DC Talk Host Fired Over Islam Statements
MICHAEL GRAHAM FIRED
DC Talk Host Was Target Of Islamist Campaign
Confirmation of WMAL/Washington talk host Michael Graham's removal from the ABC station has been made with his just-released statement.
Graham had been suspended for making comments local fringe Islamists from the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) found offensive, now we've learned he won't be returning to WMAL.
CAIR has been linked to terrorist group Hamas.
Official ABC reason: insubordination, for apparently not doing enough "outreach" after an incident where Graham called Islam itself a "terror organization".
In a Jewish World Review column, Graham further ticked off Mickey's suits with this (via Michelle Malkin):
Previous Radio Equalizer coverage on the issue is found here. Michelle Malkin's recent piece can be found here.
At this moment, he's still listed as a host on the WMAL site. Ads specific to Graham's show are still shown.
Because WMAL is an American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) shop, Graham has a number of potential grievance options. Usually, terminations for cause can be the trickiest for broadcasters, because they are easier for the union to fight than if he were let go for performance (ratings, revenue) reasons.
Also stunning: WMAL Program Director Randall Bloomquist, a longtime industry veteran, hasn't been seen at the ABC building in a week and isn't returning messages or emails.
Has he also been fired? He wasn't scheduled to be away for the week. Speculation is running high tonight that Bloomquist, Graham's direct supervisor, is the second casualty of the CAIR campaign.
The Radio Equalizer is waiting for a response from ABC.
So far, ABC has never told listeners why Graham has not been heard on the air, forcing them to rely on newspaper accounts and blogs for the latest.
Here's Graham's statement:
Update: coverage from LGF here, Backcountry Conservative here.
Update: LaShawn Barber has her version here. She doesn't believe it's a First Amendment issue.
Update: from new WorldNetDaily story:
Your Amazon orders that originate here, regardless of what you end up ordering, greatly help to support this effort. Thanks!
DC Talk Host Was Target Of Islamist Campaign
Confirmation of WMAL/Washington talk host Michael Graham's removal from the ABC station has been made with his just-released statement.

CAIR has been linked to terrorist group Hamas.
Official ABC reason: insubordination, for apparently not doing enough "outreach" after an incident where Graham called Islam itself a "terror organization".
In a Jewish World Review column, Graham further ticked off Mickey's suits with this (via Michelle Malkin):
I take no pleasure in saying it. It pains me to think it. I could very well lose my job in talk radio over admitting it.
But it is the plain truth: Islam is a terror organization.
For years, I've been trying to give the world's Muslim community the benefit of the doubt, along with the benefit of my typical-American's complete disinterest in their faith. Before 9/11, I knew nothing about Islam except the greeting "asalaam alaikum," taught to me by a Pakistani friend in Chicago.
Immediately after 9/11, I nodded in ignorant agreement as President Bush assured me that "Islam is a religion of peace."
But nearly four years later, nobody can defend that statement. And I mean "nobody." Certainly not the group of "moderate" Muslim clerics and imams who gathered in London last week to issue a statement on terrorism and their faith.
When asked the question "Are suicide bombings always a violation of Islam," they could not answer "Yes. Always." Instead, these "moderate British Muslims" had to answer "It depends."
Previous Radio Equalizer coverage on the issue is found here. Michelle Malkin's recent piece can be found here.
At this moment, he's still listed as a host on the WMAL site. Ads specific to Graham's show are still shown.
Because WMAL is an American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) shop, Graham has a number of potential grievance options. Usually, terminations for cause can be the trickiest for broadcasters, because they are easier for the union to fight than if he were let go for performance (ratings, revenue) reasons.
Also stunning: WMAL Program Director Randall Bloomquist, a longtime industry veteran, hasn't been seen at the ABC building in a week and isn't returning messages or emails.
Has he also been fired? He wasn't scheduled to be away for the week. Speculation is running high tonight that Bloomquist, Graham's direct supervisor, is the second casualty of the CAIR campaign.
