The ONLY active voice for American Arab Journalists.

Saturday, July 26, 2008

tearing down Barack Obama's Walls









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Ray Hanania's World Comic Strips
July 26, 2008
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Thursday, July 24, 2008

Michael Savage at it again; This time against children with autism

I wanted to give you a heads upon a rally and press conference today in NYC hosted by national autism groups against right-wing talk radio host Michael Savage. Savage, who is one of the most widely listened to talk radio hosts in the country, recently claimed that autism was a “fraud in 99% of cases,” and that the children needed to “cut the act out.” Here are the details on the protest, along with a release on Savage’s remarks. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.
Brandon Hersh
Press Assistant

Media Matters for America202.471.3205 Office
202.527.0190 Cell202.756.4101 Faxbhersh@mediamatters.orghttp://www.mediamatters.org/

Media Matters for America is a progressive research and information center dedicated to monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the media.



National Autism Group and Angry Parents to hold Press Conference today in Manhattan to announce rally and protest in City of San Francisco for July 23, 2008,

Autisms Groups will call for the Firing and Boycott of San Francisco Based Conservative Radio Jock Michael Savage Evelyn Ain of Autism United and Angry Parents will hold a press conference on July 21, 2008 at 2pm (EST) in NYC outside WOR Radio Studios located at 111 Broadway in Manhattan calling for the firing of San Francisco based National Conservative Radio Jock Michael Savage and asking for a boycott by parents of children with autism of all stations carrying his signal. Mr. Savage outraged the autism community by saying 99% of children suffering with autism are brats and morons on his national syndicated radio show. They will be announcing a national protest in San Francisco California on Wednesday, July 23, 2008 with autism groups and parents across the nation outside of Savages hometown. Over 2 million children and adults have autism. 1 out of every 150 children are diagnosed with autism today.

(TODAYS PRESS ANNOUNCEMENT IS 7-21 AT 2PM IN NYC (10AM PST)
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PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, July 18, 2008
CONTACT
J. Jioni Palmer (202) 471-3205
jpalmer@mediamatters.org

Top Radio Host: Autism Is “A Fraud, a Racket”
Host Michael Savage Mocks Those Living with Autism and Smears Minorities with Asthma
** For Audio/Transcript of the remarks, CLICK HERE **

Washington, DC – Media Matters for America today condemned nationally syndicated conservative radio host Michael Savage for incendiary comments directed at those who live with autism and their families. During the same broadcast, Savage, the No. 3 talk radio host in America, also attacked those in “the minority community” who suffer from asthma.

“What Michael Savage said was foolish, mean-spirited, and hurtful,” said J. Jioni Palmer, spokesman for Media Matters. “It’s unfortunate he would use his radio program to make fun of and belittle these kids. Instead of ridicule and cheap shots, the children suffering from autism and asthma and their families need support and compassion.”

During the July 16 edition of his show, Savage claimed that autism is “[a] fraud, a racket. ... I’ll tell you what autism is. In 99 percent of the cases, it’s a brat who hasn’t been told to cut the act out. That’s what autism is. What do you mean they scream and they're silent? They don’t have a father around to tell them, ‘Don’t act like a moron. You’ll get nowhere in life. Stop acting like a putz. Straighten up. Act like a man. Don't sit there crying and screaming, idiot.’ ”

Savage also stated: “[W]hy was there an asthma epidemic amongst minority children? Because I’ll tell you why: The children got extra welfare if they were disabled, and they got extra help in school. It was a money racket. Everyone went in and was told [fake cough], “When the nurse looks at you, you go [fake cough], “I don’t know, the dust got me.” “See, everyone had asthma from the minority community.”

Talk Radio Network, which syndicates The Savage Nation, claims that Savage is heard on more than 350 radio stations. The Savage Nation reaches at least 8.25 million listeners each week, according to Talkers Magazine, making it one of the most listened-to talk radio shows in the nation, behind only The Rush Limbaugh Show and The Sean Hannity Show.

** For Audio/Transcript of the remarks, CLICK HERE **
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Media Matters for America is a progressive research and information center dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media. Media Matters is the first organization to systematically monitor the media for conservative misinformation every day, in real time. For more information, visit http://www.mediamatters.org/.

