Hate Speech in Advertising

By now, most of you have heard about the bozo in Missouri that insists on running his political advertising filled with hate speech, racial slurs, and anti-Semitic insults.Missouri has a US Senate seat up for grabs this year, and Entercom’s KMBZ-AM in Kansas City is running ads from a supposedly legally-qualified candidate who is in the hunt as a write-in candidate. The ads are racist and anti-Semitic, but the station says it is legally bound to run them.

OK, so here we go…for what it’s worth. It’s time to just say “no”. Various legal experts and the States’ Attornies General are all weighing in, trying to find legal ways to get this guy off the air. In an attempt to justify yanking his cord via technicalities, attempts are being made to prove that he is not, after all, a legally qualified candidate and/or he is not who he says he is.

So what…why tolerate it in the first place? This country has a grand tradition of civil disobedience when the cause is just. Nobody wants to invite a lawsuit or the heavy hand of federal intervention, but sometimes you just have to stand up to the bullies no matter what.

This is obscene, it is unacceptable, and it should not have gotten this far. We no longer own any, but we can tell you this: If anyone tried to pull this on any of our previously owned stations, he would have seen the sidewalk real fast.

That’s 30 For Now…For What It’s Worth