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Indybay Feature

Grassroots Groups Tell FCC: Stop Hate Radio

Date:
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Time:
3:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Event Type:
Protest
Organizer/Author:
Sue Wilson
Location Details:
Victoria Theater
2961 16th Street
San Francisco, CA 94103
at 16th St. BART station

At 3:00 PM on Sunday June 28, the Hispanic/Latino Anti-Defamation Coalition, Media Alliance, and California Common Cause will mount a rally outside the San Francisico Premiere of Broadcast Blues at the Victoria Theater at 16th and Mission. The message is clear: Tell the FCC to schedule hearings on Hate Radio. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is the federal agency which oversees broadcasters.

"A recent UCLA study shows a correlation between hate radio and hate crimes. We are demanding the FCC listen to the public about this crucial public interest problem," says Dr. Marcos Gutierrez, radio host and director of Hecho en California Radio.

“Common Cause is concerned when a few corporations own our media resulting in less local programming and fewer viewpoints being broadcast. More alarming, we are hearing more ‘hate speech’ including broadcasters spreading misinformation, stereotyping, and fostering violence against certain people or groups,” notes California Common Cause staffer Emily Pears.

Broadcasters say they have the right to exercise Free Speech, but Broadcast Blues director Sue Wilson challenges that assertion. "There is Free Speech, and there is Radio Speech. The two are not the same. When the radio dial is opened up to all points of view, radio speech will be free. Until then, it is owned and operated for a political agenda. That must change." Broadcast Blues reminds us that we the people own the airwaves, and that we do have the power to hold stations and the FCC accountable.

Tracy Rosenberg of Media Alliance says, "How is it in the public interest to call other human beings …vermin? If I were a regulator whose job was to rent out the nation’s communication space, I’d look into that. That’s what we’re asking the FCC to do.”

The rally will be held at the Victoria Theater, 2961 16th Street, San Francisco,
at the 16th St. BART station. The screening of Broadcast Blues will follow at 4PM. More information is at http://www.broadcastblues.tv .





Added to the calendar on Tue, Jun 16, 2009 2:12PM

Comments (Hide Comments)
by @
As a person involved in the micro-power radio movement, I find it pretty disappointing to see members of the "progressive community "advocating for increased FCC oversight of what should be a common resource.

Someone commented on this earlier (and apparently had their comment deleted) that one of the mythical "freedoms " which supposedly make this country superior then the rest of the world is the fiction that in a democracy people "may not agree with what you have to say, but will defend to the death one's right to say it." As an Anarchist I personally disagree with this line of thinking, but I hardly think that lobbying for an increase in the repressive powers of the state as arbiter of disagreements over something as non-threatening as speech is an appropriate response to individuals making hateful statements on the air.

I have seen a notice from the FCC threatening members of my micro-power radio collective with a fine of $20,000 for broadcasting. I myself use foul language on the radio every week. you guys want the FCC to give me a hard time? that's not cool. you know they ain't gonna o nothing about the conglomerates that operate the major stations. demanding that the state regulate the capitalists, especially capitalists involved in the perpetuation of the Spectacle, is wishful thinking at best. The proper solution should be obvious: we gotta attack em both!

Direct action gets the goods. If you don't like what mike savage or whoever has to say about your community, one appropriate response might be to build a stronger transmitter then his and jam his signal. But asking the FCC to go after "offensive rabble-rousers" is hella weak sauce.

I see in this kind of post impressions of tea-totlers, eclisiastic censors, condemners of pornography and video games, in short, the sort of people who would have imprisoned Baudelaire.
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