Guest Column

Monreal-Cameron’s Response to: “Sr. Sinverguenza”

By Mr. Robert Miranda (http://www.hispanicvista.com/HVC/Columnist/rbaldwin/011705baldwin.htm)

Last week the “Belling Update” addressed the possibility that Clear Channel is attempting to divide the Latino community by giving benefits to some conservative Republican Latinos for their acquiescence. Robert Miranda, editor of the Spanish Journal, criticized the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce’s Maria Monreal-Cameron for allegedly selling out the dignity of the Latino community for her 30 pieces of silver. According to Miranda, the payoff from Clear Channel came in the form of “a corporate dinner table and numerous prestigious items from Clear Channel for [Monreal-Cameron’s] silent auction fund raiser. In fact, Clear Channel will most likely be handing over several thousand dollars this year to the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce at its annual banquet.”

Monreal-Cameron said this week that the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce initially sent a press release “urging Clear Channel Communications to remove the divisive and dangerous Mark Belling from its airwaves.” At a subsequent meeting with Latino community leaders and the local leadership of Clear Channel Radio, Monreal-Cameron said she presented a set of requests which included the following: “a profound, genuine and sincere apology from Belling ... 40 hours of Hispanic community service ... and a nine month use of billboards owned by Clear Channel.” The billboards would promote the NAACP and the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce’s national conventions, both to be held in Milwaukee this year.

Monreal-Cameron and two other Latino leaders then met with Clear Channel; Clear Channel put an offer on the table that Monreal-Cameron describes as their “offer towards the healing process.” Monreal-Cameron countered, asking once again for the use of billboard space.

At the next meeting of the Coordinating Committee Against Hate Speech, Monreal-Cameron presented Clear Channel’s offer. According to Monreal-Cameron, the offer from Clear Channel “was met with adamant outrage.” Monreal-Cameron then argued that the Committee Against Hate Speech would never win because Belling brings in $100,000 a week in advertising. She then shared the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce’s position of “forgive but not forget” which “again met with an extreme volatile response.” Monreal-Cameron then made the decision to withdraw from the Coordinating Committee Against Hate Speech.

Shepherd EXPRESS

Volume 26: Issue 03

January 20, 2005

NEWS:  Belling Update

Clear Channel Radio fires popular Chicago radio jock for racist joke

According to an article published Jan. 13, 2005, in the Chicago Sun Times, popular nighttime talk-show host, Java Joel (Joel Murphy), was fired from Clear Channel’s WKSC-FM (103.5) for telling a racially insensitive joke on the air about African Americans.

In a statement, John Gehron, regional vice president of Clear Channel Radio, termed Murphy’s comments “inappropriate” and in no way representative of the opinions of WKSC or its employees.

Joel Murphy joined the Chicago Clear Channel station in November 2001, and was soon recognized with the Illinois Broadcasters Association’s Silver Dome Award for “Best Local Radio Station Personality of the Year.”

In addition to hosting his nightly program called the “Rubber Room,” Murphy customized voice tracks so his show could air on Clear Channel stations in markets including Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Louisville, Ky., Jacksonville, Fla., and Rochester, N.Y.

According to the article, Murphy’s show had a cumulative weekly audience of 413,000 and was ranked sixth overall by Arbitron.

Clear Channel moved decisively and appropriately by firing a racist from the public airwaves. Less than 48 hours after telling the racist joke, Mr. Murphy was fired. We certainly defend the right to free speech, but it is not the issue here. If Mr. Murphy or Mr. Belling wants to set up their soapboxes on the street and yell their racist comments at the top of their lungs, they have that right, but it is different when it is on the public airwaves.

So the obvious question is: Why did Clear Channel act so decisively and fire Java Joel, who by all counts was a much bigger producer for Clear Channel, and not fire Mark Belling?

Was it because Java Joel’s slur was directed toward African Americans just days before Martin Luther King Jr. Day? Does Clear Channel view its Chicago market as more sophisticated than its Milwaukee market and less tolerant of racism? Did the advertisers on Java Joel’s program in Chicago scream louder than the advertisers on Belling’s program? Does Clear Channel feel it’s OK to sling racial slurs at Latinos but not African Americans? Did the non-Latino elected officials and civic leaders in Chicago overwhelmingly denounce Java Joel’s racial comments, causing Clear Channel to act decisively, whereas Milwaukee’s civic leaders were more passive? We now know that Clear Channel can do the right thing when they see a portion of society attacked and humiliated by racial slurs, so why is Belling still on the air?