The Radio Equalizer is waiting for a response from ABC.
So far, ABC has never told listeners why Graham has not been heard on the air, forcing them to rely on newspaper accounts and blogs for the latest.
Here's Graham's statement:
Contact: Michael Graham
Email: mail@michaelgraham.com
CAIR WINS, FREE SPEECH LOSES AT ABC RADIO
Radio Station Gives In To CAIR Demands, Fires Host For Comments Regarding IslamThe following is a statement from Michael Graham, former mid-morning host at ABC Radio's 630 WMAL in Washington, DC:
The First Amendment and I have been evicted from ABC Radio in Washington, DC.
On July 25th, the Council on American-Islamic Relations demanded that I be "punished" for my on-air statements regarding Islam and its tragic connections to terrorism.
Three days later, 630 WMAL and ABC Radio suspended me without pay for comments deemed "hate radio" by CAIR.
CAIR immediately announced that my punishment was insufficient and demanded I be fired. ABC Radio and 630 WMAL have now complied. I have now been fired for making the specific comments CAIR deemed "offensive," and for refusing to retract those statements in a management-mandated, on-air apology.
ABC Radio further demanded that I agree to perform what they described as "additional outreach efforts" to those people or groups who felt offended.
I refused. And for that refusal, I have been fired.
It appears that ABC Radio has caved to an organization that condemns talk radio hosts like me, but has never condemned Hamas, Hezbollah, and one that wouldn't specifically condemn Al Qaeda for three months after 9/11.
As a fan of talk radio, I find it absolutely outrageous that pressure from a special interest group like CAIR can result in the abandonment of free speech and open discourse on a talk radio show. As a conservative talk host whose job is to have an open, honest conversation each day with my listeners, I believe caving to this pressure is a disaster.
I for one cannnot apologize for the truth and I cannot agree to some community-service style "outreach effort" to appease the opponents of free speech.
If I had made a racist or bigoted comment -- which my regular listeners know goes against everything I believe in -- I would apologize immediately, and without coercion. When I have made inadvertent fact errors in the past, I apologized promptly and without hesitation.
But we have now gone far beyond that, with demands that I apologize for the ideas my listeners and I believe in. It is not a coincidence that, after my suspension on July 28th, WMAL received more than 15,000 phone calls and emails protesting my removal from the airwaves.
Why such a huge response? It wasn't about me; The listeners I spoke to said they felt betrayed by my suspension because the vast majority of them agree with me on the subject of Islam. By labeling my statements as unacceptable, these listeners felt that WMAL management was insulting them, too.
I cannot speak for anyone else, but I care about the listeners of 630 WMAL. I respect them and I appreciate the amazing support they have given me.
I could not dishonor their principled support for free speech by giving into these demands. I cannot join ABC Radio in bowing to CAIR's wishes. And I will not apologize for my opinions or retract the truth.
The whole point of the Michael Graham Show is what my listeners and I call the "natural truth," those obvious facts about modern life that the p.c. police and mainstream media believe should never be discussed. That includes the tragic, but undeniable relationship between terrorism and Islam as it is constituted today.
The conversations my listeners and I had on this subject were not offensive or bigoted in the least. In fact, Ibrahim Hooper of CAIR (who has appeared on my show several times) credited "criticism from talk radio" in part for the recent fatwa against terrorism issued by a group of US Muslim scholars. Ironically, it was issued the day before I was suspended.
That's the real tragedy here. The people who most need free speech and open dialogue on the issues facing Islam today are America's moderate Muslims. These are people of good will who have the difficult job ahead of reforming and rescuing their religion. They need all the help they can get.
The decision to give CAIR what it wants-a group with well-publicized ties to terrorists and terror-related organizations--will make it harder for the reformers to successfully face Islam's challenges. Still worse, silencing people like me will make it easier for Islamist extremists to dismiss all sincere calls for reform as mere "bigotry."
