Talk:Michael Graham (radio personality)/Archive 1

message: Just saw this guy on "Eye on Washington" on PBS.  This has got to be one of the dumbest commentators, liberal or conservative, I've ever seen.  Linda Chavez, a fellow conservative, seemed like a giant sitting next to this puny intellect. — Stevie is the man! Talk | Work</span> 04:58, May 21, 2005 (UTC)
:And now Mr. Graham has been fired for spewing his non-intellectual venom against a religion that's no better or worse than Christianity.  My question: Why would anyone hire this clown in the first place?  He's batshit crazy. — Stevie is the man! Talk | Work</span> 17:53, August 23, 2005 (UTC)
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The sad thing is not that we have people like Graham in the media. But the sad thing is that these type of people have huge audeiences that are eagier to hear the message of hate. August 24, 2005
:The sad thing is that he's from my state... 24.88.16.137 03:33, 29 August 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: Eye on Washington

message: Below is the transcript from Graham's appearance on CNN with aaron Brown on August 24, 2005.  The full transcript can be located at:
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0508/24/asb.01.html
BROWN: Outrage is to talk radio, what nature shows are to PBS. But even modern talk radio has its limits. Last month, conservative talk radio host Michael Graham called Islam a terrorist organization: all of it. He said so 23 times during his July 25th program. He also said this, "the problem is not extremism, the problem is Islam." And he added this, moderate Muslims are those who only want to kill Jews. 
Mr. Graham's employer, WMAL in the Washington area was deluged with complaints and a letter writing campaign by a leading Muslim group.. Mr. Graham was canned. 
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN (voice-over): In the sometimes over the top world of talk radio, Michael Graham is neither the best known nor the most outrageous. Yet when he called the entire religion of Islam a terrorist organization, he moved well up the charts. 
CAIR, the Islamic advocacy group, demanded an apology or Graham's head. And said this on its web site. "While WMAL the radio station initially stood behind Graham, it changed it's position after hundreds of people responded to the groups action alerts by contacting the station and its sponsors." Michael Graham blames CAIR for his firing. But WMAL, an ABC station owned by Disney says otherwise. Chris Perry, the station's general manager denied it lost advertisers over the issue, and said Graham was fired because he refused to back off his remarks in any way. 
I asked Michael for an on air acknowledgment that some of his remarks were overly broad. He said and inexplicably, he refused.
Had Michael Graham apologized, CAIR says it would have been satisfied. 
ARSALAN ISTAKHAR, NATIONAL LEGAL DIR. CAIR: CAIR and the American Muslim community would have accepted his apology and retraction if he had decided to do so. And that's what the radio station asked him numerous times to do. Unfortunately, he stood by his remarks and the radio station felt then that it was in their best business interest not to have Mr. Graham bigotry on their airwaves. 
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: He still stands by his words. We talked to Mr. Graham earlier tonight. 
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Look, I don't believe that I'm going to get you to apologize here, but I do want to try and get a context for some of this. If -- within the Christian community there are a few hundred anti-semites, no one would say that Christianity is an antisemitic organization. And if there are a few pedophile priests, no one would say that Catholicism is a pedophile organization. Why is Islam a terrorist organization? 
MICHAEL GRAHAM, CONSERVATIVE RADIO SHOW HOST: Well, let me start off by saying if I had said any of those previous things you mentioned about Christians and Catholicism, I'd still have my job and nobody would mind. And that's the interesting about this story, about who it is you are allowed to have these tough, honest conversations about. 
But the reason that Islam as it's constituted today is a terrorist organization is because the theology feeds the terrorism. Rightly or wrongly, I'm not an expert, the organization of Islam is such that no matter how violent and vile your views are, you apparently cannot be removed from the religion. And because poll after poll after poll show not 100 people Aaron, not 1000 people, but tens of millions of Muslims say that violence against innocence in the name of their faith is acceptable. 
You put those things together, and it hurts me to say it, it's a tragedy, but Islam is a terrorist organization. The good news is, it doesn't have to stay that way because the majority of Muslims are people of goodwill. But they have to confront the people and stop following the lead of CAIR in denying the problem. 
BROWN: Well, let's set CAIR aside for a second and let's just focus on the problem. First of all, very few religions that I'm aware of, short of Catholicism, which has this clear hierarchy organization, allows you to be thrown out. You can't be thrown out of Christianity. It's something you believe in. 
GRAHAM: Actually, that's not true. 
BROWN: You can't be thrown out of Judaism, it's something you are or your believe in. So, who is going to do the throwing here? Who should be throwing them? 
GRAHAM: For example, if they -- let's say a group of Lutherans started a series of churches across the middle part of the United States advocating murder and violence, the Lutheran synod would throw them out, the same with the Baptist convention, et cetera, et cetera. 
Inside Islam, when you tell me, as happened the week after the London bombing attacks, a group of moderate British Muslim clerics said they could not condemn murder bombing in every case, because sometimes it was OK. 
And they were asked -- this guy Botti (ph), this radical Muslim, why don't you throw him out? And they said, well we can't. That's not a solution. That's not an answer. That's an excuse. And as long as you leave Islam governed this way, you're allowing terrorists to operate with impunity. 
Why not reform the faith? Why not change the rules? It's your faith. But ignoring the problem and simply saying well, I'm not that kind of Muslim, that doesn't save anyone. 
BROWN: Well, I'm not sure that painting all Muslims with a broad brush accomplishes much anyway. But let's set that aside for a second. You get fired. And do you appreciate -- I assume you do at this point, that your bosses have every right to fire you if they find your behavior unacceptable or offensive. 
GRAHAM: Absolutely, of course. And I engaged in this behavior with a conversation about Islam as a terrorist organization on a Thursday, the Thursday of the second London bombing. They had no comment. Friday, same conversation, same words, management had no comment. Monday, the same topic. Tuesday, I did it for three hours my entire show with management's instructions. Great topic, keep up the great work. 
It was only after the Council of American Islamic Relations objected that suddenly my words transformed in the minds of management from completely acceptable to a firing offense. And that's what scares me, a group like CAIR exerting that kind of pressure on free speech and open discourse in the United States. 
BROWN: Well -- I'm -- not to wrestle on this one. This isn't a free speech question, it's not. You have every right to say whatever you want. You have absolutely zero right, as do I, frankly, to say anything on television or radio. That's somebody else's right, but it's not ours. 
GRAHAM: Sure. But do you think...
BROWN: Let me ask you the question here. I appreciate the change in roles for you CAIR has every right to defend its position. That's what it exists for, to try to eliminate bigotry as it defines it. 
GRAHAM: Sure, of course. And CAIR can call for my punishment. And they did. And ABC Radio caved and suspended me. CAIR can then promptly call for my firing, which they did. And ABC Radio can cave and fire me. And the listeners can judge whether or not the station and ABC Radio did the right thing. 
But I'll tell you, talk show hosts across America have been talking the last 48 hour, are terrified that a large company like ABC Radio would give in to a group like CAIR with its well-documented connections to terrorism and terrorist organizations. How the heck do they get to set the standard for acceptable speech?
BROWN: Nice to meet you. Good luck to you. 
GRAHAM: Thank you very much. 
BROWN: Thank you, Michael.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Michael Graham still looking for a gig tonight.
: Thanks for posting that.  I've placed a link to it in the article. --Idont Havaname 01:19, 11 December 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  FOR PERSPECTIVE, CNN TRANSCRIPT OF GRAHAM INTERVIEW