Tsunami Song Offends Any Standards of Decency - Sign the Petition

[mikelewis]

Tsunami Song Offends Any Standards of Decency - Sign the Petition
http://www.petitiononline.com/tsunmai7/petition.html

HOT 97 BOOTS TSUNAMI-SONG PAIR, VOWS $1M IN AID
http://www.nypost.com/news/worldnews/39286.htm
February 2, 2005 -- Hot 97 radio fired two staffers and pledged $1 million for tsunami relief yesterday, hoping to quell the firestorm over a song that mocked victims of the catastrophe and used an ethnic slur to describe them.
"The actions of the morning show crew were socially and morally indefensible and the entire Emmis family is ashamed by this," said Rick Cummings, president of Emmis Communications, which owns the station, WQHT/97.1 FM.

Cummings said "Miss Jones in the Morning" producer Rick Delgado and on-air sidekick Todd Lynn were axed to send a message that "this type of insensitivity is utterly unacceptable."

Emmis blamed Delgado for "writing, producing and airing" the "We Are the World" parody and Lynn for "offensive, racially insensitive comments."

Cummings said Miss (Tarsha) Jones, along with sidekicks DJ Envy and Tasha Hightower, will be back on the air a week from today, but must donate two weeks' salary to Give2Asia tsunami relief.

That's also where Emmis will send its $1 million "lump-sum" donation.

"This response, as with all their previous responses, is inadequate," said Queens Councilman John Liu, the most vocal critic of Hot 97's parody.



"I have made it very clear to Emmis that they need to give up a week's worth of advertising revenues to the relief efforts and, by my calculation, that's not $1 million.

"Give me a freakin' break — it's $10 million," Liu said.

Delgado and Lynn couldn't be reached for comment.

Here's a link to the Song - It is very offensive - Sign the petition of protest!
http://www.asianmediawatch.net/missjones /

[mikelewis]

1. Lyrics

"And all at once, you can hear the screaming chinks.
And no one was saved from the wave.
There were Africans drowning, little Chinamen swept away.
You can hear God laughing, 'Swim you bitches swim.'"

http://www.asianmediawatch.net/missjones/
Sign the petition!

[Ian David]

4. Done. How long until the Freepers start a counter-petition? n/t

[mikelewis]

11. lol

[mikelewis]

2. The text of the petition

http://www.asianmediawatch.net/missjones/
Dear Hot 97 WQHT and Emmis Communications Management,

I am appalled and disgusted by your Hot 97 WQHT-FM radio broadcast on the morning of January 18, 2005 when the hosts of the "Miss Jones in the Morning" show sang the "Tsunami Song" that mocks the dead South Asian tsunami victims using racial epithets, profanity, and hate speech.

The lyrics of the song include:

"And all at once, you can hear the screaming chinks.
And no one was saved from the wave.
There were Africans drowning, little Chinamen swept away.
You can hear God laughing, 'Swim you bitches swim.'"

During the broadcast, one of the hosts is heard saying "I’m going to start shooting Asians."

In the "Tsunami Song," the radio hosts trivialized the enormous pain and suffering of victims of the South Asian tsunami, and spread racist attitudes and hatred towards people of Asian descent. Such indecent and profane speech has no place in broadcast radio and is prohibited by the Federal Communications Commission.

This is not the first time that Miss Jones (Tarsha Nicole Jones) has made racially inflammatory comments about Asian Americans. Last year, in response to the sale of a board game called Ghettopoly, Jones enflamed an already racially charged situation by asking listeners to make their own board game called "Chinkopoly" and call-in with their own derogatory stereotypes of Asians as retaliation towards Ghettopoly's creator who is an Asian. Miss Jones advocated retaliation towards the Asian American community despite the fact that Asian American organizations denounced the game Ghettopoly and its creator.

Because of the repeated expressions of racist attitudes and disdain towards people of Asian descent by the hosts of the "Miss Jones in the Morning" show, I urge you to issue a formal and sincere apology, and eliminate this radio program from future broadcast. Radio audiences deserve morning radio hosts who believe in the values of compassion and diversity.

