The National Hispanic Media Coalition, (NHMC) and its allies are holding a peaceful demonstration in front of CC Radio’s KFI-AM 10/13 to protest the stations’ patronage of what it calls “hate speech targeting Latinos” on the “John and Ken Show.” The demonstration and a press conference were held at 11:30AM.
The whole thing started when John and Ken (John Kobylt and Ken Chiampou) gave out the cellphone number on-air of Jorge-Mario Cabrera, a longtime immigrant rights activist, in a campaign against the California Dream Act (state tuition assistance for illegal immigrants).
But what followed was a barrage of hate-filled phone calls that followed on that cell phone and office numbers, because the hosts and urged listeners that opposed to The Dream Act to call him. Cabrera, a spokesman for the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, told The LA Times he got more than 400 calls, many of them filled with hateful language and calls for violence.
The boycott was called after Greg Ashlock, market manager for CC Radio/LA, initially agreed to meet with NHMC but canceled the meeting because their request had become an ultimatum demanding that John and Ken be removed from the air.
So far over 30 organizations have joined the “Campaign to Take John and Ken off the Air,” among them America’s Voice, Asian American Justice Center (AAJC), Communication Workers of America, Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), Jewish Labor Committee Western Region, League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), Mexican American Political Association (MAPA) and the National Council of La Raza (NCLR).
NHMC has contacted advertisers of the show. Two of the largest and a local one have already committed to pull their ads from the show in support. “We expect that most – if not all – of the advertisers will pull out their ads in support of our campaign against the hate speech targeting Latinos and other people of color on KFI’s “John and Ken Show. We will hold the peaceful demonstration in exercise of our freedom of speech protesting John and Ken’s demonization of Latinos and others with which they disagree,” said Alex Nogales, NHMC CEO.
The full list of the advertisers NHMC has contacted:
On-air advertisements
? AT&T Wireless
? Auto Insurance Specialists
? Ayres Hotels
? Cadillac
? Cunning Dental Group
? Jarvis & Krieger Attorneys at Law
? Riverside Metro Auto Group
? Saddleback Eye Center
? Susan’s Healthy Gourmet
? The Bugman
Official endorsements
? Albertson’s
? Aquarium of the Pacific
? BMW
? Cars for Causes
? Chevron
? Citrix “Go to my PC”
? Home Depot
? Hyundai
? Quicken
? Ralphs
? The Bicycle Casino
? Verizon FIOS
? Vons
NHMC has also pulled some of transcripts from the show:
“They (Mexican immigrants) bring their third-world habits and foul our life.”
“Look at the drug cartels, all the trafficking, all the rapes, the murders….I mean, they kill 40 thousand people on that side of the border and they are bringing that over here. Now, just up here in Santa Rosa, this week, a 4 year-old kid, Christopher “Buddy” Rowe — 4 years old — was killed by an illegal alien, who ran him over in his way to soccer practice….because we don’t enforce our laws.”
“One of the biggest struggles that the average middle class family has, it’s to save enough money and get their kid admitted into a half decent school. And then, to have your seat taken away by an illegal, and the funding taken away by an illegal. You know, if that doesn’t get people screaming bloody murder, then you deserve this rotten State, you really do.”
“If there was actually a line to get to the grant money, and actually a line to get admitted into the college, imagine the illegal alien elbows you and says ‘-You know what? I’ll be taking your seat and your money.’ You would turn around and sack him on the snout. You would punch him out and say: ‘Get out of here! What are you, a thief? That’s my money, and that’s my seat.’ This is really what we’re doing here. We’re allowing all these illegal aliens to shove us out of the way, and take our seats and take our money in all these colleges.”
RBR-TVBR observation: The good news for KFI is the groups are so far only targeting advertisers of that show and that show only. The groups may decide to move beyond, however, and target the whole station. While John and Ken and the station can argue all they want that the content was only directed to illegal immigrants, it doesn’t appear that’s going to be a workable excuse here. The best bet would be to turn this into an on-air invitation for the groups to come on their show/the station to resolve it once and for all. Easier said than done, though.
