> > A similar situation happened locally here a couple years ago-- a radio > > host said something that taken out of the context it was said in > > appeared to be 'racist' against the mayor of the city(I heard it live > > and never connected it until the next week when it was in the news). > > The DJ in question had a habit of playing monkey noises whenever > referring to the then-mayor, who was black. The mayor was running for > the County Executive position at the time, and the DJ told a story of > an orangutan that escaped from the zoo, and who was now running for > County Executive. > > How's that for context? Or did I miss something?
That sounds like perfect context for someone getting their facts from the media. If you, however, actually listened to the show, you'd know it was something more like this. Once(not a 'habit'), this happened. Lonsberry regularly hosted a 5-minute "listener's on the loose" segment to end his show each day-- each caller got on the air, unscreened, and got to say anything they wanted(usually about 10-20 seconds; they were cut off if they went over). There was a dump button of course. The day the monkey escaped from the zoo, a listener played monkey noises over the phone during his 10 seconds or so. Lonsberry replied, laughing(as he almost always does, making a short comment on the caller), and made a comment regarding the monkey escaping the zoo and how maybe he'd run for county executive. Yes, this can be interpreted as racist by some-- particularly those looking for it. To me, listening to it live, I took it as "even a monkey could do better than the fools that are running". Lonsberry did not have many fans on either side of the aisle, hence no support once this was twisted to turn him into a horrible racist individual, when in fact he made one off-the-cuff remark without thinking how it would be interpreted. What Imus said, which I fully support(free speech is free speech-- if it offends or not), was far more direct and far more 'racist', IMO. If free speech didn't offend people, we wouldn't need laws defending it.... -- Derek _______________________________________________ Post Messages to: [email protected] Subscription Maintenance: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox OT-free version of this list: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech Searchable Archive: http://leafe.com/archives/search/profox This message: http://leafe.com/archives/byMID/profox/[EMAIL PROTECTED] ** All postings, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are the opinions of the author, and do not constitute legal or medical advice. This statement is added to the messages for those lawyers who are too stupid to see the obvious.
