This is What Hate Radio Can Do

[Joanne98]

Mon Jul 28, 2008 at 10:00:30 AM PDT
The details are still coming in about the shooting at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church, but it's becoming clear that the gunman holds a grudge against "liberals" and "gays". We have no idea whether or not the gunman listened to right wing hate radio, but the daily barrage of hate based on a person's race, sexual orientation or political affiliation, can and HAS resulted in mass murder on an unimaginable scale. I'm talking about the Rwandan Genocide.

DJShay's diary :: ::
The Rwandan Genocide was the 1994 mass killing of hundreds of thousands of Rwanda's minority Tutsis and the moderates of its Hutu majority. Over the course of approximately 100 days, from April 6 through to mid July, at least 500,000 people were killed.<1> Most estimates are of a death toll nearer the 800,000 and 1,000,000 marks.<2>

The fuel that fed the fire of the genocide was Hate Radio".

RTLM (Radio Télévision Libre de Mille Collines)is the most widely reported symbol of "hate radio" throughout the world. Its broadcasts, disseminating hate propaganda and inciting to murder Tutsis and opponents to the regime, began on 8 July 1993, and greatly contributed to the 1994 genocide of hundreds of thousands.

RTLM, aided by the staff and facilities of Radio Rwanda, the government-owned station, called on the Hutu majority to destroy the Tutsi minority. The programmes were relayed to all parts of the country via a network of transmitters owned and operated by Radio Rwanda. After Rwandan Patriotic Front troops drove the government forces out of Kigali in July 1994, RTLM used mobile FM transmitters to broadcast disinformation from inside the French-controlled zone on the border between Rwanda and Zaire, causing millions of Hutus to flee toward refugee camps where they could be regrouped and recruited as future fighters.

Here are some quotes from some of the broadcasts

"These Tutsi killers who invaded our country continue to prepare themselves to plant their flags on both sides of the border ... you know the cunning of those people ... They come with guns, they come to kill us."

"In truth, all Tutsis will perish. They will vanish from this country ... They are disappearing little by little thanks to the weapons hitting them, but also because they are being killed like rats."

"You cockroaches must know you are made of flesh. We won't let you kill. We will kill you,"

Now, compare the quotes above from Rwandan Radio, to quotes from Right Wing Talk Radio.

From a January 2007 Mike Stark Diary about a San Francisco radio station that hosted a slime ball of a human being named Lee Rodgers:

Speaking about a black man in Nebraska:

"Now you start with the Sear's Diehard the battery cables connected to his testi*les and you entertain him with that for awhile and then you blow his bleeping head off. "



Lee Rogers: I say they catch the person, tie 'em to a post and burn 'em. Set 'em on fire.

Officer Vic: Yeah.

Lee Rogers: Let 'em know what it feels like.

Melanie Morgan: Hog tie 'em first. That would be good.

Next, Lee Rogers talks about a protester at a Cindy Sheehan event:



"Whoever did that should have been stomped to death right there. Just stomp their bleeping guts out."

The Rwandan Genocide is one very extreme result of the influence of hate radio and the people involved with the broadcasts have been sent to trial and convicted of "direct and public incitement to commit genocide". But if you compare the quotes from Rwandan Radio with the ones from American Right Wing Talk Radio, I don't think it's such a stretch that someone here in America couldn't be driven to these extreme acts of violence. The country is starting a period of unrest because of high gas prices, foreclosures and job losses. It's in times of unrest like these that provide a fertile ground for extreme behavior and the ideas that right wing hate promote, could possibly push someone over the edge.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/7/28/105410/163

[crikkett]

1. At this point I'm really grateful that he was allowed to live

and not shot on the scene.

This will be very illuminating and perhaps will bring back the Fairness Doctrine.

Now it will be shown that the product of Hate Radio is home-grown terror.

[ColbertWatcher]

3. I agree.

I live in LA and the cops here get their target practice on suspects and it sickens me.

[Fading Captain]

8. What in the Hell is the fairness doctrine?

Will it force the Democratic Party radio hosts to inspire liberals to kill conservatives?

Honestly, though.
What the hell is the fairness doctrine supposed to do?

Why should the government guarantee that anyone's political views are equally represented on the radio? And how in the hell would they go about it in any sort of manner that isn't fascist?

[mmonk]

11. Provide for more than one opinion.

I think its best use is in that the right couldn't continue to lie to the American people without rebuttal. Mainstream media allows for rightwing lies to go without challenge whereby people believe them and redirects viewers and listeners away from possible conflicting fact allowing falsehood to stand.

[Fading Captain]

14. See, but then the government gets in the business of

Deciding what's right and left. Liberal and Conservative? That in itself is something I don't want to see.
And it's just going to be more Democrats and Republicans on the radio.

Corporate parties with corporate viewpoints.

[KharmaTrain]

13. Fairness Doctrine Never Applied To Talk/Hate Radio

Those shows are classified as "entertainment" (thus why Rushbo calls himself an "Entertainer" when he gets his ass in a sling)...the Fairness Doctrine applied to Public Service program that was once required and no longer is and for access to advertising at cheap rates...preventing one candidate from buying all the time or a station not selling to an opponent. It never covered content...nor news, either.

The GOOP is trying to push through their own "anti-Fairness" doctrine bullshit...actually a wolf in sheep's clothing (what else is new) that would make it difficult for a hate radio station to change format...more or less securing by law hate radio.

What drives hate radio? Corporate media consolidation that made cheap satellite programming profitable...allowing one company to dominate radio markets driving out competition and local voices and access. The ultimate way to put a crimp in hate radio is to demonize it and make it toxic for large advertisers to want to be associated with...that would begin to drain the swamp.

[ColbertWatcher]

2. Why am I the first to rec this? This should be on the greatest page!

Thank you for posting this.

[enough]

4. It will be there soon I hope.

[SammyWinstonJack]

5. K&R

[happydreams]

6. K&R!! The best post so far on the deeper meaning of church murders.

[redqueen]

7. We don't have to criminalize it... just publicize it.

Do they still call it 'comedy' now, those rightwing leeches on society? How funny is it now?

[butterfly77]

9. They may get more than they hope for...

all of this hate works both ways especially now with the economy the way it is..

[Breeze54]

10. The guy was a spike on the graph of crazies. That is all....

I'm not worried about it, although some RW have called for attacks on Liberals...

I think this guy was just a crazy looking for an excuse to kill. He found one.

[racaulk]

12. The movie "Hotel Rwanda" should be required viewing.

People will use violence if they feel justified in that it is a rational course of action, and sometimes will do so on a grand scale. History is littered with examples such as the genocide that took place in Rwanda.

I believe that the Adkisson incident (and many others like it) is symptomatic of a larger environment of hate and fear that RW radio (and most M$M in our country) creates and fosters. We have a duty to stand up and speak out against this hatred when it presents itself, because the potential consequences of not doing so can be catastrophic.

Thank you for posting this dkos entry here. K&R

[Rocknrule]

15. These hate radio jocks are deliberately creating monsters, and this is proof

What do people expect if Coulter, Savage, and their ilk repeatedly scream "wir mussen die liberal ausrossen" to their listeners? Eventually, one of them is going to act on it.