A Pilgrim’s Digression

http://www.washingtonpost…5082201255.html

Talk Show Host Graham Fired

Washington radio station WMAL-AM fired talk show host Michael Graham yesterday after he refused to soften his description of Islam as “a terrorist organization” on the air last month.

Graham had been suspended without pay from his daily three-hour show since making his comments July 25. The station had conditioned his return to the midmorning shift on reading a station-approved statement in which Graham would have said that his anti-Muslim statements were “too broad” and that he sometimes uses “hyperbole” in the course of his program. WMAL also asked Graham to speak to the station’s advertisers and its employees about the controversy.

But Graham refused both conditions, prompting the station to drop him.

According to WMAL, Graham said “Islam is a terrorist organization” 23 times on his July 25 program. On the same show, he also said repeatedly that “moderate Muslims are those who only want to kill Jews” and that “the problem is not extremism. The problem is Islam.”

Not unsurprisingly, Graham resorted to a Liberal argument in his defense, saying that his right to freedom of speech had been abridged. Graham said, “As a fan of talk radio, I find it absolutely outrageous that pressure from a special interest group like CAIR can result in the abandonment of free speech and open discourse on a talk radio show.”

Some other Conservative talk show host should tell Graham what they have been telling Liberals for years: you have a right to free speech in this country, but you do not have the right to a forum for your speech.

I don’t listen to talk radio like I used to, but the few times I’ve listened in the past month since Graham made his comments, I haven’t heard any of the big names mention Graham’s case. Boortz mentions it today briefly at his blog. Limbaugh’s website is always a day behind, so no mention of it there.

Graham must be feeling a bit crestfallen that he has been summarily dismissed, and his talk radio colleagues have uttered a collective yawn. Perhaps in private they all feel a little more vulnerable, but probably not. Graham lacked one thing that Limbaugh and others have to provide them insulation from a firing: Graham was local, not nationally syndicated, and he did not bring in anywhere near the advertising dollars that Limbaugh hauls in to his network.

Good riddance to Michael Graham. A small victory for reasoned speech, a great loss for stupid speech.