When CAIR is able to quell dissent and label every critic a "bigot," the chilling effect is felt far beyond ABC Radio and 630 WMAL. If anyone is owed an apology, it is the moderate, Muslim community who have been failed once again by the mainstream media.
Update: coverage from LGF here, Backcountry Conservative here.
Update: LaShawn Barber has her version here. She doesn't believe it's a First Amendment issue.
Update: from new WorldNetDaily story:
Graham's suspension stems come from characterizing Islam a "terrorist organization." Graham explained that when a significant minority of a group conducts terrorism and the general population of that group does not denounce it, it is safe to conclude that the group promotes it. He drew an analogy between Islam and the Boy Scouts.
"If the Boy Scouts of America had 1,000 scout troops, and 10 of them practiced suicide bombings, then the BSA would be considered a terrorist organization," he said.
"If the BSA refused to kick out those 10 troops, that would make the case even stronger. If people defending terror repeatedly turned to the Boy Scout handbook and found language that justified and defended murder – and the scoutmasters in charge simply said 'Could be' – the Boy Scouts would have driven out of America long ago."
Your Amazon orders that originate here, regardless of what you end up ordering, greatly help to support this effort. Thanks!
42 Comments:
Yes, we have the right to "free speech", just don't be a fool and excercise that right.
Peawits require that we toe the narrow party line, everything is good, bad, black and white. ANY deviation from that - no matter how common-sensial or obvious - forces the nitwits to THINK, and then they get a headache.
Look, if you have to pay a price for speaking the truth, either pay it, or just jump back into the lemming crowd, running helter-skelter toward the cliff.
Fido
By
Tom C, at 21 August, 2005 20:40
Will the MSM of America protest this outrage or will MSM continue as planned be in bed with the Muslim community by favoring them as blindly as London's media did?
By
Mike, at 21 August, 2005 21:23
I am outraged at both the money scandal with Air America and Michael getting fired.
I am trying to put together a story. Could you please let me know if they ok'd the corporate jet?
Another thing, did you notice that a week after you broke this story, Cindy showed up? A connection? If they can inverstigate you...? lol. Thanks.
By
Rosemary Welch, at 21 August, 2005 21:56
I feel like we are being sold down the river.
The truth is suppressed, the borders are wide open and we are sitting ducks.
By
SactoDan, at 21 August, 2005 22:02
Islamofascists 1, Free Speech 0.
Why would anyone take the word of CAIR is beyond me!
By
Purple Raider, at 21 August, 2005 23:08
Rosemary, we don't know who Rhodes thought had a corporate jet, one or more of the boardmembers, apparently.
We're not sure how she eventually reached TX.
By
Brian Maloney, at 21 August, 2005 23:21
Debating Labor-Market 'Slack'
Corporate profits are likely to slow, which has investors looking to health-care firms and makers of basic consumer goods -- stocks that tend to do OK when the rest of the market isn't doing great.
Great blog I love it. Very interesting stuff.!
"bladder cancer" site covering "bladder cancer" related stuff.
By
Irene, at 21 August, 2005 23:33
The state of the nation is going to start kneeling to the east if this crap keeps up. CAIR is just another terrorist front and ABC is supporting terrorism in the states by siding with this group. Ten years ago this would be treason, now its political correctness. I call it asskissing.
By
Iceman OAE, at 21 August, 2005 23:48
Man this is a tough one. I could use the one about free speech doesn’t give you the right to yell fire in a theater when there isn’t one but of course that doesn’t apply here.
What his statement suggests to me is that he used a BIG BROAD BRUSH to indict millions of people. That isn’t right, it isn’t fair.
I’m old enough that I can remember what happened to some friend of mine in the early forties. They were Japanese Americans. They went to the same school as we did. We played together, we talked like all kids do. One day they went off to internment camp. We lost contact after that.
They were Americans and that same BIG BROAD BRUSH said that they were a danger to us all. Nothing could have been further from the truth.
