Shock Jocks

The Boston Globe reports that at least “some sponsors at Boston’s WTKK-FM radio station have stopped advertising and balked about whether to resume their ads if the station reinstates Jay Severin, the talk show host suspended last week for derogatory comments about Mexicans.”

Severin is said to be in talks with the station about returning to the air, and his agent expects he will be back on his afternoon drive-time show soon.

Severin was suspended after calling Mexicans “criminaliens,”leeches,” “the world’s lowest of primitives,” and exporters of “women with mustaches and VD.”

His remarks caused at least a few advertisers to pull ads , such as The Retailers Association of Massachusetts, which planned to broadcast 25 commercial spots over two weeks in protest of a proposed hike in the state’s sales tax.

“If he comes back on, we’re not spending any money with him,” said Will Keyser, a spokesman for the Retailers Association. “We don’t want to be associated with him. This guy is very controversial right now. He said some things we don’t want to be associated with.”

Another company’s advertising plans with the station were said by a spokesperson to be “in a holding pattern.”

“If the situation is rectified correctly — an apology and a retraction of his statement would be appropriate – I would consider advertising with him again,” he said. “There’s no need for any racism, and we don’t want to offend a group of people. I am waiting to hear from the station about their plans.”

“Jay remains suspended indefinitely,” station spokeswoman Heidi Raphael noted. “We have no further comment.”

Leading shock jock Michael Savage has been added to a list of “undesirables” banned from entry into the UK, along with more than a dozen other individuals considered by that country’s Home Secretary to hold extreme views.

Savage, who describes his own style as “explosive” and liberalism as a “mental disorder,” was said by The Home Office “to be engaging in unacceptable behaviour by seeking to provoke others to serious criminal acts and fostering hatred which might lead to inter-community violence”.

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said: “Coming to the UK is a privilege and I refuse to extend that privilege to individuals who abuse our standards and values to undermine our way of life. Therefore, I will not hesitate to name and shame those who foster extremist views as I want them to know that they are not welcome here.”

Michael Savage threatened to sue in response, saying that he had been defamed and endangered by Smith’s decision.

“This lunatic . . . is linking me up with Nazi skinheads who are killing
people in Russia,” he said. “She’s putting me in a league with Hamas
murderers who kill Jews on buses.

“I have never advocated violence. I’ve been on the air 15 years. My views
may be inflammatory, but they’re not violent in any way.”

Currently on the web site of WTTK in Boston, home of the suspended shock jock Jay Severin:

“WTKK and Greater Media value an open and vigorous dialogue, but we also adhere to basic principles of civility, common decency and respect for all cultures. We believe Jay’s suspension is the best way to uphold both of these corporate policies. WTKK Management met with Jay Severin and his agent today. He will remain on suspension until further notice.”

Until FURTHER NOTICE? Why didn’t anyone at WTTK “notice” Severin’s lack of “basic principles of civility, common decency and respect for all cultures” before this latest episode? And why is the station only suspending Severin — instead of firing the bum?

Talk host Cenk Urgur of The Young Turks program defended Don Imus when he made racially-tinged remarks a while back — but even Uygur can’t abide recent out-of-control comments by Boston shock jock Jay Severin:

Jay Severin’s Insanely Racist Rant

I am not quick to call something racist. In fact, I wrote an editorial pleading with everyone not to call the NY Post chimp cartoon racist. I went on MSNBC and defended that position. I’m afraid calling someone racist often times shuts off dialogue and should be reserved for only the clearest and worst cases. I also defended Don Imus and insisted he should not be fired for his comments.

So, I have some credibility here when I say conservative talk show host Jay Severin should absolutely be fired for his racist comments against Mexicans on the radio. I hesitate in writing about this because Severin is a pathetic nobody who might be looking for national attention by making these kinds of incredibly ignorant comments. But, on the other hand, there have to be consequences for this kind of deeply hateful speech. And if people don’t argue forcefully enough against it, there won’t be enough pressure on the station to get rid of this hateful racist.

So, what did he say that’s got me so worked up? Check it out, and you be the judge:

As you heard in the video above, Severin has been suspended by WTKK-FM in Boston. But that is not nearly enough. If you don’t get fired for this, what do you get fired for?

Here are just some of his prize quotes from the show:

“So now, in addition to venereal disease and the other leading exports of Mexico – women with mustaches and VD – now we have swine flu.”

He described Mexicans as “the world’s lowest of primitives.”

“When we are the magnet for primitives around the world – and it’s not the primitives” fault by the way, I’m not blaming them for being primitives – I’m merely observing they’re primitive.”

“It’s millions of leeches from a primitive country come here to leech off you and, with it, they are ruining the schools, the hospitals, and a lot of life in America.”

“We should be, if anything, surprised that Mexico has not visited upon us poxes of more various and serious types already, considering the number of criminaliens already here.”

He also said that emergency rooms had “become essentially condos for Mexicans.”

