Dear Mitt Romney:
Only you can help us. And it would only take a phone call. Let me explain our problem.
- Here in the town that gave Jesse Owens to the world, to hear Michael Savage call black kids "ghetto slime" on local radio is unacceptable.
- And for him to call Hispanics "leaf blowers" and claim they are waging "war on the white race" is something we don’t want our kids to hear.
- And here, where we have had a gay city council member we all respect, to hear Savage tell a gay caller to "get AIDS and die" is considered far more obscene than flashing a breast.
That was my testimony at the FCC town hall meeting in Columbus last week.
Three FCC members (two Democrat, one Republican) listened as I told how last January 6,000 of us signed petitions asking Clear Channel to NOT bring yet another bile and insult station to Central Ohio (we already had four).
At the same meeting, a member of Ohio Majority Radio presented our petitions. And Brian Rothenberg of Progress Ohio told how, when we took our petitions to Clear Channel last January, we found they had vandalizing their own WTPG banners--mocking the radio station we were trying to save (and the second to last progressive station in all of Ohio--they replaced it with WYTS, with Michael Savage, which is already earning the nickname "Wyts/Whites-Only Radio").
We told the three FCC members how Clear Channel told us "it is a business decision"--and that we would get used to it (at least that’s what they told a local columnist). And we told how Clear Channel threatened to have us arrested. (The airwaves are "private property," it seems.)
Clear channel would not listen. And so we asked the FCC members to help us.
But we are not fooling ourselves. All such pleas to the Republican controlled FCC have fallen on deaf ears.
And that is why I am turning to you, Mr. Romney.
On your web site, you boast about being founder and past CEO of Bain Capital--the same Bain Capital that in November purchased Clear Channel.
That’s where you, and only you, can help us. Because you have the influence, and you are not just a businessman--you care about values.
So please call Bain Capital and tell them to tell Clear Channel to respect our values here in Columbus. Tell them this is a nice city, where drivers let other drivers out of parking lots, and we all pretty well get along, and we want to keep it that way.
Tell them when the federal government needed a place to settle Somali refugees where they would be accepted, they chose our city. (And, BTW, when Savage insults Somali immigrants, he is insulting our neighbors.)
Please tell them racism, homophobia, and hate are NOT our values.
You see, Mr. Romney, it is about values. And I know you care about values, Mr. Romney. You said so.
So please help us keep the values that make our city good.