I don’t think I have enough info to know if this guy should have been fired or not. I’ll just say that had he targeted his comments a bit more focused he probably would not be in that position.
In the recent past the Catholic church has run into some serious problems with SOME of it priests we would not suggest that all Catholic priests are child abusers would we? It needs to be focused.
We call it free speech but it does come with responsibility and in some cases consequences.
Mick
By
mick, at 22 August, 2005 00:45
There's a new word verification feature which we pray will stop the comment spam.
Simply type the letters you see before clicking the Login and Publish button.
Let's hope this stops the ad spammers in their tracks.
By
Brian Maloney, at 22 August, 2005 00:57
This is what we sent to WMAL, and Chris Berry's response:
"We grew up listening to WMAL. Our parents listened to Hardin and Weaver in the morning, and we used to enjoy Felix Grant's show at night. We were second generation listeners, you could say.
We say "were" because you have squandered decades of our goodwill by your gutless firing of Michael Graham. You have caved in to pressure by an organization with ties to terrorists, which makes you an appeaser. We're disgusted by your cowardice and your boot-licking of the enemies of civilization. We are removing 630 AM from the presets on every radio we own, and will encourage our family and friends to turn their backs on you as well.
Additionally, we're going to contact the sponsors of your station and encourage them to take their business elsewhere.
We're almost speechless with disappointment, anger, frustration, and disgust. We *never* thought we would have to say that about WMAL radio."
Subject: Re: We are no longer listening to WMAL Radio 630 AM
Date: Sun, 21 Aug 2005 20:59:28 -0700
From: Berry, Chris J Chris.J.Berry@abc.com
To: mckaramales@yahoo.com
Ms Karamales
Thank you for your email. I had not heard of Michael's decision until now. We have given him the option to return to the air. Unfortunately he did not respond and instead has decided to miscast the facts. In addition our discussions with Michael were made independently without discussion or influence by ANY third party.
Again I appreciate you bringing Michael's announcement to my attention.
Chris Berry
President and General Manager
630 WMAL
By
MoK, at 22 August, 2005 01:22
MoK:
Thanks, have been trying to reach various ABC folks, we'll see what we eventually hear. Odd Mr. Berry says Graham hasn't been fired. I've heard from Graham, he sounds sure of it.
By
Brian Maloney, at 22 August, 2005 01:36
The ABC station manager said:
Thank you for your email. I had not heard of Michael's decision [not to beg and grovel before CAIR] until now. We have given him the option to [whine and beg before CAIR and thereby] return to the air [or else take a hike].
Really? With no strings attached?
By
RD, at 22 August, 2005 02:04
In addition our discussions with Michael were made independently without discussion or influence by ANY third party.
I see...so: if your employee angers a third party - Zod - and then Zod, in anger, demands that your employee bow and kneel before him...
And THEN, YOU "independently" command your employee to "kneel before Zod" - are we to believe that Zod had no influence on your behavior whatsoever?
By
RD, at 22 August, 2005 02:50
The Boy Scouts analogy was devastating. It would do us all well to remember it.
By
Emma Morrow, at 22 August, 2005 08:06
The gutlessness is by Disney. They, like all of the festering pestules that is Hollywood, cares more about the bucks they gross in Islam lands than in free speech at home. In fact Disney doesn't care about anything other than making money by any means necessary......
By
Howard, at 22 August, 2005 08:07
Wow, was that a total cop-out of a statement by the management.
Free speech isn't anything more than an illusion at this point in this country.
By
Ace, at 22 August, 2005 09:42
Mike & Brian - keep up the good work.
This is just disgusting. The Islamofacists are winning again...
By
Josef, at 22 August, 2005 10:41
Mr. Berry has tried on the dhimmi-jacket and says "it fits just fine." Mick here has done the same.
Under Islam, you simply cannot say certain things. Otherwise you get beheaded, stoned, dismembered, or otherwise incapacitated. Mick and Mr. Berry will sympathise from the sideline, wearing his dhimmi jacket.
