Citizens for Civility & Accountability in Media

Sample Letter to Advertisers

To: Customer Service Dept.

Re: Concerns with sponsorship

We are writing to you because you are listed by KMJ-Radio (Fresno, CA) as one of their advertising sponsors.

Many people in the Fresno community are deeply upset by the programming on KMJ. On the one hand, we strongly defend the Constitutionally-guaranteed free speech rights of every individual and organization, including the individual program hosts on KMJ. On the other hand, we are dismayed that KMJ Radio is abusing those rights by airing a preponderance of programs which are divisive and promote hatred between different groups in our society.

KMJ's 90 hours a week of prime-time programming are all of a piece, a consistent stream of invective disparaging minorities of many kinds and those with differing political viewpoints. Hosts such as Glen Beck, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, as well as local imitators, encourage ridicule and extreme action, and constitute a provocation to violence. (We are enclosing some quotes from the air, and some responses from KMJ listeners, which illustrate our concerns.)

KMJ hosts do sometimes address issues factually, but often exaggerate, falsify or even fabricate issues apparently only to inflame, or as they put it, to entertain. KMJ radio personalities allow discussion of issues only with people who agree with them, heaping scorn or turning off the microphone when opposing voices call in. This may be amusing to those who agree with them, but is a troubling corruption of the civic discourse our diverse society needs if we are to live in peace.

We trust that you are interested in generating goodwill among us who live in the Fresno area. Therefore we ask that you communicate to KMJ that you cannot support a slate of closed-minded, negative and divisive programming. We, and the thousand-plus people who have already signed our petition to KMJ, hope to see that you have given hate radio a vote of no-confidence.