Support of Local Media Questioned
Dear Elected Officials and Public Leaders,
Has Jackson become so numb that if a problem doesn't affect us or our family it's not "our problem"?
A local media has for years skated over the line of community decency. It's been tolerated by some, and even worse, others have sponsored it with support and dollars. I am talking about the talk station WNWS 101.5.
How is it wrong for a business to degrade women as dancers, but it is okay for a radio personality to talk about Hooters and Tallywhackers for 30 minutes? Or to use that microphone to bully people on air and threaten them in public. How do we teach our children tolerance and still support a station that promotes indifference and segregation? Is an entire program spent telling immature "how ugly is your mama" jokes a good place for your support?
These things are just a start of a list which seems endless. Hours have been spent on sexual innuendo, gross humor, race baiting, and intolerance. How can it be acceptable for a host to tell his listeners if a young black man didn't want to be called a *racial slur*, and used the slur on air, that he should go to another college? How about a rape victim as being speculated to be the aggressor simply because the accused was a white teacher and preacher? Somehow they are more "vulnerable to being set up by these women".
If there was a bar catering to nudity, as there has been, you would demand action. If a business got frequent police calls because of assaults and violence, as there has been, you would want it to be closed. If activity promotes promiscuity, same thing, you would demand action. Ask yourself is promotion and encouragement of this behavior on the radio any different?
There is another concern. Look at the radio station's staff. What do you notice? They are all white middle-class males. There is not a single minority, a person of color, or another gender who appears daily on air. Does that reflect a community of diversity? How is it possible to say you represent the community values and not mirror the image of Jackson?
WNWS has the right to hire and broadcast whatever message they choose. Even a message of racism, bigotry, sexism, and intolerance. They can wave a confederate flag in front of the station if they choose. The question is not about them, but about who sponsors and supports that message.
A conversation with station management has been going on since the "Pimp walkin' Prez married to cheetah's daughter" comment when a change was promised. Nothing has changed. The climate of the station and its hosts remain the same mostly because there are no consequences. According to its owners the business is catering to the audience's wants and it's the rough and tumble world of talk radio. There was some condescension that objectors are just fanatics and trying to control what is being said. It's not about controlling what is said, but what the public supports and promotes.
Some of you are advertisers and some of you support the station in other ways. All that is being asked is for you to decide if that message is what you believe represents the community standards. You have a voice, and it will be heard even if it is your silence.
DeCarlos Porter
Jackson, TN
