Arizona Is No Joke — Tell Clear Channel to Apologize
(This Media Alert is a re-posting from the National Council of La Raza.)
You might have already heard, but last week a local radio station in Columbus, Ohio, WTVN-AM, took the debate over Arizona’s new law too far.
Apparently they weren’t happy that the mayor of Columbus, Michael Coleman, recently decided to ban city employees from visiting Arizona on official business in protest of the new law. So the radio station responded by launching a contest in which the “winner” received a free trip to Phoenix, Arizona “to spend a weekend chasing aliens and spending cash in the desert.” Check out the promotional image for the contest below.
Make sure to bring your green card? Really? Is that funny?
This contest has triggered considerable outrage in Latino communities in Ohio, Arizona, and other states throughout the nation. NCLR released a statement on Friday calling on WTVN-AM and its parent company, Clear Channel Communications, to apologize for the station’s contest. NCLR President and CEO Janet Murguía said in this statement that “the passage of SB 1070 has provoked a lot of reprehensible anti-Latino and anti-immigrant rhetoric, but a radio station bankrolling someone to ‘hunt’ human beings for sport represents a new low. The owners and directors of WTVN might think that this is all in good fun, but what is happening to Latinos — citizen, legal, and undocumented alike — in Arizona is no joke. We are asking for an immediate and unequivocal apology from the station and its parent company.”
If you are as outraged as we are, join us in sending letters to both the management of WTVN in Columbus and executives at Clear Channel and ask them to apologize for this irresponsible contest.
Thank you for joining us in telling WTVN and Clear Channel that Arizona is no joke!
Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy 
I hope that every American, regardless of where he lives, will stop and examine his conscience about this and other related incidents. This Nation was founded by men of many nations and backgrounds. It was founded on the principle that all men are created equal, and that the rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened. All of us ought to have the right to be treated as he would wish to be treated, as one would wish his children to be treated, but this is not the case.
I know the proponents of this law say that the majority approves of this law, but the majority is not always right. Would women or non-whites have the vote if we listen to the majority of the day, would the non-whites have equal rights (and equal access to churches, housing, restaurants, hotels, retail stores, schools, colleges and yes water fountains) if we listen to the majority of the day? We all know the answer, a resounding, NO!
Today we are committed to a worldwide struggle to promote and protect the rights of all who wish to be free. In a time of domestic crisis men of good will and generosity should be able to unite regardless of party or politics and do what is right, not what is just popular with the majority. Some men comprehend discrimination by never have experiencing it in their lives, but the majority will only understand after it happens to them.