Thread: Hispanic media wants FCC to investigate media hate speech

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I need all the latest or related information to these top two stories about the Hispanic Media Group and UCLA "study" as fast as I can get em.

W

Hispanic Group Alleges Hate Speech on Cable News
Petition to FCC claims that hate speech is "prevalent" on cable news networks
By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 1/29/2009 4:04:07 PM MT
In a petition to the FCC this week, the National Hispanic Media Coalition claims that hate speech is "prevalent" on national cable news networks and wants the government to do something about it.

That was one of the assertions made by the group in a formal request that the commission open a notice of inquiry into "the extent, the effect, and possible remedies" to what it said was a pervasive problem, and not just on conservative talk radio.

NHMC, a nonprofit LA based media advocacy group, cited a 2007 Media Matters study that concluded that "the alleged connection between illegal immigration and crime" was discussed on 94 episodes of CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight, 66 times on Fox's Bill O'Reilly, and 29 times on Glenn Beck's Headline News show.

Lou Dobbs' ongoing criticism of immigration reform and border enforcement, or more specifically the lack of it, has often drawn criticism from immigrants' rights groups.

NHMC defined hate speech as speech whose cumulative effect is to create an atmosphere of hate and prejudice that "legitimizes" violence against its targets.

NHMC was looking for a sympathetic ear from an FCC under Democratic hands, citing candidate Barack Obama's fall 2008 speech to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus about immigrants "counting on us to stop the hateful rhetoric filling the airwaves."

It also sent a copy of the petition to the National Telecommunications & Information Administration, asking it to update its 1993 report to Congress on the role of Telecommunications in Hate Crimes.

The group said it was not asking the FCC to re-impose the fairness doctrine, something some congressional Democrats have suggested they might want to do, but it does want the FCC to collect data, seek public comment, explore what they say is the relationship between hate speech and hate crimes and "explore options" for combating it. An aide to then candidate Barack Obama told B&C at least twice during the campaign that he did not support reintroducing the doctrine.

Saying its critics would raise the "red herring" of the doctrine, NHMC said it "has not...called for any such remedy."

A CNN spokeswoman said the network has no comment at this time. Fox News had not commented at press time.

Acting FCC Chairman Michael Copps was not commenting on the petition, either, but he did indicate that he stood by comments he made to B&C back in 2007 about regulating hate speech, a conversation prompted by Don Imus' comments about the Rutgers women's basketball team.

"There are roles here for all of us. Parents are the first line of defense when it comes to indecency, violence or the hate speech you are talking about," he said at the time.

"Industry is the second line of defense to provide the tools and controls, but those haven't worked so well. So they need to provide also some sense of practical self-discipline as they did with the old voluntary codes of broadcaster conduct. It wasn't necessarily a golden age, but it was a practical attempt to practice some self-discipline," he said.

"And there is a role for Congress and the courts if they don't like what Congress does. We have a system of checks and balances, but, for checks and balances to work, everybody has to be participating. It doesn't do for the industry to say this is all for parents or for someone in government to say this is all for the FCC or all for Congress to do. We all have to step up to the plate on this with some common sense."

"As an academic I taught the beauties of the First Amendment for many years, so nobody is looking to supplant or run roughshod over it. But we have a pressing national problem that I think lots of people are determined to get a resolution of."

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/articl ... e_News.php

More info in this link:

http://coloradoindependent.com/20624/50 ... cc-inquiry

And direct link to the study by the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center (in PDF):

http://www.nhmc.org/documents/PB22new_re3.pdf

Mark Krikorian's take on this (click on below link to access 'business advisory board members'):

------
National Review Online
the corner

First They Came for Mark Steyn . . . [Mark Krikorian]

The effort by groups to use the power of the state to shut down political speech with accusations of "hate" has now reached our shores. Something called the "National Hispanic Media Coalition" has filed a complaint with the FCC about "hate speech" on cable news. This is the American version of the Muslim effort to shut down political speech in Europe and Canada (in fact, Nat Hentoff's column today is on a UN effort to make defamation of Islam a crime under international law). Our version of this campaign includes the National Council of La Raza and the Southern Poverty Law Center, which is releasing a "report" tomorrow about how terrible I am (and several others too). Heck, this isn't even about immigration any more—it's an assault on American liberty.

BTW, this anti-free-speech National Hispanic Media Coalition has a business advisory board which includes representatives of the Walt Disney Co. and Southwest Airlines. This doesn't seem like the kind of thing mainstream companies like this had in mind when they signed up.

02/02 04:52 PM

http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/? ... U5NTM4Nzk=

Does anyone know of good places/forums like Alipac that are working on activism to stop the Federal Hate Crimes/Hate Speech laws now being pushed again in Congress. Bush vetoed the last ones, Obama says he will sign them?