And on a 2004 broadcast, he compared Muslims to a fifth column in this country and said in response to a caller who thought people should reach out to Muslims: “You think we should befriend them; I think we should kill them.”

But unfortunately calling for the murder of Muslim-Americans has become so commonplace and acceptable these days that he didn’t even come close to getting fired for those comments. So, I guess he figured he had free reign to attack the other half of M&Ms.

Or maybe he’s just desperate because his ratings have dropped to 14th in the market in the demos. By the way, if you weren’t outraged enough already. You want to know how much he makes for spewing this kind of hate and being the fourteenth best radio show in his timeslot? One million dollars, plus bonuses!

I believe a person has to do a lot to cross the line into a firing offense. Talk show hosts have an interesting but tough job. You usually have to talk for three hours a day, often unscripted. You have to entertain your audience and push the boundaries to spark interesting conversations. That is part of the reason why I give talk hosts huge leeway and why I defended Imus. But there has to be a line somewhere. And this is clearly it. Jay Severin should be fired immediately.

Rush Limbaugh is so fed up with taxes in New York that he announced on the air he would be packing up and leaving town soon — and Governor David A. Paterson says it’s not a moment too soon.

According to The Daily News, Limbaugh only stays in New York around 15 days a year, mostly to avoid hurricanes headed for Florida, where he spends most of his time.

Limbaugh had harsh words for Paterson, calling his tax increases “stupid,” and saying they amounted to “punishing the achievers for the mistakes and the lack of discipline on the part of a bunch of corrupt politicians.”

In turn, the governor said he was hardly sorry to see El Rushbo go. “If I knew that would be the result,” Paterson quipped, “I would’ve thought about the taxes earlier.”

Contrary to previous reports on certain right-leaning websites, veteran progressive talk radio host Ed Schultz WILL be joining the MSNBC line-up soon. His new eponymous “The Ed Show” program premieres on Monday, April 6 and will air weekdays, 6-7 p.m. ET.

Any time right wingers and lefties agree about anything–but particularly Shock Jock radio, I’m immediately suspicious. So the notion now being out out publicly that, as Politico recently opined, “Democrats realized they could roll out a new GOP bogeyman for the post-Bush era by turning to an old one in Limbaugh” seems suspect, as does El Rushbo’s own remarks on the subject to the Boston Herald to the effect that “the White House is trying ‘in every way possible’” to say that he’s the leader of the GOP “‘because they are trying to marginalize me.’”

What IS clear about the entire situation is that both the Democrats and Limbaugh are benefiting from the contretemps.

Limbugh himself admitted as much when he wrote “In truth, they are elevating me, growing my audience and enabling me to get my message out to an even wider audience than my 20-22 million radio audience.” And veteran Democratic political operative James Carville concurred, saying forthrightly, “It’s great for us, great for him, great for the press.”

I’m not sure it’s so great for the rest of us, however, trapped in the midst of the collapse of capitalism and the Great Depression!

Hot on the heels of President Obama reiterating his opposition to the return of the hoary old Fairness Doctrine, the Senate voted overwhelmingly 87-11 to prevent the FCC from reinstating it — not that the Commission had any plans to do so!

If you weren’t already confused, consider this: the Senate vote was on an amendment, itself amended, to an unrelated bill called the D.C. Voting Rights Act.

If that doesn’t make sense to you, don’t worry… Litttle about the ginned-up controversy over putative attempts to “Hush Rush” has made much sense, since there never was a snowball’s chance in hell that the doctrine would return from the grave, as noted months ago in this space!

Now all that needs to happen to drive a stake through the heart of the FD is for the Voting Rights Act to pass the Senate and the fairness amendment to survive a conference with the House version of the bill.

You can expect the Obama Administration and its FCC to encourage and promote greater localism and diversity in media ownership, however, as a way to deal with the uneven distribution playing field that has resulted in a 9 to 1 conservative dominance of news-and-opinion talk radio.

National Association of Broadcasters President David Rehr has thanked President Barack Obama for opposing the reinstatement of the fairness doctrine — again.

As a presidential candidate, Obama twice indicated his opposition to industry trade journal Broadcasting & Cable, but few on the right believed him.

And judging from the continued uproar on right wing talk radio, that hasn’t changed yet, despite a recent statement from the White House reiterating that the president does not support the doctrine’s return!

National Review contributing editor John Derbyshire, writing in the American Conservative, ((which bills itself as “the premier journal for thinking conservatives,”) asks — and answers — a bold question: are there downsides to conservative talk radio?

“Taking the conservative project as a whole – limited government, fiscal prudence, equality under law, personal liberty, patriotism, realism abroad – has talk radio helped or hurt? All those good things are plainly off the table for the next four years at least, a prospect that conservatives can only view with anguish. Did the Limbaughs, Hannitys, Savages, and Ingrahams lead us to this sorry state of affairs?”

Surprisingly — even for a “thinking conservative” — Derbyshire concludes the answer is “Yes.” Read more here: