Fresh Loaf

Let’s face it: Right-wing talk radio acquired the moniker “hate radio” for a reason. It’s full of racism, religious bigotry, paranoia, homophobia and sexism.

One would think the media would be near-unanimous in condemning the use of public — repeat: public — airwaves to broadcast speech more appropriate to a meeting of a Klan Klavern. Over at the Cox-owned Atlanta Journal-Constitution, they did express outrage at recent comments by Don Imus. But AJC editorial writers only went ballistic when hate speech was broadcast on stations that compete with Cox’s own radio and TV outlets. The newspaper had no such criticism aimed at often more virulent racism on Cox stations.

Indeed, part of Imus’ outburst was highlighted by a racist remark about the hairdos of a women’s basketball team, and his reference to the athletes as “ho’s.”

Yet a year ago, Cox’s lead talk-radio host, Neal Boortz, referred to a black congresswoman: “She looks like a ghetto slut. … It looks like an explosion in a Brillo pad factory.” Hairdo and derogatory sexual references are hardly distinguishable from the remarks that got Imus fired.

Why the media should be surprised by Don Imus’ recent megaracist outburst about the Rutgers University women’s basketball team is beyond me. Imus has been erupting with similar filth for years. The fact that so many media pundits go on his radio and television shows to hawk their books is probably one reason Imus’ racism has been given a pass.

The April 12 AJC contained an editorial denouncing Imus and calling for him to get the boot. Imus and his producer “ought to be fired,” harrumphed the editorial, penned by Maureen Downey.

The editorial chastised CBS for syndicating Imus, Atlanta station WFOM-AM for airing him and MSNBC for broadcasting his morning television program.

But, hmmm, something seemed to be missing from the editorial. Oh, yes, the fact that the AJC’s sister stations in Atlanta — ABC-affiliated WSB-TV and WSB-AM — are competitors to CBS, WFOM and MSNBC. Acknowledging that Cox has a stake in slamming its competition would be what we in this business call “journalism ethics,” something that’s apparently in short supply at the AJC. (Yes, I’m proud to announce that CL competes with the AJC.)

But the story gets worse for Atlanta’s pathetic excuse for a daily newspaper. WSB-AM, Atlanta’s top-ranked radio station, has its own contingent of blowhard racists and hate-mongers. The syndicated Michael Savage and Atlanta-based Boortz have long records of racist rhetorical excesses, sexism, religious hatred and incitement of class warfare. Savage especially makes Imus look like an amateur in the hate department.

Cox knows this, of course. But when the Cox cash registers are ringing, forget about ethics and civil discourse, and bring on the ratings-garnering bigots. (Editorial Page Empress Cynthia Tucker and Downey did not respond to questions about their Imus commentary.)

I think it’s just dandy that Cox is calling for the ouster of broadcast personalities who spout racism. The hypocrites at Cox should first get the log out of their own eye before pointing to the mote in another broadcaster’s eye.

For just a sampling of comments, recorded and archived by Media Matters, that rival Imus’:

• Michael Savage last month claimed Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice “was chosen by George Bush as part of an affirmative action program in order to make his Cabinet look like America” and called her “a schoolmarm who has been pushed up the ladder all of her life because of social engineering.” Savage also stated that President Bush’s secretary of state “should have been a man because he would have more respect in the Middle East than does a woman to begin with.”
• After reading the headline of an Associated Press article — “Israeli dig at holy site stirs anger of Muslims” — Savage said: “What doesn’t upset a Muslim? Tell me what doesn’t upset a Muslim somewhere in the world. They have nothing to do but throw bombs and cut people’s throats.”
• In January, Savage commented on Martin Luther King Day, calling “civil rights” a “con” and asserted: “It’s a racket that is used to exploit primarily heterosexual, Christian, white males’ birthright and steal from them what is their birthright and give it to people who didn’t qualify for it. …Take a guess out of whose hide all of these rights are coming. … [T]here is only one group that is targeted, and that group are white, heterosexual males. …They are the new witches being hunted by the illiberal left using the guise of civil rights and fairness to women and whatnot.”
• A year ago, Neal Boortz ranted about then-U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney’s hairstyle: “She looks like a ghetto slut. … It looks like an explosion in a Brillo pad factory. … She looks like Tina Turner peeing on an electric fence. … She looks like a shih tzu!”
• A few days later, Boortz said: “I saw Cynthia McKinney’s hairdo yesterday — saw it on TV. I don’t blame that cop for stopping her. It looked like a welfare drag queen was trying to sneak into the Longworth House Office Building. That hairdo is ghetto trash. I don’t blame them for stopping her.”
• Boortz on Muslims: “Islam is a virus. It is a deadly virus that is spreading throughout Europe and the Western world,” adding that “we’re going to wait far too long to develop a vaccine to find a way to fight this.”
• Boortz on the poor: “You know, most of the people that earn minimum wage are teenagers. They’re in the job market for a short period of time, they’re learning some job skills, they’re learning workplace skills. Most of the people who aren’t teenagers that have a minimum-wage job, it lasts about three to four months, and they’re off making more money. I want you to think for think for a moment of how incompetent and stupid and worthless, how — that’s right, I used those words — how incompetent, how ignorant, how worthless is an adult that can’t earn more than the minimum wage? You have to really, really, really be a pretty pathetic human being to not be able to earn more than the human wage. Uh — human, the minimum wage.”
• Boortz on Katrina victims: “I love talking to you about these Katrina refugees. I mean, so many of them have turned out to be complete bums, just debris. Debris that Hurricane Katrina washed across the country.”
• Boortz on the execution of a black man in California: “[T]here will be riots in South Central Los Angeles and elsewhere. … The rioting, of course, will lead to wide scale looting. There are a lot of aspiring rappers and NBA superstars who could really use a nice flat-screen television right now.” (No riots happened.)

(John Sugg’s confession: While I disagree with much of what Boortz says, I know him, have broken bread with him, and give him credit for speaking what he believes. He is a worthy adversary in the realm of ideas. But he’s wrong.)

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Tags: AJC, journalism.