By
al fin, at 22 August, 2005 11:16
If I owned the station, I might fire him too. It certainly would be my right--unless all you supporters of Michael Graham agree you should be forced to send money to The Nation, or The New York Times, or CAIR.
Or Air America.
By
Christopher Fotos, at 22 August, 2005 12:29
al fin
You said: Under Islam, you simply cannot say certain things. Otherwise you get beheaded, stoned, dismembered, or otherwise incapacitated. Mick and Mr. Berry will sympathise from the sideline, wearing his dhimmi jacket.
WOW!!! Looks to me like the same could be said of you. You are certainly OPEN to frank and honest discussion, RIGHT.
Mick
By
mick, at 22 August, 2005 12:38
Ignore Mick. Notice he says nothing of significance, he just attacks someone. He is doing that consistantly on this blog. Just ignore him, because no matter what you say, he won't debate it. He'll just attack again.
By
Linn, at 22 August, 2005 13:48
Well, you know, if he talks like a dhimmi, walks like a dhimmi, whines like a dhimmi-----he's probably a dhimmi.
Is Islam a terror organization? It's certainly a supremacist organization, an organization that aims to rule the world by conquest if necessary. Intimidation would be almost as good, involving the dhimmi-folk at ABC and the enablers busily suckling at their appendages.
In the US we consider violent supremacist organizations to be terrorist organizations. Islam certainly fits that definition, if you believe the Koran.
By
Buffy, at 22 August, 2005 14:25
Oh THAT Michael Graham
"Anyone listening to Hillary Rodham in her speech last week about patriotism, that screaming, screeching fingernail, I wanted to bludgeon her with a tire iron. That's what I wanted to do."
Michael Graham, May 2003. What a fine human being.
By
Robert, at 22 August, 2005 15:09
I have gotten narry a response from anyone at wmal. I have written them and their abc cohorts, I called berry and got v.m. I have not gotten anything except silence, escept from Michael himself!
This is a sad and extremely angering day! That FREE speech has died at the hands of abc/disney- who support everything wrong with this country.
It wont be long now before we are all silenced? (Note blogger put a flag button up to silence us!_I removed my navbar!)
If you aren't politicaLLY CORRECT YOU WILL BE SILENCED!
I HAVE REMOVED WMAL FROM MY PLAYLIST AND WILL NO LONGER BE TUNING IN IN THE MORNING! I WOULD RATHER LISTEN TO KIDS CARTOONS THEN THESE TRAITORS!
By
KC, at 22 August, 2005 15:33
It should be no surprise if we all feel a bit more terror after this firing. After all, that's what the host said CAIR and Islam are all about. CAIR just plays the urbane Sinn Fein to Islam's IRA. The tactics in these matters are so repetitive that I think there must surely be a manual somewhere for the construction of the political face of a terrorist network. If there is, it seems a shame that we decent people haven't read it.
By
Doug, at 22 August, 2005 18:05
How many other pressure groups do you think WMAL and ABC Radio would have so readily caved to? If CAIR demands that WMAL replace Michael Graham with an imam or an al-Jazeera commentator who will spew anti-American hatred, will WMAL bend over and take it?
Meanwhile, over at Air America, Randi Rhodes agitates for assassinating the president, and no one bats an eye.
By
Anonymous, at 22 August, 2005 19:01
This was a lousy decision on ABC's part. But LaShawn is right: this is not a First Amendment issue. Michael Graham is wrapping himself up in the Constitution here for dramatic effect, which is frankly a far more typical thing for a liberal to do (though their intepretation of said Constitution is far different than mine). But he is wrong to do so.
By
Unknown, at 22 August, 2005 19:21
It is irrelevant whether this is a "First Amendment Issue." It is clearly a restriction of speech at the behest of a religious organisation, a religious organisation that supports terrorism. There is no freedom from being offended in the US Constitution, as far as I know. The Islamic organisations pushing their weight around to influence public speech in North America may eventually find someone seriously willing to push back. Hard.
