“Hate Radio’s” Bigotry Against Hispanics

Would they like a little cheese to go with their whine? — Ed.On Monday, hate radio king Rush Limbaugh appeared on Fox News for five minutes to discuss the presidential race and managed to make an offensive comment. Limbaugh called Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (D), who is Hispanic, a "<a href=”http://thinkprogress.org/2008/05/05/limbaugh-on-the-mayor-of-la-i-thought-he-was-either-a-shoe-shine-guy-or-a-secret-service-agent/”>shoe shine guy</a>." Yesterday, Alex Nogales, president of the National Hispanic Media Coalition, blasted Limbaugh for uttering "<a href=”http://www.portfolio.com/views/blogs/mixed-media/2008/05/06/la-mayor-to-answer-limbaughs-race-swipe”>the same kind of nasty, bigoted, racist type comment</a> that has become so <a href=”http://www.wecanstopthehate.org/”>prevalent in today’s society</a>, as practiced by Lou Dobbs, as practiced by [Sean Hannity, [Bill O’Reilly, [Michael Savage." Racial slurs, particularly fueled against Hispanics, has found a home on <a href=”http://www.wecanstopthehate.org/”>right-wing radio</a>, which claims <a href=”http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2007/06/talk_radio.html”>91 percent of radio airwaves</a>. The nation’s leading Hispanic advocacy group, National Council of La Raza, launched a campaign earlier this year decrying right-wing radio for its "<a href=”http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/01/30/major-hispanic-group-laun_n_84105.html”>rhetoric that demonizes immigrants and Hispanic Americans</a>." "Talk like Savage’s, or Limbaugh’s or O’Reilly’s, has become routine, even systematic, and certainly a big business. According to the Senate Democratic Policy Committee, the top five radio station owners that control 45 powerful, 50,000-watt or more radio stations <a href=”http://dir.salon.com/story/opinion/feature/2003/08/15/hate/”>broadcast 310 hours of nationally syndicated right-wing talk</a>. But they broadcast only a total of five hours of countervailing talk," Salon reported. Yet these talkers are rarely held to account: For example, <a href=”http://thinkprogress.org/2008/05/06/media-limbaugh-villaraigosa/”>neither ABC, Time, nor Politico mentioned the offensive remarks</a> when reporting on Limbaugh’s TV commentary this week. Progressive radio host Mario Solis-Marich wrote Tuesday, "As a member of the largest minority ethnic group and a member of the media, I am continually puzzled and outraged by the idea that anyone can <a href=”http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mario-solismarich/the-medias-latino-rules_b_100353.html”>say anything about Latinos without fearing any consequence</a>." <a href=”http://www.americanprogressaction.org/progressreport/2008/05/pr20080507" target=”_blank”>Continue…</a>

2008-05-11