Tami Abdollah, Howard Blume/LAT on McIntyre/KABC/charter school lawsuit

Posted Thu, Apr 19, 2007 at 9:46 am

Tami Abdollah and Howard Blume of the Los Angeles Times take a "slightly different" tack on the lawsuit filed by Academia Semillas del Pueblo against Doug McIntyre of KABC ("L.A. charter school sues radio station", link).

They imply that trying to expose this school is just shock-jockery:

...Talk radio hosts have long taken advantage of 1st Amendment free speech protections that give them broad latitude... ...The lawsuit follows the firing of radio host Don Imus last week over a racist and sexist remark, which set off a large-scale debate over whether some talk-show hosts go too far... "Shock jocks" are not new, said Marty Kaplan of USC's Annenberg School for Communication. "The more they could make your jaw drop... the more their ratings went up - it has since become a standard genre."

Kaplan is also the director of "the Norman Lear Center for the study of entertainment" and he contributes to the Huffington Post (martyk *at* rcf.usc.edu). And, the Los Angeles Times has a history of covering up for extremists (ANSWER, Antonio Villaraigosa), so it shouldn't be surprising that they'd try to imply that investigative reporting is just "shock".

Then, there's this:

The lawsuit also quotes McIntyre as allegedly saying: "Aztecs butchered and ate Spanish invaders. I wonder if they're teaching that at ASDP." ...KABC would neither confirm nor deny whether McIntyre made those statements.

From that, the reader is supposed to assume that that statement is somehow false. Actually, a search for the exact phrase "Aztecs butchered, ate Spanish invaders" brings up over a hundred results; that was the title of a Reuters story from August 2006 (link, link).

Oh, the horror: a "shock jock" reading a Reuters story on the air.

Tags: 
los angeles times
antonio villaraigosa

Comments

petit bourgeois (not verified)

Thu, 04/19/2007 - 18:58

The irony is that the LAT has "taken advantage" of the First Amendment as well. Ever read the editorial pages calling for more immigration from mexico citing bogus studies about how much "immigrants" contribute to the economy without any analysis about how my tax dollars are doled out to those who are clearly not entitled to it? It's like a kamikaze mission they have: half of LA is already functionally illiterate, and they espouse public policy to further reduce the available population that can read english. These jackasses will be out of business sooner than I can imagine when there is no one left to read this fish wrapper.

amanda (not verified)

Thu, 04/19/2007 - 22:32

"Aztecs butchered and ate Spanish invaders. EVEN IF THAT WERE NOT TRUE, IT WOULD NOT BE AN UNTRUE STATEMENT ABOUT ASDP. THEY ARE NOT THE OBJECT OF THE CLAIM AND THUS NOT DEFAMED. I wonder if they're teaching that at ASDP." THAT IS MERELY A QUESTION, SPECULATION. DEFAMATON REQUIRES A STATEMENT. WHO YOU ARE ALSO MATTERS. THE PLAINTIFF IS A PUBLICLY FUNDED SCHOOL ENGAGED IN A HIGHLY POLITICAL, CONTROVERSIAL CURRICULUM. JUST THE KIND OF THING PEOPLE SHOULD BE TALKING ABOUT. I AM CURIOUS HOW A RADIO HOST CAN VIOLATE CIVIL RIGHTS MERELY BY SPEAKING. I'M SURE SOME PEOPLE WOULD LOVE TO HAVE 'VERBAL HATE CRIME' LAWS THOUGH.

Fred Dawes (not verified)

Thu, 04/19/2007 - 22:33

Thank you Petit bourgeois

amanda (not verified)

Thu, 04/19/2007 - 22:49

That little 'taken advantage of' line can be taken in different ways. I wonder if the authors see it negatively as exploitation? Well, James Madison would be glad that people on the radio are taking full advantage of the First Amendment. I guess anyone on the radio who talks about anything political which you disagree with is now a 'shock jock'.