For some odd reason, muslims seem to believe that their willingness to blow themselves up in the act of murder endows them with a moral superiority. That is a very odd point of view. What is actually happening is that sane people try to avoid catching the attention of the terror enablers, for fear of being victimised. The enablers confuse this fear and uneasiness with the respect that people sometimes grant persons who have earned moral respect. Perhaps they can no longer distinguish between the two, or no longer care?
By
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By
Beth, at 22 August, 2005 20:04
Hey Linn welcome back.
Linn said: Ignore Mick. Notice he says nothing of significance, he just attacks someone. He is doing that consistantly on this blog. Just ignore him, because no matter what you say, he won't debate it. He'll just attack again.
Oh BABY, I just don’t know where to begin with this one. (I do seem to have a thing with that BABY word huh).
I’m still waiting on your reply to my SHOW ME THE FACTS question. I’m thinking it’s because you don’t have any. Pretty simple if you think about it.
I will respond with as much respect as is given. As I said the other day you take yourself way to seriously. Remember if you can’t stand the heat stay the heck out of the kitchen.
Did my comment about you getting a grip piss you off. Is that it.
Mick
By
mick, at 22 August, 2005 20:08
No, my policy is to discuss and debate someone who is commenting on topic, is sincere, and is discussing the facts, not just using personal attacks “to make your point.”.
Reading the facts and then harassing people to "tell you the facts", because you either can't understand what was written or to be obnoxious tells me the kind of person you are.
If you don't agree with what is written, fine, state it once, use your own facts and links to back up what you say and don't attack people.
What you have been doing shows that you probably don't have anything of substance to say, so you attack instead. I don't debate people who act like you do.
By
Linn, at 23 August, 2005 01:14
This is the response I got from Chris Berry, President, General Manager of 630 WMAL. I just wrote him back stating that I wanted no part of a station that mandated their hosts reflect the attitudes or opinions of station management.
Sorry about the late response to your email. As you might imagine it has been a long day.
Typically we don't comment on personnel matters, but given the misstatements being communicated by Michael, I want to set the record straight.
Some of Michael's statements about Islam went over the line and this isn't the first time that he has been reprimanded for insensitive language and comments. In this case, as previously, Michael's on-air statements do not reflect the attitudes or opinions of station management. I asked Michael for an on-air acknowledgement that some of his remarks were overly broad and inexplicably he refused.
Michael has also tried to position this that we were pressured into taking disciplinary action against him. For the record we make our decisions independent of external pressures or third parties and we will not permit an employee to willfully violate our policies or disregard management direction.
Chris Berry
President, General Manager
News Talk 630 WMAL
By
martytime311, at 23 August, 2005 10:32
WMAL's Chris Core weighs in with a group email to his listeners. It is disappointing, to say the least.
http://isleofmontecristo.blogspot.com/2005/08/more-on-michael-graham.html
By
Anonymous, at 23 August, 2005 11:45
This guy still has all the free speech rights he had yesterday and the day before. He can say whatever he wants, he has the right to do that. But he doesn't have any intrinsic right to make someone else keep providing him with his audience. He **never** had the right to get paid as a radio station employee to say whatever he wanted. That was always a privilege he enjoyed at the beneficience of his employers. The station is free to dump this guy if they don't think his views are the sort that they want as representative of what they are trying to promote. End of story on that count.
Further, I have zero sympathy for this guy's insistence that ALL of Islam must be condemned with a single broad brush smear. If had the minimum intellectual honesty to qualify his words even a little bit by saying "many," "most" or "the vast majority" I'd be willing to cut him some slack. But the fact of his complete unwillingness to admit the possibility of exceptions to his grotesquely overbroad statement leave me unable to take him seriously.
