Posted on 04/24/2002 5:50:47 AM PDT by Vigilant1
By JOHN ENDERS
The Associated Press
4/24/02 3:23 AM
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- Church, community and political groups in Oregon and Washington are demanding an end to what they call 'hate radio' and have called on a station owned by billionaire Paul Allen to drop talk show host Michael Savage.
Savage, whose home base is KSFO in San Francisco, is syndicated on more than 350 radio stations nationwide. He is featured on KXL radio in Portland during the key afternoon drive-time slot, 4-7 p.m.
"The content is an unbroken stream of hate and chauvinism directed against women, people of color, liberals, immigrants and in particular people of Middle Eastern heritage and people of the Muslim faith. We condemn this message of hate..." said Tom Nelson, spokesman for the Coalition Against Hate Radio.
The coalition consists of the Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon, the Interfaith Councils of Greater Seattle and Greater Portland, the Islamic Societies of Southwest Washington and Portland, the Multnomah County Democratic Party, the Muslim Educational Trust, Oregon Friends of the Middle East, Jews for Global Justice, the Catholic Archdiocese of Portland, Centro Cultural and several other churches and groups.
It planned a 10 a.m. Wednesday news conference in Portland. KXL broadcasts news, talk, weather and traffic 24 hours a day to an audience from northern Oregon to southern Washington.
Tim McNamara, the station's general manager, said he had received seven letters of complaint about Savage's show, five of them identically worded. By contrast, he said, he received "hundreds" of letters supporting the station's decision to air the show.
"I have absolutely zero advertiser resistance," he said.
McNamara also said he offered Savage's critics airtime on his station, but they declined.
KXL, founded in 1926, is among billionaire Paul Allen's holdings. Allen also owns the Portland Trail Blazers basketball team, the Seattle Seahawks and the Rose Garden in Portland.
"The message that KXL is sending to communities of color, immigrants, and in particular to all people of Middle Eastern ancestry and to Muslims, is that you are not wanted in this country, that you have no value and that you should not expect any respect here," said Mona Goode, spokeswoman for the newly formed Coalition Against Hate Radio.
"That is a message that we must actively and vocally oppose," Goode said.
Members of the coalition said they will ask corporate advertisers to withhold their support from KXL until the station drops Savage.
"We're going to engage with the corporations that advertise on the radio station and appeal to their sense of corporate responsibility," Goode said.
"In a sense, Michael Savage has done us a favor. He's kind of united the coalition in and of himself," she said.
Michael Nank, a spokesman for Vulcan Inc., Allen's Seattle-based holding company, said Tuesday that Savage's views are his alone, and do not represent the station or its corporate owners.
Other than that, he said, "KXL is the broadcaster, and any day-to-day decisions are addressed by the station there."
Nobody should "expect" respect, respect is earned.
Thank you (I'll tell them if I see them first).
I've called my local NPR/PBS stations several times requesting equal time, an apology, balance, etc and they always to me to BUG OFF.
It is open season on these groups. Not only do these people who are mentioned in the article along with the main stream media want people Savage off theair, they also want to get rid of Rush Limbau, Free Republic and all other conservative radio hosts they would like to see them killed or imprisoned, preferrbly killed.
The reality of the situation is that we are one democratic controlled Congress from them attaining this goal.
Once the democrats gain control of both houses of Congress their first act will be to enact a hate- crime law which will include hate speech.
The interesting thing about said law is that it will only be enforced against certain groups of people, [to wit] Law abiding gun owners,Christians, people who oppose the homesexual agenda, conservatives,people who oppose the murder of the unborn and partially born.
Sport made some very good points in post #11 which are right along the lines of my way of thinking.
Of course any thing that is critical of the Democrats or the liberal or progressive agenda is always going to be considered "hate speech." And, what people are going to have to realize is that there is just absolutely no getting along whatsoever with the Democrats or these other groups. No amount of of judicial or legislative edicting is going to convince us to sing kumbya with them if we don't want to.
Hopefully, these efforts to defund this radio station will backfire on these groups.
Incidentally, there was a story in RR Online the other day about a group which tried to get an Atlanta radio station not to carry Michael Savage. the owner of the station invited the group to a debate live on the air about this but they turned it down. His observations were somewhere along the lines that they were just trying to manipulate thinga through the back door. They were going to iniitate a boycott cmapaign against the radio station's advertisers but they backed off.
Regards.
Put some ice on it....
Jeez, and they were able to understand the message so quickly too!
Coalition Against Hate Radio...??? Somebody has waaaay too much time on their hands.
From now on, you may all address me as "billionaire gridlock". I like the sound of that. Of course it sounds kind of like a traffic jam in Newport, Road Island, or something.
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