[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 60 (Monday, May 16, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: May 16, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

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          ``WHY ARE BLACKS THE MEDIA'S MOST INFAMOUS BIGOTS?''

 Mr. SIMON. Mr. President, I have never heard of a radio talk 
show host by the name of Bob Grant, and I guess I'm not missing 
anything.
  I have read a column by Jeff Cohen and Norman Solomon distributed by 
Creators Syndicate, which talks about the bigotry being spouted by Bob 
Grant.
  This is precisely the kind of thing this Nation does not need.
  I did check with one source to find out whether the column is 
accurate, and I was told that it is, that Bob Grant is a problem.
  In the 1930's there was a Catholic priest named Father Coughlin. He 
attracted more listeners than he should have as he spouted his anti-
Semitism and antiblack rhetoric.
  I hesitate to even mention this in the Congressional Record because 
the publicity may just add to Bob Grant's audience, but some of us have 
to speak out.
  I made clear my opposition to Khalid Muhammad, who spouted his anti-
Jewish, antiwhite hatred. But it is equally distasteful and harmful to 
our society to have antiblack spoutings from a Bob Grant.
  I am sure that a radio station would never tolerate a talk show host 
who advocated that people drink arsenic, but they are tolerating 
someone who advocates swallowing another kind of poison.
  It is not the business of the U.S. Senate or Congress to censor what 
goes on the airwaves of our country. I have spoken out against 
television violence, but I have never advocated Federal censorship.
  I believe it is important to speak out against television violence, 
and I also believe it is important to speak out against the poisoning 
of our airwaves.
  At this point, I ask to insert into the Record the column by Jeff 
Cohen and Norman Solomon.

                [From Creators Syndicate ``Media Beat'']

            Why Are Blacks the Media's Most Infamous Bigots?

                   (By Jeff Cohen and Norman Solomon)

       You can't see the news these days without encountering 
     lengthy reports on the hateful pronouncements coming from a 
     few black extremists.
       The anti-white, anti-Jewish demagoguery of Nation of Islam 
     leaders was recently examined, for example, in a 12-page Time 
     magazine cover spread and in two ABC ``Nightline'' episodes--
     one titled ``Confronting Black Racism.''
       A central question running through such reports is whether 
     black politicians and civic leaders have sufficiently 
     denounced the mean-spirited rhetoric.
       Given all the news coverage, you might think black 
     prejudice against Jews and whites has become the dominant 
     bigotry in our country.
       Think again. Old-fashioned white racism is alive and 
     kicking. But somehow, it doesn't arouse the same outrage in 
     the national media.
       By now, almost everyone has heard of Khalid Abdul Muhammad, 
     the Nation of Islam speaker who spouted anti-white hate to a 
     college audience of hundreds--and was denounced for weeks in 
     the media and in a resolution that passed the U.S. Senate 97 
     votes to zero.
       But how many have heard of Bob Grant? Week after week, he 
     spouts anti-black hate to much larger audiences--hundreds of 
     thousands. He hosts the biggest show on the biggest talk 
     radio station in the country, New York's WABC.
       If you aren't familiar with Grant, that's not your fault--
     it's the national media's.
       New York is the media capital of the country. But few 
     journalists have voiced outrage over a talk show host who 
     routinely referred to former Mayor David Dinkins, an African-
     American, as ``the washroom attendant,'' and who habitually 
     affects an Amos 'n' Andy dialect to stereotype blacks as 
     criminals and drug addicts--people he calls ``animals'' and 
     ``mutants.''
       Here is a flavor of Grant's oratory, as recorded by Newsday 
     columnist Paul Vitello.
       ``The only hope we have is something that we're not brave 
     enough to do. But if there is a brave new world of tomorrow, 
     they will enact the Bob Grant Mandatory Sterilization Plan. 
     (Begins mock African-American accent) I don't have no job, 
     how'm I gonna feed my family? (Ends accent) I wonder if 
     they've ever figured out how they multiply like that. It's 
     like maggots on a hot day. You look one minute and there are 
     so many there, and you look again and, wow, they've 
     tripled!''
       On the Martin Luther King holiday:
       ``If they didn't observe Martin King Day, there would be 
     trouble from the savages.''
       On refugees fleeing from Haiti:
       ``You know what the ideal situation would be--if they 
     drowned! Then they would stop coming in.''
       After the L.A. riots began:
       ``We have in our nation not hundreds of thousands but 
     millions of sub-humanoids, savages who really would feel more 
     at home careening along . . . the dry deserts of eastern 
     Kenya--people who, for whatever reason, have not become 
     civilized.''
       Has an aroused press demanded that white politicians 
     denounce Bob Grant's racism and distance themselves from him? 
     Far from it.
       Ted Koppel and Bob Grant are co-workers for the same boss, 
     ABC/Cap Cities. Yet Koppel hasn't turned a critical spotlight 
     on Grant.
       New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman got great publicity 
     for confronting Khalid Muhammad over his anti-Semitism. Has 
     she similarly confronted Grant? No, she appears as a guest on 
     his show, and once thanked Grant for helping her win the 
     election.
       What about New York Sen. Alfonse D'Amato--who co-sponsored 
     the Senate resolution denouncing Khalid Muhammad? He's a 
     regular, friendly guest on the Bob Grant program. On one 
     show, the senator encouraged Mayor Dinkins to visit Africa 
     ``and stay there.''
       New York's new mayor, Rudolph Giuliani, has also guested on 
     the show. During one appearance, Grant referred to a black 
     congressman as a ``pygmy.''
       Bob Grant is hardly alone in his amplified bigotry against 
     racial minorities or gays or feminists. But such hate is 
     unlikely to get you denounced by the U.S. media and U.S. 
     Senate. More likely, you get your own talk show.
       Patrick Buchanan--an admirer of Grant who once called him 
     the ``dean of us all''--has long expressed flat-out bigotry 
     against blacks and other groups. That hasn't stopped him from 
     becoming a fixture on TV and radio. Ditto for Rush Limbaugh, 
     who praises Grant in his book.
       And on local talk shows throughout the country, Grant-like 
     shouters spew bigotry against racial minorities.
       You almost have to pity Khalid Muhammad. If he'd been born 
     white . . . instead of being denounced by the U.S. Senate, he 
     might have his own major talk show.

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