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Full transcript:

Savage on autism: "A fraud, a racket. ... In 99 percent of the cases, it's a brat who hasn't been told to cut the act out"

Summary: On his nationally syndicated radio show, Michael Savage claimed that autism is "[a] fraud, a racket. ... I'll tell you what autism is. In 99 percent of the cases, it's a brat who hasn't been told to cut the act out. That's what autism is. What do you mean they scream and they're silent? They don't have a father around to tell them, 'Don't act like a moron. You'll get nowhere in life. Stop acting like a putz. Straighten up. Act like a man. Don't sit there crying and screaming, idiot.' "

On the July 16 edition of his nationally syndicated radio show, Michael Savage claimed that autism is "[a] fraud, a racket." Savage went on to say, "I'll tell you what autism is. In 99 percent of the cases, it's a brat who hasn't been told to cut the act out. That's what autism is. What do you mean they scream and they're silent? They don't have a father around to tell them, 'Don't act like a moron. You'll get nowhere in life. Stop acting like a putz. Straighten up. Act like a man. Don't sit there crying and screaming, idiot.' " Savage concluded, "[I]f I behaved like a fool, my father called me a fool. And he said to me, 'Don't behave like a fool.' The worst thing he said -- 'Don't behave like a fool. Don't be anybody's dummy. Don't sound like an idiot. Don't act like a girl. Don't cry.' That's what I was raised with. That's what you should raise your children with. Stop with the sensitivity training. You're turning your son into a girl, and you're turning your nation into a nation of losers and beaten men. That's why we have the politicians we have."

Savage also stated: "[W]hy was there an asthma epidemic amongst minority children? Because I'll tell you why: The children got extra welfare if they were disabled, and they got extra help in school. It was a money racket. Everyone went in and was told [fake cough], 'When the nurse looks at you, you go [fake cough], "I don't know, the dust got me." ' See, everyone had asthma from the minority community."

Talk Radio Network, which syndicates The Savage Nation, claims that Savage is heard on more than 350 radio stations. The Savage Nation reaches at least 8.25 million listeners each week, according to Talkers Magazine, making it one of the most listened-to talk radio shows in the nation, behind only The Rush Limbaugh Show and The Sean Hannity Show.
From the July 16 edition of Talk Radio Network's The Savage Nation:

SAVAGE: Now, you want me to tell you my opinion on autism, since I'm not talking about autism? A fraud, a racket. For a long while, we were hearing that every minority child had asthma. Why did they sudden -- why was there an asthma epidemic amongst minority children? Because I'll tell you why: The children got extra welfare if they were disabled, and they got extra help in school. It was a money racket. Everyone went in and was told [fake cough], "When the nurse looks at you, you go [fake cough], 'I don't know, the dust got me.' " See, everyone had asthma from the minority community. That was number one.

Now, the illness du jour is autism. You know what autism is? I'll tell you what autism is. In 99 percent of the cases, it's a brat who hasn't been told to cut the act out. That's what autism is.

What do you mean they scream and they're silent? They don't have a father around to tell them,
"Don't act like a moron. You'll get nowhere in life. Stop acting like a putz. Straighten up. Act like a man. Don't sit there crying and screaming, idiot."

Autism -- everybody has an illness. If I behaved like a fool, my father called me a fool. And he said to me, "Don't behave like a fool." The worst thing he said -- "Don't behave like a fool. Don't be anybody's dummy. Don't sound like an idiot. Don't act like a girl. Don't cry." That's what I was raised with. That's what you should raise your children with. Stop with the sensitivity training. You're turning your son into a girl, and you're turning your nation into a nation of losers and beaten men. That's why we have the politicians we have.

Saturday, July 19, 2008

Point to Point: Arab journalists discuss Hezbollah and Israel, and indictment os Sudan's president

Veteran award winning columnists Ray Hanania and Ali Alarabi discuss and debate the most recent news in the Middle East on Point to Point: Interviews without Boundaries. The topics include the recent prisoner swap between the powerful Lebanese Shiite Militia Hezbollah and the Government of Israel, trading the remains of two Israeli solders killed when Hezbollah sought to capture Israeli soldiers to trade for its soldiers held by Israel in the summer of 2006, an assault that provoked Israel to launch a brutal retaliation against Lebanon's civilian population and Hezbollah strongholds. Israel released five prisoners, including the notorious Druse fighter and leader, Samir Kuntar (Kantar, Qantar), of a 1979 mission into Israel that resulted in the killing of an Israeli police officer and the murder of his four year old daughter. Kuntar was captured and served 30 years for the killings. Hezbollah returned the bodies of two Israelis killed during the July 2006 confrontation that spark the 34-day Israeli-Lebanon war, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev. What are the moral issues involved and is there an issue of hypocrisy in criticism of Arabs for killing civilians while there is silence when Israel kills Arab civilians? And, Alarabi and Hanania discuss the recent war crimes indictment by the International Criminal Court of Sundanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir and the hypocrisy of singling out Arabs while excluding Israel and even Americans from I.C.C. prosecutions. The two discuss the issues involved in Sudan and Darfur where al-Bashir has been accused of supporting genocide, while supporters accuse pro-Western groups of inciting a vicious campaign of terrorism. You can read columns on both subjects by Hanania and Alarabi at http://www.arabwritersgroup.com/ web site. 22 Minutes.

