Posted on 05/28/2010 9:51:21 AM PDT by buccaneer81
Radio station's giveaway angers immigrant groups
Trip to Arizona a jab at mayors ban
Friday, May 28, 2010 2:50 AM
By Stephanie Czekalinski
DISPATCH FRONTERAS
Immigrant groups are asking a local talk-radio station to apologize for promoting a Phoenix giveaway that it launched after Columbus' mayor suspended city travel to Arizona to protest its new immigration law.
WTVN-AM (610) promoted the giveaway as a trip to Phoenix "where Americans are proud and illegals are scared."
The contest, which ended last night, was designed to capitalize on the maelstrom kicked up by Mayor Michael B. Coleman's decision, said WTVN program director Mike Elliott.
It was the most popular the station has had, he said. About 5,000 people entered the drawing for round-trip airfare to Phoenix, hotel accommodations, a "few pesos" and the opportunity to "spend a weekend chasing aliens and spending cash in the desert."
The station encouraged Columbus city employees to enter.
Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer signed a law in April that allows local police to ask for immigration documents if they stop or detain someone they reasonably suspect is in the country illegally.
At a news conference yesterday, Reform Immigration for America called the promotion insensitive and offensive and said it inferred a racial bias. The group supports providing documents to immigrants already living in the country without permission.
Jose Luis Mas, chairman of the Ohio Hispanic Coalition, said at the news conference that the station was inviting the contest winner to "spend a weekend hunting human beings."
"I think it's an attack on the immigrant community," said Cristina Villacinda-Farr, a 40-year-old Dublin resident who came to the states 20 years ago from Venezuela and became a citizen. Villacinda-Farr took issue with the promotion's use of the word alien. "I am an alien, but not illegal," she said.
Ohio Action Circle, a statewide blog promoting immigrant rights, sponsored an online petition to condemn the promotion that it said mocked the immigrant community, particularly Latinos. As of yesterday afternoon, more than 130 people had signed the petition.
Elliott said the station does not plan to apologize. He disagreed that the promotion contained racial overtones.
"It comes down to the word illegal for me. It's not a race thing. It's a legal thing," he said. "If you're breaking the law, it doesn't matter where you're from."
sczekalinski@dispatch.com
WTVN rocks!
Locals, support their advertisers - and let them know you are supporting them for advertising on that station. You can be sure the La Raza loons will be targetting them for boycott soon.
If the invaders don’t like it....GOOD!
Awwwwwwwwwwwwww isn’t that just too damn bad?
Poor widdle spoiled (illegal) brats
“where Americans are proud and illegals are scared.”
...we’d all rather hear, “Where Americans Are Proud” period!
Great promotion for Conservative Talk Radio!! Spreading the link quickly to my fellow broadcasters.
If you don't like it, GTFO. Very simple.
If you don’t like it, GTFO. Very simple.
That bares repeating!!! ;0)>
“bares” ??
How about “bears”?
Like the “right to keep and BEAR arms”.
Larry the Cable Guy sez its the right to bare arms...
:]
Mayor Manhood
Lord, I wish we had lots more of those!
Ohio ping!
Glenn Beck called Coleman that during an interview on his radio show a few years ago. Coleman totally lost it and Beck has jabbed at him for years.
“spend a weekend chasing aliens and spending cash in the desert.”
...that sounds like a lot of fun!
The more it pisses off illegal immigrant supports, the more of it we’re going to do!
This is great.
Ping!
This "report" made me wonder for the first time, how many different language groups have well-funded and loud activist groups promoting and defending illegal immigration?
French speakers?
Slavic immigrants?
Scandinavian immigrants for justice?
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