If Americans Knew Executive Director, Alison Weir, says that the station's emails, sent in response to complaints from the public about the station's censorship, contain false information.
Michigan Radio's Claims
The emails -- from the director of development for Michigan Radio, which is based at the University of Michigan -- state:
This issue has been miscast by Ms. Weir, when in fact the issue is about adherence to FCC underwriting regulations.
Michigan Radio was initially contacted by a gentleman in the Flint area who indicated that he was interested in establishing an underwriting schedule of announcements that would include information about Ms. Weir’s talk.
The gentleman initially asked that the sponsorship be attributed to an organization to which he appeared to have no apparent affiliation. Michigan Radio is required by FCC rules to identify the sponsoring entity in an underwriting announcement and not a third party.
For that and other reasons, we were concerned that accepting the sponsorship may put us afoul of FCC regulations.
He subsequently indicated that the Flint Islamic Center, the organization that would be hosting her talk, and of which he is a member, should be identified as the sponsoring organization. Those announcements identifying that organization and Ms. Weir’s talk have aired as ordered.
If Americans Knew Response
Weir says that there are several problems with the station's claim.
“First,” she says, “the reality is that the group who contacted Michigan Radio did indeed consist of the Flint, Michigan chapter of If Americans Knew and possess a letter from me stating that.
“Second,” she says, “this is not the explanation that was given to the chapter at the time, nor is it the explanation that has been given to If Americans Knew since. Below is the email correspondence on this matter:
From the If Americans Knew chapter, Thursday, October 01, 2009 5:17 PM:
Thank you for the call earlier today. I communicated the Michigan Radio decision back to our group. We are disappointed that the station declined to approve our announcement.
In order to be completely clear, please send me an e-mail stating the specific reason or reasons for the non-approval of the underwriting. As you stated, if our request did not meet an FCC guideline or rule, or the station rules or policy, please indicate which specific guideline or policy we did not meet.
From the station's underwriting representative, Thursday, October 01, 2009 9:06 PM:
I’ll be glad to share with you what management discussed with me. In the underwriting packet (the first email attachment that I sent to you), on the page titled “MAKING YOUR CREDIT WORK FOR YOU MICHIGAN RADIO UNDERWRITING COPY GUIDELINES” (bottom paragraph):
“Michigan Radio reserves the right to refuse any request for underwriting that would violate an FCC rule or policy, violate station policies or adversely affect the reputation or financial condition of the station. No announcements will be aired on behalf of political organizations, political candidates or their committees, or that express a view on issues of public importance or interest or religious belief. No more than one (1) event may be listed in any underwriting announcement. No more than 6 underwriting announcements may air in one day (and may be less depending on inventory).”
“In other words,” Weir points out, “The alleged problem was with our organization itself.”
Weir says that this explanation was also given to her directly on October 16th, when a person at the radio station told her that the reason station management had refused to run the ad was their determination that If Americans Knew was “political.”
Weir says that she was on a speaking tour in Alaska at the time the ad was refused and occasionally unavailable, so the local group, worried that they would be unable to promote Weir’s speaking events in Michigan, decided that they would ask the Flint Islamic Center to sponsor an ad. As a result, the station ran an ad about the talks that gave the Islamic Center’s name and website, rather than If Americans Knew.
Weir says, “I am extremely disturbed about this matter on several levels.
“First, I am outraged that the station refused to run an announcement by our organization, when it appears that they have run announcements by pro-Israel organizations that are political and that even publicly lobby for specific legislation. I find such a double standard unconscionable.
“Second, I am disturbed that the station is sending highly inaccurate emails about this situation to the public.
“Third, I find it unfortunate that the station sent emails about this issue to others and yet not to If Americans Knew, despite the fact that I had left numerous voicemails asking to speak to them about this issue. No one from management ever took my calls or called me back. The Development Director’s unfactual information could have been corrected if he had first checked it with me before sending it to the public.
Weir says she is extremely grateful that the Flint Islamic Center was willing to place the ads and says she is honored to be associated with the center. However, she says that the center’s generous assistance does not excuse Michigan Radio’s censorship of If Americans Knew.
“I am told that Michigan Radio has aired announcements by the Ann Arbor chapter of Hadassah, The Women's Zionist Organization of American, an organization that advocates publicly and actively on legislation, and the Jewish Federation of Detroit, whose website says that it "advocates for Israel." Yet they refused an announcement by If Americans Knew, even though we are not a lobbying organization and our website's mission is to provide facts to the American public.
“By refusing our announcement, Michigan Radio prevented listeners from learning that our organization exists or of being directed to our website. Many people who do not have time to go to an event do have time to visit a website.
“I expect that many people, hearing our announcement, would have visited out website, where they would have learned about us and the extremely important facts on Israel-Palestine that the mainstream media are not giving them. Michigan Radio’s censorship prevented this from occurring.”
NPR's Skewed Reporting on Israel-Palestine
Weir says that this is particularly disturbing because a study of NPR by Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) showed extremely Israeli-centric reporting by the network. For example, it found a pattern in which NPR reported on Israeli children’s deaths 89 percent of the time while reporting on Palestinian children’s deaths only 20 percent of the time.
The study also found that while NPR reported on the deaths of Israeli civilians in higher proportions than it reported on deaths of Israeli soldiers, the network did the opposite in its reporting on Palestinian deaths, reporting on the deaths of Palestinian combatants at greater rates than it reported on the deaths of Palestinian civilians, giving an extremely skewed view of the conflict.
Similarly, NPR claimed that Hamas had been the first to violate a 2009 ceasefire, despite the fact that it had actually been Israel that had first violated the ceasefire. Even when evidence was provided to NPR for this fact, and even though CNN eventually ran a report correcting its similar error on a 2008 ceasefire breach, NPR refused to run a correction, leaving its listeners significantly misinformed on the situation.
Weir says that she has heard from numerous people from Michigan and around the country telling her that they have phoned and emailed the station complaining about this censorship, contacting the radio’s management and news department, and calling on pledge lines to tell the station that they would not be donating due to its censorship of If Americans Knew.
Weir says that following press outreach to Michigan news media alerting them to the censorship and controversy, she received a phone call from a Michigan Radio reporter looking into the matter. Weir says she does not know whether the station aired a news report on the controversy.
Weir says that she hopes she will eventually be able to reach someone from the station’s management and resolve this issue.
“If the station has now decided that the only problem is that it was uncertain that the local group was truly affiliated with If Americans Knew, their confusion can very easily be cleared up," she says. "We look forward to running a future announcement.”
Michigan Radio, according to its website, is a "service of Michigan Public Media, the public broadcasting company at the University of Michigan." Its stations are WUOM 91.7 Ann Arbor/Detroit, WVGR 104.1 Grand Rapids, and WFUM-FM 91.1 Flint.
They are licensed to the Regents of the University of Michigan.
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