Dear Gentlemen:
We wrote to you in October 2008 to urge you to increase the racial diversity of your political and policy coverage in order to meet your obligation to present fair and accurate information to your viewers and to prevent the increasingly frequent dissemination of dangerous myths on your programs.
Unfortunately, in recent weeks, certain hosts and commentators on your networks have racheted up their rhetoric and are actively advancing outright lies, advocating offensive and extremist social agendas and inflaming dangerous elements in our society. Lou Dobbs' exploitation of his daily CNN show to promote the discredited attacks on President Obama's citizenship is just the latest example in a growing and troubling pattern. Attached are a few other recent examples of outrageous comments made on your programs by such persons as Pat Buchanan, Glen Beck and Michele Malkin.
While differing perspectives are welcome, these persons not only often blatantly misrepresent facts, the views they express are so extreme and reckless that they have no place on the public airwaves. The fact that such hosts and commentators are given expansive and consistent exposure on your programs, while minority hosts and guests are still all-too-rare, makes this situation even more unacceptable.
We call upon you to take immediate action to end the misuse of your programs as a vehicle for the promotion and dissemination of inaccurate, irresponsible and potentially dangerous propaganda. We also, again, urge you to significantly increase the racial diversity in your news and political coverage, analysis and commentary in order to present a broader range of reasonable and knowledgeable perspectives.
We look forward to working with you to address this serious matter.
Sincerely,
Stephanie J. Jones
Executive Director National Urban League Policy Institute
EXAMPLES OF RECENT FALSE AND EXTREMIST COMMENTARY
Glen Beck
This president, I think, has exposed himself as a guy, over and over and over again, who has a deep-seated hatred for white people, or the white culture — I don't know what it is . . . I'm not saying that he doesn't like white people. I'm saying he has a problem . . . This guy is, I believe, a racist.
—FOX and Friends, FOX News, July 29, 2009
Pat Buchanan
BUCHANAN: You got down to four women, not a single white male
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