Action Alert: Call KSFR (on air studio: 505-428-1382) Camp Lovewave from 11:00 am until noon this Saturday.
Express your disapproval at their having produced a bigoted show that brings up blatantly long-discredited anti-Semitic conspiracy theory canards.
You can also email them directly: camplovewave@ksfr.org, copying the general manager, Tazbah McCullah (tmccullah@ksfr.org), and co-program manager for talk shows, MA LeBlanc (merrylin@ksfr.org).
Background
As you may recall from an SFMEW earlier posting on July 29, the KSFR Camp Lovewave radio talk show had a blatantly anti-Semitic speaker on July 23rd. This speaker, Christopher Bollyn, expounded on his conspiracy theory that the Rothschilds, the Jews, the Zionists, and the Likudniks (a) control the media worldwide, (b) started the war on terror so as to, (c) foster on the world the need to fight a war on terror, somehow for (d) the benefit of Israel/the Jews and the Likud through their having (e) caused 9/11.
This bigoted nonsense was given 35 minutes of airtime on KSFR’s Camp Lovewave (you can listen to the broadcast here until Saturday, August 6th,; start listening at minute 24 of the show). Even worse, the hosts of Camp Lovewave, Terran and Bari Lovewave, affirmed the veracity of Bollyn’s anti-Semitic “theories” in their questions and exclamations, (see below). A week later the Lovewaves defended themselves for fostering such conspiracy theories at the Santa Fe Library on Saturday, July 30th, when Bollyn spoke to an audience of about 50 people.
Points to Make
We recommend that you take one of the following points to use, defend, and expound upon when you call or email:
- Conspiracy theory bigotry with no basis in fact should not be given an audience on any credible radio show, particularly one that receives taxpayer dollars.
- Bollyn expounded clearly untrue statements, and has elsewhere been accused of anti-Semitism and bigotry for his unfounded viewpoints (see, for example, the ADL posting a couple of years ago). There is no excuse for the hosts not to have known about this in advance and either not given him an audience (#1 above) or clearly challenged him to prove his allegations. They clearly could have done this before he was asked to be on the show, and perhaps even consulted with representatives of the Jewish community in advance. Here are some of the things Bollyn has claimed:
- He is a known holocaust denier. Only the Allied bombing of Dresden in World War II qualifies as a “holocaust”according to Bollyn. As to the 6,000,000 Jews who perished, he writes as follows:“I have not seen at these three former camps any evidence of any large oven in which hundreds of people could be gassed or burned. Nor, have I seen any photographs or physical evidence of such an oven. I don't see how this could make me a denier of anything. One can only deny by refusing to acknowledge something that one has seen the evidence of. I have looked for the evidence of these huge gas chambers and crematoria and not found it in the places they are said to have existed. That does not make me a holocaust denier.”
- He asserts that the Rothschilds control the US media. According to Bollyn, the Rothschilds created Rupert Murdoch’s fortune and supported him all along. He further asserts that because of his Zionist connections, Murdoch’s media are complicit in the cover-up of 9/11 “crime.” Bollyn presented not one shred of evidence to support this allegation. The facts prove otherwise: Murdoch’s largest co-shareowner in his media empire is John Malone of Liberty Media (Irish heritage, not Jewish), and another of his major shareholders is Al-Waleed bin Talal of the Saudi Royal Family (definitely not Jewish).
- Bollyn denies that Israel is a democracy. He asserts that only Jews can vote—all others are disenfranchised. This is 100% untrue. Arabs in Israel have equal voting rights; in fact, it is one of the few places in the Middle East where Arab women may vote. Today women hold 9 of the 120 Knesset seats. Eleven Arabs and one Druze are in the current Knesset. Israeli Arabs have also held various government posts, including one who served as Israel’s Consul General in Atlanta. Arabic, like Hebrew, is an official language in Israel. See here for more.
- Bollyn accuses Israel of disguising Mossad agents as Arabs to celebrate the collapse of the twin towers and the nearly 3,000 deaths of innocent civilians of 9/11 on roof tops in Jersey City. Bollyn offers not one shred of evidence to back up this outlandish accusation. The fact of the celebrations and the identity of the celebrants is well supported by police who were there. Celebrations in other parts of the world among Arabs is also well-known, including Palestinian Arabs.
- The Lovewaves never challenged any of Bollyn’s statements. Indeed they reinforced his views several times, sounding like co-conspiracy theorists of Bollyn. Here are some examples:
- Terran Lovewave opines that he “cannot exclude Israel from any discussion of 9/11.” On what basis? How does he exclude any other countries? Why only Israel?
- Lovewave’s response to Bollyn’s allegation that there is a global Zionist conspiracy controlled by the Rothschilds, with outposts in all major capitals was to say “ABSOLUTELY.”
- Neither Terran nor his co-host Bari asked for any proof or offered any challenge to Bollyn’s assertion that a Cabal headed by Benyamin Netanyahu in the 1970s planned the 9/11 terrorism attacks.catastrophe.
- Lovewave’s response to Bollyn’s allegation that 9/11 was a “false flag” attack* in order to start the “War on Terror” (which was a long-range Netanyahu plan according to Bollyn: “ABSOLUTELY TRUE.”
Consider
SFMEW does not dispute that in the U.S. free speech permits viewpoint shows on radio that include ridiculous allegations and conspiracy theories. No reputable station would include such conspiracy theories when they clearly are anti-Semitic, slanderous, and bigoted. Any responsible host of such a show would ask for some semblance of proof, or challenge the speaker, especially when a broad brush is painted over an entire people – something today we’d call the bigotry of anti-Semitism.
At the same time, it’s hard to believe than any reputable media outlet today would continue to permit homophobic, sexist, racist, or religious bigotry to be countenanced without a reasonable disciplinary response to such issues. KSFR should do the same with this program. KSFR management and the Board need a strong, responsible, public statement disavowing themselves of the Bollyn statements, apologizing to the Jewish community, and suspending or removing the Lovewaves from this public resource of broadcasting.
In SFMEW’s view KSFR management (and the Lovewaves) have not yet responded appropriately to this incident.
*According to one source, “The contemporary term false flag describes covert operations that are designed to deceive in such a way that the operations appear as though they are being carried out by entities, groups, or nations other than those who actually planned and executed them.”
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