Los Angeles City Council member Jan Perry introduced a measure last night that calls on media companies to keep their on-air hosts from using and promoting “racist and sexist slurs” on radio and other broadcasts. Her legislation follows KFI talk radio hosts John Kobylt and Ken Chiampou’s suspension for describing Whitney Houston as a “crack ho” three days after her February death. Council President Herb Wesson and Councilmember Bernard Parks endorse the resolution, along with members of Black Media Alliance, National Hispanic Media Coalition, Korean-American Bar Association, and American Indians in Film and Television. The proposal cites previous examples of KFI hosts making “racially offensive comments as well as deplorable sexist remarks, particularly towards women and Black, Latino, and Asian communities.” It calls on KFI’s parent company Clear Channel Communications and other broadcasters to hire a more diverse workforce. Perry’s resolution also cited Rush Limbaugh’s repeated reference to Sandra Fluke as a “prostitute” and a “slut” for her testimony before Congress earlier this month in support of women having access to contraception.


I’m sure they also meant to include the horrible, woman-hating stuff played on rap stations, which are on the same public airwaves. No? Then the whole thing is a partisan joke. Fix my potholes, LACC, and stop deciding who gets to enjoy First Amendment rights and who doesn’t.
Exactly, jg. I guess these egotist ‘public servants’ kind of forgot there is thing called the U. S. Constitution. But the LA City Council is so much smarter than founders of our country, right?
How do these turds get elected?
Nice to know that all of LA’s problems have been solved, leaving Jan Perry free to spend her time (and our taxpayer money) policing the free speech of radio commentators.
That’s terrific. But who is going to judge? We’ll have the FCC and now Jan Perry too? Sounds like a slippery slope, but freedom of speech has always been my least favorite right… How about sponsors can pull ads from shows they don’t like and stations can fire hosts that they don’t like and listeners can turn the dial?
What’s really humurous is that KFI is in Burbank, not LA.
Just goes to show you what a bunch of brain-dead liberals are running the LA City Council…
This is ridiculous.
let the market decide, and advertisers decide what the people will support. As long as no-one is inciting a riot, or committing treason, the airwaves are public, and should remain free.
Ignorance should not be legislated.
Perhaps you didn’t know this but most radio stations are owned by a tiny cabal of media companies, so the public/market can’t “decide” anything.
Now if you’re a white guy who knows that neither Tom Joyner nor any other radio personality of color is going to defame/demonize you then the status quo is just fine.
But how many hate crimes have been committed by people who were avid listeners to the crap these people spew?
And not one of them radio hatemongers nor their listeners takes any responsibility for this. So I thinks it’s past time somebody did.
The airwaves are only public in name, because only a handful of very rich businessmen own those licenses and the FCC only allows a limited number of frequencies. We don’t have a market, we have a racket.
What’s needed is media DE-consolidation. Then and only then will listeners have any real “choice.”
LA City Council is horrible. If you don’t like something someone is saying, turn the channel. They are not advocating anything illegal. Besides, who judges what is OK to say and what is not?
LACC really, and I mean really, needs to be a part-time entity. Remember earlier this month when they upped the fine for playing frisbee on the beach to $1000?! Folks, figure out what are actual problems and fix those. And only those. If you are finished early, just go home. We won’t mind. We don’t want you drumming up all kinds of extra laws just because you have an hour or two left in your day.
Another attempt at people trying to shut up those they do not agree with. Turn on NBC or ABC at 8pm and look at the sexual innuendos those shows have. What about the hip hop radio stations? Hell, even Beatles and Rolling Stones songs are sexual! Here is an easy way to not hear what you don’t wanna hear: change the station! If people stop listening to Limbaugh, he’d go away, just like what happened to Air America and Bill Maher…
Free speech, jackasses, not just the speech you like.
So let the record show that the LA City Council once again has mistaken their elected role. Now they think they’re the FCC! When we really need them to stand up to corruption and misappropriation of our tax dollars, they’re no where in sight.
I love this idea. I stopped listening to all talk radio except K-TALK because of the lack of diversity, so I missed all the hate speech from Rush and these two dopes. Bring in some women, Asians, Latinos and blacks and you’ll get me to listen. I only spend four hours a day in my car!
Just the other day, I was sitting on the 405, saying, “Damn, I wish I had some Diversity to listen to.”
On the radio, how do you know if someone is Asian, Latin, African-American..?
“Blazing Saddles” is now illegal in L.A.
L.A City Council becomes the thought police. Let these douchebags say whatever they want and then let the boycotts begin and run them off the air.
Better to know who the enemy is.
Why can’t they pass a law punishing lawmakers who waste taxpayer money and legislators’ time by introducing clearly unconstitutional bills purely for campaign purposes?
This councilwoman didnt like the premise of a television show filming in her district and squashed the company’s film permit.
They had to shut down for the day as I remember, It was for a studio that had money-so could afford a shut down. But she could have done real financial damage. What decade are we leaving in? We have a black president and black attorney general. Now we have a black councilwoman telling the white controlled media to “Shut Your Mouth Willis.” Read the constitution I think you swore you would uphold it. Buy again, this is LA maybe you slid under the table. Bettheduck
Thank God the LA Council is doing their job! Just think of where we’d be if they hadn’t banned all city business with Arizona! Oh wait, we haven’t stopped doing business with Arizona! Details.
Who ever thought LACC would have so much in common with Rick Santorum…
This is “progressive” feel-good nonsense that these jackasses have ZERO authority to enforce. What a complete waste of time.
Don’t let a little thing like the 1st Amendment get in the way of your unconstitutional little desires there guys. Meanwhile, L.A. becomes more and more of a cesspit everyday. With no way out or any means of stopping the rot. But Hey, at least nobody on the radio can hurt anyone’s feelings. What a victory for them. Whoever them is.
Sure, the LA city council wants John & Ken to be replaced by someone who won’t call attention to their waste & corruption. John & Ken have brought loads of attention to the City Council’s discretionary funds. Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas wanted to spend 700K on office renovations- J&K were all over that.
John and Ken are not racists, they’re not even that conservative. They are far more middle of the road populists. They’re for the little guy and for small government. They’ve covered a lot of good stories, they were one of the first to cover the Kelly Thomas beating, they aren’t anything even close to Rush, they cover local issues and my guess is that’s why the LA City Council wants them gone. A drive time show covering national issues means that J&K aren’t talking about all the nonsense and overspending in LA. It’s not racist not to want to deify drug addicts. John was right about Houston. If anyone’s going to take John Kobylt to task about things he’s said- it’s about Catholic priests but then that’s politically correct.
When are folks gonna realize that John and Ken, Rush, Bill O, etc are just MEDIA PERSONALITIES trying to stay controversial and relevant so they’ll continue getting paid. It’s a GIG. They’re not journalists. They’re not scholars. They’re mic jockeys who know how to keep an audience. They generate callers, and ads, and ratings by playing to folks’ base instincts.
Pay no attention to the men behind the curtain…