeland Security, was on C-span a week or so ago and mentioned that LEO's are thinking about using RICO laws against terrorist organization, like CAIR, to put a stop to them and or toss them in jail.

I'm happy to hear this. Some of us around here have been saying this for a while, that RICO is going to have to be the way to go after them.

They have to be taken down the way the mob is, under racketeering charges.

[TrailofTears]

You are probably right that this is a war against islam, i just havent signed on to that idea yet. I have a lot of muslim friends that are enraged by what has happened to the leadership of islam.

[freepatriot32]

Libertarian ping.To be added or removed from my ping list freepmail me or post a message here

Time to boycott abc radio

[Allosaurs_r_us]

He lost me in the first sentence.

The First Amendment and I have been evicted...

Nonsense. The government is not involved, and private employers are not required to air every view. They have the right to broadcast whatever opinions they wish, and if a host doesn't air those opinions they have the right to pull him off the air (pursuant to whatever contract he has).

This is not a First Amendment issue. As sympathetic as I am to him, his silly hyperbole doesn't help.

Although it is not a 1st issue, he is actually right. If ABC, being a news organization, followed their own principals about the 1st, he would not have been fired. They use it to their advantage all of the time. For them to cave in this manner completely destroys their credibility. Oh well, it's not like they had any anyway.

Your point is that they are not bound by the first amendment. Exactly right. ABC can run their stations any way they see fit and fire him for any reason they can invent.

I think his problem with ABC is, they would have no problem leaning on the first, if attacked by the government or another special interest group they disagreed with. It is just hypocritical to the point of being sickening. Can't say as I blame him for throwing it in their face. If this is how they operate, he needed to find another job anyway.

[highball]

I think his problem with ABC is, they would have no problem leaning on the first, if attacked by the government...

Then it would be a First Amendment issue.

I'm not defending ABC radio. Just pointing out the silliness of Graham crying "First Amendment!" when he was fired.

[LIConFem]

"How does reading TOO MUCH into the Bill of Rights get us into trouble, pray tell?"

The Bill of Rights (and the rest of the Constitution) should be read as written. To read into it any more or less than is there is to change the meaning.