So I'm GLAD he got fired. He deserved it. The number of people here who are defending him seem to be good evidence that he should find no trouble finding employment elsewhere with some station with lower standards than the one that fired him.
By
bk, at 23 August, 2005 13:03
The sky is falling!
The sky is falling!
Give it a rest; this kind of crap happens all the time.
He has the freedom of speech.
And the company he works for has the right to fire him.
You sound like a bunch of whiney leftists by blowing this out of proportion and turning him into a martyr.
By
circlethewagons, at 23 August, 2005 13:14
BS! Mr. Graham's statement "The First Amendment and I have been evicted from ABC Radio in Washington, DC" has nothing to do with the truth. As he admits later in his statement, he was fired for his failure to carry out actions mandated by ABC management. Even if he was fired for his "speech", the First Amendment wouldn't come into play. That amendament is a restriction on government, not on private employers. ABC could fire him if he had said that the sky is blue, if they had wanted to do so.
Let's see if his listeners agree with CAIR. If they are offended by CAIR and ABC they can boycott the station. I doubt that they will do that. Americans are weak. They have no guts and must wait for big government to act for them. They can't even change their radio dial to support the free exchange of ideas.
By
bloggerguy, at 23 August, 2005 13:23
There are a lot of racist and bigoted slurs on this thread. And a lot of ignorant comments about the right to free speech. But then again racism and ignorance are hallmarks of this Maloney cheer squad. Most are simply uninformed and/or uneducated who blindly toeing the line. The others are idealogues manipulating the ignorant.
By
HeadHunter, at 23 August, 2005 20:14
PhilM: With all due respect, you have scant basis on which to make the claim(s) that most readers here are "uninformed", "uneducated", "blindly toeing the line", "ignorant" or indulging in racism. And what on God's green earth is an "idealogue"?
By
RD, at 24 August, 2005 00:08
With all due respect, you have scant basis on which to make the claim(s) that most readers here are "uninformed", "uneducated", "blindly toeing the line", "ignorant" or indulging in racism. And what on God's green earth is an "idealogue"?
You're kidding, right? Numerous ignorant comments about the right to free speech and generalizations disparaging an entire religion in support of a particularly stupid talk host. And your're telling me that posters here are not either uneducated or ill-informed or racist or blindly following Maloney's line? Calling me out on a typo (ideologue) indicates the weakness of your argument.
By
HeadHunter, at 24 August, 2005 08:40
[Bloggerguy] BS! Mr. Graham's statement "The First Amendment and I have been evicted from ABC Radio in Washington, DC" has nothing to do with the truth ... ABC could fire him if he had said that the sky is blue, if they had wanted to do so.
Bloggerguy, WADR: Do you seriously believe Graham was arguing that ABC overstepped its legal rights as an employer? I think his point about the First Amendment was meant rhetorically, not literally. ("Don't patronize me, Charles...")
By
RD, at 24 August, 2005 23:27
[PhilM] Calling me out on a typo (ideologue) indicates the weakness of your argument.
So, "idealogue" was not an intentional pun of some sort...okay...nor a spelling mistake. It was a typo. You meant to type, "ideologue", but your hand accidentally bumped the "a" key on the way to typing an "o"...it happens.
BTW, your retort - calling comments "ignorant" and a talk show host "stupid" - does nothing to advance your claim that those who agree with Mr. Graham are racists or ideological supremacists.
Have you considered the possibility that it might be the folks from CAIR who represent the racists and supremacists in your scenario, and have the explaining to do? The question for them being, NOT "why do they hate Americans?", but why do they hate the rest of the world - the Dar Al-Harb - inconsolably?
I'm sure Mr. Graham's comment seemed outrageous to you on its face. You indicated as much; and it's not every day that someone equates a "religion" with a "terrorist organization." Are you at all curious as to why this characterization might not be so farfetched after all, or are you only interested in making yourself feel better by patronizing others? We're waiting with bated breath.
By
RD, at 25 August, 2005 07:33
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