[liberalmuse]

3. Disgusting.

Some co-workers were laughing over an e-mail that was going around, 'What Really Caused the Tsunami'. I was not amused when I opened up the e-mail and found 3 very large women in bikinis. HAHAHAHAHA! Oh, how original. Making fun of fat people and brown-skinned people who've experienced tragedy because of a horrific natural disaster at the same time. I was surprised there weren't any gay people pictured in the e-mail.

Over 100,000 people getting killed, over 1million more hungry and suffering disease, nevermind women with slow metabolism's makes me laugh every time. NOT. I'm sad for anyone who thinks this disgusting song, or that e-mail was funny. Sadly, most of my co-workers seemed to enjoy the e-mail.

Have Americans become the most callous and dumbest fucking people on the planet, or what?

On edit: Petition signed and sent.

[Ian David]

6. No, we have not. Well, maybe dumbest. But not most callous.

American citizens have donated more money to Tsunami relief than any other country.

In fact, we've donated more money than our government has contributed.

Excuse me, than our government has contributed and LOANED them.

[liberalmuse]

9. Being one of the wealthiest nations...

Good! Thanks for bringing that up that particular fact.

Unfortunately, sometimes it seems as if the assholes in this country are trying to drag all Americans down, and sometimes it seems as though they're doing a pretty good job of it.

[telamachus]

5. Long live the first amendment

"there must be limits to freedom"

Only a brain-stem would find this song and its racism attractive but should it be banned?

If the people don't want to listen to it then they SHOULD voice there opinion BUT the voice of the people may shut YOU up someday.

Beware the law of unintended consequences before you sign the petition.

[Ian David]

7. It's not censorship. It's punishment,

[mikelewis]

10. I agree but the First Amendment is a legal issue not a social issue

Free speech is protected by our legal system but is not protected by our moral system. Protesting what a person says is different than sueing them to get them to stop saying it. I don't care if they continue to air this song or support the people who created it. This is thier right and they can exercise it but they should not be free from criticism from the people.

By the way - "This segment of the program was brought you by Sprint PCS" This was incorporated in thier dialogue. They thought it would help them sell more friggin phones. I say protest.

[mikelewis]

8. According to the station - Miss Jones is NOT fired - 2 Week Suspension

http://www.hot97.com/

WQHT/Hot 97 and Emmis Communications Terminate Two Members of Morning Show Crew for Displaying Gross Insensitivity and Making Offensive Remarks

Emmis Donates $1 Million to Charities to Aid in Tsunami Relief & Recovery

New York – February 1, 2005: WQHT/Hot 97-FM and Emmis Communications announced today that they have terminated the employment of morning show producer Rick Del Gado for his role in writing, producing and airing “The Tsunami Song,” a highly insensitive parody of the 1985 single “We Are the World.” Hot 97 and Emmis also terminated morning show personality Todd Lynn for making offensive, racially insensitive comments while on the air. Both terminations are effective immediately.

Simultaneously, Emmis announced that it will make a lump-sum donation of $1 million to Give2Asia to aid the organization in its Tsunami relief and recovery effort.

An internal investigation by Hot 97 and Emmis determined that the singularly egregious actions of Lynn and Delgado warranted termination from their employment at the station. Other members of the morning show crew: Miss Jones, DJ Envy and Tasha Hightowerhave each been given two-week suspensions . The salaries of these individuals will be redirected to Give2Asia for the duration of their suspensions, which will end on Wednesday, February 9. Another member of the morning show crew, Miss Info, has not been suspended.

“The actions of the morning show crew were socially and morally indefensible and the entire Emmis family is ashamed by this,” said Rick Cummings, President of Emmis Radio “Emmis and Hot 97 have investigated this matter thoroughly over the course of the last week. Our decision to terminate Mr. Del Gado and Mr. Lynn while suspending the other members of the morning crew sends a message that this type of insensitivity is utterly unacceptable.”