Hot Topic

A local talk show host called on his listeners to burn down the local ACLU office because he disagrees with their politics. You can read the story that was in The Fresno Bee about this incident here:

http://www.fresnobee.com/columnists/bentley/story/9536017p-10426499c.html or below.

The talk show host is on the most listened to station in Fresno. KMJ, 580 AM also gives a voice to the likes of Michael Savage and Rush Limbaugh. Any ideas about what can be done about this situation?

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KMJ host defends anti-ACLU comments
By Rick Bentley / The Fresno Bee

Southern California resident Mark Steinberg was passing through Fresno the night before Thanksgiving. He likes to listen to Central San Joaquin Valley talk radio when he makes that trek. That's when he heard a comment he considers too incendiary.
"Local KMJ [AM 580] radio personality Jaz McKay advocated to his listeners the burning 'to the ground' of the local office of the American Civil Liberties Union. The comment was part of an extended diatribe by McKay on the subject of the ACLU," Steinberg says.
The American Civil Liberties Union is a national organization dedicated to defending civil liberties. The closest office is in San Francisco.
"Whatever one might think of that organization, the advocacy of violence against it is plainly beyond protected speech, not to mention taste," Steinberg says.
McKay admits that he has talked about how the buildings housing the Internal Revenue Service, and now the ACLU, should be bulldozed or burned to the ground.
"But I am not calling for people to actually do that. It is just an analogy, a metaphor, for putting an end to these organizations," McKay says.
McKay has made the ACLU a target for several weeks.
"I see the ACLU as an enemy of freedom. My message comes across blunt, but that is my job," McKay says. The KMJ radio talk show host adds that when it comes to the limits of free speech, he agrees no one has the right to shout "fire" in a crowded theater.
"Unless there really is a fire," McKay says.
Steinberg says he was so upset with McKay's comment that he e-mailed a message of protest to KMJ management and the Federal Communication Commission. Neither has responded.
Patty Hixson, the new general manager of the local Infinity Broadcasting radio stations that includes KMJ, would not comment on the matter. Infinity has a corporate policy not to talk to the press.