WMAL Cans Controversial Host

DCRTV has been leading the story for days, and today Paul Farhi at the Post follows-up with confirmation that talk radio host Michael Graham has been fired by D.C.’s WMAL-AM.

Graham, you might remember, was suspended following a July 25th show where he
asserted that “Islam is a terrorist organization” 23 times, also adding in that “moderate Muslims are those who only want to kill Jews.” The suspension has now turned permanent after Graham refused to apologize.

Station President/GM Chris Berry told Radio & Records yesterday, “Some of Michael’s statements about Islam went over the line–and this isn’t the first time that he has been reprimanded for insensitive language and comments. I asked Michael for an on-air acknowledgement that some of his remarks were overly broad and inexplicably he refused.”

Graham, as you might expect, minced no words in his statement: “The First Amendment and I have been evicted from ABC Radio in Washington, D.C…. As a conservative talk host whose job is to have an open, honest conversation each day with my listeners, I believe caving to this pressure is a disaster. I for one cannnot apologize for the truth and I cannot agree to some community-service style ‘outreach effort’ to appease the opponents of free speech.

“If I had made a racist or bigoted comment — which my regular listeners know goes against everything I believe in — I would apologize immediately, and without coercion. When I have made inadvertent fact errors in the past, I apologized promptly and without hesitation.”

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