Push to remove Belling from radio to continue

Milwauke Journal Sentinal ^ | Nov. 11, 2004 | GEORGIA PABST

[Snerdley]

Push to remove Belling from radio to continue Ad hoc committee wants him off permanently

By GEORGIA PABST gpabst@journalsentinel.com

Posted: Nov. 11, 2004

The push to get WISN-AM (1130) radio talk show host Mark Belling removed permanently from his show for using an ethnic slur will continue, a spokesman for a Latino ad hoc committee said Thursday night.

The decision was announced following a closed two-hour meeting at the Federation for Civic Action attended by about 50 people, including Latinos and others in the community.

Enrique Figueroa, director of the Roberto Hernandez Center at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, said the group voted to pursue plans to get Belling off the air. "It's an issue of principle and based on the support we feel we've received from the community," he said.

As part of that effort the group will contact David Crowl, senior vice president for the Midwest for Clear Channel Communications, he said.

"We want to ask him to make the decision to take Belling off the air," he said. The group has met with Cindy McDowell, vice president and market manager for Clear Channel Milwaukee, but Figueroa said they will now go to McDowell's boss for a decision.

Belling has not been on his afternoon radio show since Monday, when Clear Channel removed him because of his use of an ethnic slur to refer to illegal Mexican immigrants, according to McDowell. His comment and subsequent joking apologies and treatment of the matter outraged the Latino community, which has called for his removal in meetings and protests. A wide range of ethnic, racial, religious, labor and other groups have joined Latinos in denouncing his actions.

Three sponsors of the radio show have dropped their ads.

On Sunday Belling issued a formal, serious apology.

Television station WDJT-TV (Channel 58), which airs "Belling & Company," a Sunday public affairs show, has announced that Belling's show has been placed on "hiatus."

[Theodore R.]

You are so right. The word "niggardly" has NOTHING to do with RACE. It's a shame that the American people don't understand that distinction.

[ingodwetrust]

I have written Clear Channel. I told them my dial would absolutely NOT be tuned into WISN unless or until Mark is back. I listen to his show every day, saddened when daylight savings kicks in and I can no longer get him after 4:30 p.m. I have NOT had that radio station on since the Monday afternoon that it was announced.......and I won't, like I said unless or until he is back.

The leftist movement against him is huge. Funny though how Mike Magee has been spewing hatred for years and not a damn thing has ever been said about that. Hypocrites!

[Driver70]

I was at the rally today, it wasn't a big crowd, but as always, we enjoyed being with like minded people!

Commentary and pictures here http://view.web-nuts.com/index.php?p=67

Thanks for all those that made it, that place is hard to find!

Next week, if needed, there will be better communication and more lead time so people can plan for it. As of now, I would say, pencil in next Saturday.

I will also Blog any updates or info I get at http://view.web-nuts.com

[lentulusgracchus]

I don't think the term that he used "wetback" is all that terribly offending, especially to some second or third generation Wisconsin hispanic that's never been close to the Rio Grand River.

Well, if you referred to them as "wetbacks" when they aren't, then manifestly your intention is to pillory and belittle them by using a term that is both pejorative and, in their cases, untrue, so that would have to be seen as definitely unfriendly and unfair. Now, has Alec Baldwin or Rosie O'Donnell been similarly sanctioned for saying things that were untrue, unfair, and pejorative? Did Fat Girl ever get sanded down for using Ted Danson on her show that time? How about all the "grinning chimp" slurs? Al Franken? The Maureen Dowd New York Times column written in nitric acid on a photo of Karl Rove?

So we see that:

1) they may have a fair complaint, again if he were talking about Wisconsin chicanos and not actual illegal aliens who in fact did wade or swim the Rio Grande to get here (or stow away in a pinata, to be topical for a minute), but that

2) they aren't entitled to any effectual redress, certainly in the form of getting the guy's job, if in fact similar things are being said about other people all the time without similar consequences raining down on the speakers.

So even if they're right, I think the answer is, tough, get over it, or get your own microphone and say your own piece in answer.

[lentulusgracchus]

The word is a compound of "nigh" and "guard" -- as in, "playing close to the vest".

But the blacks who complain about it don't care. It isn't about a word, it's about beating up white people and making them mind their manners.

[mobsman]

"Wetbackgate"-related article on WISN website:

http://www.newstalk1130.com/cc-common/local_news_common.html?ID=20041112210429&feed=local

[Theodore R.]

I guess liberals say the word "niggardly" is "bad" because in politics "perception" is reality, even if the dictionary says otherwise.

[Peter0901]

Because Ann "Ma" Richards is a liberal ... one of the requirements to be a liberal is to be a first-class hypocrite. case in point: liberals want to sentence us to either mass transit or to drive Yugos while they drive around their big-ass SUVs and fly their private jets.