These laws seek to bring in EU style/Canadian style laws banning saying, writing anything deemed insulting, hateful to protected minority groups like homosexuals, Muslim immigrants, illegal aliens etc.

I note that a wide variety of Americans have become involved fighting against out of control immigration, but so far it seems to be only some very committed Conservative Christian groups who have fought against these 1st Amendment destroying hate crime laws.

I take it that ALIPAC doesn't want activists here to bring in other issues, but the two issues are very related as these Fed hate crime laws will seek to end our rights to say a critical comment about illegal immigrants, LaRaza, M13, Al Qaeda etc.

Anyone know of some good forums to work on this issue?

...another ethno-supremacist decrying the popularity of Rush, and Conservatives on Clear Channel...apparently she doesn't get the fact that mainstream Americans of all types listen to Rush and the fact that ethno-centric media outlets haven't fared well has nothing to do with Rush, Hannity or Dobbs....the liberal, radical, leftist, ethno-supremacist, divisive messages aren't so popular with mainstream listeners.


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Posted on Tue, Feb. 3, 2009


Fatimah Ali: Rush, money & right-wing radio

By Fatimah Ali
Philadelphia Daily News
THERE IS truly only one way to silence Rush Limbaugh.

Take him out.

But before you call the cops and accuse me of putting out a hit on America's favorite angry conservative, let me explain. The fact that anyone as mean-spirited as Limbaugh will reportedly earn nearly $400 million over the next eight years as he continues to spread his venom should give every American pause. It says volumes about his employer, Clear Channel, which just months ago signed him to a $38 million-a-year deal, then chose Inauguration Day to fire 1,850 of his colleagues.

It also speaks loudly about the 14 million Americans who reportedly listen to the man who actually said he hopes President Obama will fail.

The political pushback from Republicans on the radio to the November election results is obvious. While Limbaugh may not have any official party role, he clearly uses the airwaves to promote the GOP agenda, along with other conservatives like Bill Bennett and Michael Savage, who, although just as conservative, are mild, compared to Limbaugh.

Their daily assaults on liberalism are strategically designed to disarm the Democrats. The party's new (and first black) chairman, Michael Steele, although loyal to GOP principles, would be wise to distance himself from Limbaugh's vile views.

The fact that Clear Channel's mass firings barely got any coverage was also probably by design. The story flew under the radar while the nation focused on the historic inauguration of President Obama. It was a strategically superb move by a company that dominates analog radio. For me, it's personal because I spent many years in radio, starting as an intern at WDAS in 1981, and have seen the industry's decline under Clear Channel's heavy hand.

I recently spoke with radio legend Bob Law, a pioneer in syndicated black talk radio, whose "Night Talk" aired on WDAS for years. Law says President Clinton's Telecommunications Act destroyed radio as it was and today facilitates the spread of narrow views like those of Limbaugh. Clear Channel's priorities don't mesh with what's good for the black community, he says, and the company has contributed to the dumbing-down of radio.

I left my news-anchor job at WDAS years ago when it became obvious that the Telecommunications Act had cleared the way for corporations like Clear Channel to expand their ownership, which has succeeded in marginalizing the industry and eliminating thousands of jobs. That they pay Limbaugh so much to spew his right-wing rhetoric while firing so many is obscene. But apparently the man brings in the revenue, or he wouldn't be making so much.

Another casualty of radio downsizing, Lehronda Upshur, who held down the morning news on Power 99/FM for 19 years, started predicting her recent job loss a decade ago and prepared herself for it. "I saw the handwriting on the wall and went back to school to get my master's degree so I could teach," she told me, relieved not to have to get up at 3 a.m. to anchor the morning-drive news. She now works in human services and teaches at Springfield and Mercer colleges.

Former afternoon drive personality Gary Shepherd, cut from WDAS a few years ago for the syndicated "Michael Baisden Show," prepared himself for changes in the business by building a voiceover and production company called 3FM.

When Clear Channel first entered the Philadelphia market, those of us who could see modus operandi nicknamed the corporation Cheap Channel. True to form, on Jan. 20, the company cleared out 9 percent of its workforce and dropped news all together on Philadelphia's Power 99 and Q102. Industry insiders predict more layoffs will soon follow.

So when I say take him out, I'm not suggesting that we send a hit man to find Limbaugh (I actually think he'll burn himself out).

I'm actually talking about dollars and cents. The only way that anyone as mean-spirited as Limbaugh is has managed to stay on the air for two decades is that he's making a lot of money for his bosses.

So the way to silence him is to stop listening and boycott his sponsors. If they go, so does he. *

Fatimah Ali is a media consultant

and journalist. E-mail her at

Fameworksmedia@yahoo.com.





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