Go to www.TheMediaOasis.com or visit iTunes and download the podcasts to your iPod.

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Tunisians issues pushed with French President

Paris, 10 July 2008
For immediate release

Press Freedom Groups Raise Tunisian Concerns With French President

A coalition of international press freedom organisations has asked French President Nicolas Sarkozy not to underestimate human rights violations in Tunisia as he seeks to create a Union for the Mediterranean at a summit meeting in Paris on Sunday, 13 July.

The World Association of Newspapers and 17 press freedom organisation wrote to Mr Sarkozy on Thursday to express their “extreme concern” over “the Tunisian authorities' tendency to resort to censorship, intimidation and violence.”

“It seems essential that the French government does not underestimate the seriousness of the human rights violations in Tunisia,” said members of the International Freedom of Expression Exchange’s Tunisia Monitoring Group, in the letter to Mr Sarkozy, who will preside over a meeting in Paris on Sunday to establish the Union for the Mediterranean.

“It is furthermore essential that France adopts and promotes a policy in accordance with the values of the Republic, by inviting the Tunisian authorities to respect their international human rights obligations, specifically those in favour of freedom of expression and the press.”

Members of the Tunisia Monitoring Group include: Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (Egypt); ARTICLE 19 (United Kingdom); Canadian Journalists for Free Expression; Cartoonists Rights Network International (United States); Egyptian Organization for Human Rights; Index on Censorship (United Kingdom); International Federation of Journalists; International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions; International Press Institute; International Publishers' Association; Journaliste en danger (Democratic Republic of Congo); Maharat Foundation (Lebanon); Media Institute of Southern Africa; Norwegian PEN; World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters; World Association of Newspapers; World Press Freedom Committee; and theWriters in Prison Committee of International PEN.

The full letter can be read at http://www.wan-press.org/ article17627.html

Tuesday, July 08, 2008

UNITY: Journalists of Color discriminate against one color



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UNITY: Journalists of Color claim they support diversity, except when it is in their own backyard.

Ray Hanania's World comic strip
July 7, 2008
www.theMediaOasis.com

Tuesday, July 01, 2008

A typical letter on the Bonnie Bernstein controversy

Here is a typical exchange, one involving a reasonable question, that I thought i owuld share (removing the name of the sender). I've received a lot of email, much of it anger from people trying to fight the Arab-Israeli conflict. And few reasoned emails like this one:

Hello Mr. Hanania. I just read your story about Bonnie Bernstein's offensive comments on the Mike and Mike show. I read that apology in a story aboutthe incident on AOL News. I am quite surprised that you found that apology acceptable. It seems Ms. Bernstein was only sorry that she mixed politics andsports but not really sorry about what she said. She had made another comment about the recent Don Imus controversy on that same show in which she said shedidn't care about the Imus story. I guess the people who do care about such things do not register in her little world. to me that's sad because itmeans when these issues arise in sports as they often do she will have very little insight to offer. Anyway, that is my take on the whole situation. For what it's worth. Sincerely ...

Hi … actually when I reviewed her comments and the context in which it was made, I concluded (after talking to several NAAJA members) that she did not intentionally slam Palestinians … she DID use a stereotype … we thought her apology was not as strong as it could have been but we felt as weak as it was, it still covered the real concern that her comment addressed.Bonnie is not a racist promoting a racist view of Palestinians … given her past (I have not seen anything suggesting she has used racial stereotypes in the past) and given the context of the discussion, and being that we are journalists, we felt the apology in and of itself was acceptable.Now, had it been that she was blasting Palestinians as a people for raising their kids to be suicide bombers, and arguing that point, we might have responded much differently. This was on the line, and we prefer to give people without a past the benefit of the doubt …Now, racists like Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, Michelle Malkin and Ann Coulter are a different breed. Bernstein isn't in that category in my opinion thank you for writing and best regards

Ray Hanania# # #