KTVQ (Montana) asks democrats to change controversial ad

[RSchewe]

I wonder if these stations reacted the same when the Swift Boat Liars were putting out commercials during the Kerry campaign.

http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?tl=1&display=rednews/2005/08/09/build/state/25-burns-ad.inc

[wryter2000]

1. The only difference

It looks as if they'll get away with it and have the ad pulled.

[bos1]

2. Help keep Conservative Idiot Off the Air

Hey DUers,

In a major victory, one of the DU top ten conservative idiots of 2003 (http://www.democraticunderground.com/top10/03/110.html) got suspended from his hate talkshow on WMAL in DC for calling Islam a terrorist organizaition, among other things.

Help keep this jerk off the air by sending emails to WMAL: [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail]

Sample letter below. Do it today!

---------------
Dear WMAL management,

I would like to tell you that Michael Graham should be kept off the air by any responsible, civic minded broadcaster. Graham has abused his position on the public airwaves to spread dangerously reactionary views based on inflammatory lies about a major world religion in a way that could potentially incite violence against innocent people.

As a major advertiser on WMAL put it, "regarding the comments made by Michael Graham on the WMAL Radio Station... I can assure you that we at Moore Cadillac Hummer agree with you totally. Anyone that paints a negative picture of an entire segment of society based on the actions of a few is shortsighted and ignorant. That type of broad-brush stereotyping is detrimental to the extensive progress this country has made in the battle against prejudice and bigotry."

Graham has recently taken to saying such things as "Islam is a terrorist organization" and backs this wildly intolerant and hateful viewpoint with plainly false premises. One blatant falsehood that he has knowingly repeated on his show recently is "If the problem is 'extremism' and not Islam as it is currently constituted, why are ALL of the suicide bombers Muslim?"

As I am sure you know, not only are all suicide bombings not by Muslims, but MOST aren't. Most suicide bombings are by the Tamil Tiger rebels, a secular, Hindu-based group in Sri Lanka. So he has cited a total falsehood in order to propagate a message of hate and intolerance. (See University of Chicago political scientist Robert Pape's research for attribution.)

Another blatant falsehood he constantly repeats is that the Islamic community and leaders implicitly condone terrorist violence by not condemning it. As I am sure you know, even before this week's fatwa, Muslim organizations in the US and around the world have condemned terrorism constantly and overwhelmingly since 9/11. For a long list of Muslim leaders worldwide condemning terrorism (including fatwas) see http://www.unc.edu/%7Ekurzman/terror.htm and
http://www.muhajabah.com/otherscondemn.php or

Briefly, here are few more examples of glaringly reckless statements from Graham just this last week:
- "That is another sad fact about Islam today, that a moderate Muslim is just someone who wants to kill the Jews". ("Fact"?)
-"I will gladly take the violence against Muslims versus the violence from Muslims over the past five years."

And he made this off-the-wall charge against the Council for American Islamic Relations:
-"because as they tell you at CAIR, you know who runs the media, the J-O-O's." (i.e. meaning "Jews".)

As someone very dedicated to free speech, I would like to point out that these are far outside the realm of responsible public debate. They belong to the "yelling fire inside a crowded movie theater" category of statements that are potentially dangerous, especially in a time of war and in the recent aftermath of terrorist bombings in London, when people may be prone to acts of violent backlash against Muslim Americans.

In conclusion, thank you for keeping dangerous extremists like Michael Graham off the air.

Thank you for your time, and I look forward to your reply.