Stop Hate Radio

Citizens for Civility & Accountability in Media is calling for KMJ-AM to alter their programming in order to curtail practices that we believe to be damaging to our social fabric and to civility in public discourse. While we agree the government must protect the rights of free speech we also believe that we, members of this community, have a right to speak out against hate speech.

We are specifically concerned about the 90-plus weekly hours of prime-time programming comprising the shows of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Mark Levine, Glenn Beck, Inga Barks, Ray Appleton and others.

This kind of unreasoned rhetoric, which KMJ unleashes daily, has been, and can be again, a contributor to actual acts of violence perpetrated by people urged on to extremism by the kind of programming that monopolizes their prime-time air.

As custodian of public air space, KMJ has a responsibility larger than making profit. They have the civic responsibility—at the very least—to not do damage to the society that they are part of, to promote the idea of truthful information, respectful debate and lawful dissent.

We hope to persuade KMJ to change the station’s programming from an extremist one-sided perspective to programming that reflects the broad diversity of people residing in KMJ’S broadcast area. It is our concern that KMJ is the exclusive home of the CSUF Bulldogs, where the success of their sports programs depend on their ethnic and gender diversity, and at the same time home of over 90 hours of prime time (9AM-11PM) hours weekly of talk show hosts who are overwhelmingly anti-government, anti-President Obama and given to inflammatory stereotyping. This is not conducive to harmony and uniting people of this country.

The National Telecommunications and Information Agency (NTIA) stated in their executive summary of the 1993 report, The Role of Telecommunications in Hate Crimes, “Racism and bigotry strike at the heart of those values that the United States cherishes in its society -- especially the fundamental tenet that all persons are created equal. Despite the progress that has been made over the last few decades, there unfortunately remain vestiges of racial, ethnic, or other types of prejudice in some Americans. In some instances, those prejudices run so deep that they motivate the commission of so-called "hate crimes" -- crimes directed at individuals because of their race, religion, ethnicity, or sexual orientation.

One of NTIA’s recommendations stated that, “The best response to hate speech is more speech to educate the public and promote greater tolerance, rather than government censorship or regulation. This is consistent with the well-recognized theory that free speech serves an "enlightenment function”.

Therefore Citizens for Civility & Accountability in Media is here today to provide more speech to educate the public and promote greater tolerance.

Citizens for Civility & Accountability in Media is comprised of seven community members as conveners and over 40 community members representing a widely diverse group of community organizations. Community meetings were held in October and December 2009 while the conveners have been meeting nearly every week since December.

Recently we began collecting signatures on a petition to KMJ, with it being printed in two local community papers and given to our members to take forward. We hope that this website will help us reach others who are concerned with the programming at KMJ and will help begin a community dialogue on the issue.