Tausyiah275

[sori, beritanya agak2 telat…]

By Paul Farhi
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, August 23, 2005; C01

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.”

The comments drew complaints and prompted an organized
letter-writing campaign against WMAL and its
advertisers by a Muslim group, the Council on
American-Islam Relations (CAIR) of Washington. The
protests led several advertisers to ask WMAL to stop
airing their ads during Graham’s weekday show,
although the station says it didn’t lose any
advertisers amid the controversy.

In a statement yesterday, Graham blamed CAIR for his
firing and defended his comments: “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.”

Graham, in an interview last night, said he and the
station had reached an agreement on terms of his
return last week, but the station called back to
withdraw. “It was a done deal,” he said. “They revoked
it because, after further consideration, it didn’t
contain an apology. And I will not apologize for
something that is true.”

Chris Berry, WMAL’s president and general manager,
disputed Graham’s characterization, saying in an
interview that “no one involved in this decision ever
had any contact with anyone from CAIR.” Instead, he
said, Graham was terminated because he violated
station policy and disregarded “management direction”
to redress it.

Officials at WMAL, which is owned by the Walt Disney
Co., had initially declined to take disciplinary
action against Graham, defending his comments as part
of the overheated rhetoric of talk radio. But that
stance began to change as complaints about Graham’s
remarks mounted.

Graham, 43, is one of several conservative talk hosts
featured on the station. WMAL (630 AM) also carries
Rush Limbaugh’s and Sean Hannity’s nationally
syndicated radio shows. Graham’s WMAL show is not
syndicated.

The station had hoped to work out an agreement that
would return Graham to the air, Berry said, but it was
evident by early yesterday that Graham would not agree
to the station’s terms. He added in a statement: “Some
of Michael’s statements about Islam went over the line
— and this isn’t the first time that he has been
reprimanded for insensitive language and comments. In
this case, as previously, Michael’s on-air statements
do not reflect the attitudes or opinions of station
management. I asked Michael for an on-air
acknowledgment that some of his remarks were overly
broad, and inexplicably he refused.” In 1999, Graham
was fired from a Charlotte station for saying that the
killing of athletes was a “minor benefit” of the
Columbine shootings. He apologized the next day.

CAIR applauded WMAL’s decision. The organization had
asked the station for a retraction or an apology, but
“we didn’t get specific on what [Graham] should say,”
said Rabiah Ahmed, a spokeswoman. “We were looking for
an acknowledgment that his statements were anti-Muslim
and hateful, and harmful to our community and our
country’s image.”

Berry said no permanent replacement for Graham has
been chosen because the station until yesterday
thought Graham would be returning to work. He said
WMAL will try several hosts in Graham’s slot over the
next few weeks.

Graham has clashed with CAIR in the past. Last year,
the group said comments he made on WMAL implicitly
advocated violence against Muslims, and it cited him
in a campaign called “Hate Hurts America.”