LULAC upset with local talker's "tone"
KTRK-13's Cynthia Cisneros reports some local groups are not happy with KTRH-740 talk radio host Chris Baker:
A controversial Houston talk show host is at the center of his own controversy. Several Houston civil rights organizations are taking a closer look at KTRH talk show host Chris Baker and some remarks he's made on his daily talk show.
Just how far is too far when it comes to talk radio? Isn't it supposed to be outspoken and outrageous? Within reason, says one Houston mother who says Baker has gone overboard.
As painful as that prose is to read, one can only imagine the effect on the ears of KTRK viewers.
So what has the "controversial" host done to merit such criticism?
Johnson says she listened to several of Baker's shows discussing the fatal shooting of 14-year-old Eli Escobar by Houston police officer Arthur Carbonneau and the subsequent criminal trial. Johnson says she never heard Baker make disparaging or racial remarks, but says it was his tone of voice that upset her."He was disrespectful, you know," she said. "He had an opinion that, it's up to him to have his own opinion, but he was disrespectful."
So, he didn't make disparaging or racial remarks, but he had a tone? Further, he "had an opinion that" -- that what exactly? Blank out.
Now, we get to the heart of the matter:
Johnson contacted local LULAC President Johnny Mata. LULAC is considering filing a formal complaint against the talk show host with the FCC.
"We can debate. We can argue. I don't have a problem with that," said Mata. "You can have control of the mic. But you don't control the airwaves. That belongs to the public."
It's certainly convenient that Mata, who rarely sees eye to eye with Baker, was contacted, that an accusatory smear with racial undertones backed by no real specifics was manufactured, and that it's suddenly considered news by KTRK.
Now, it's no secret that some of us here at blogHOUSTON listen to Baker regularly. I was listening quite a bit during the Carbonneau/Escobar segments at issue here. I heard a host handle a hot and charged issue with fairness, and cover some ground that, frankly, our local media didn't cover. I did not hear anything I would remotely construe as racist -- which would probably explain why the accusers cannot provide any specifics.
The Carbonneau/Escobar issue is one of the few hot topics in town that those of us here shied away from. None of the bH bloggers was very well versed in the details of the case, and it didn't seem particularly useful to repeat the points made on Baker's show here. In retrospect, it's probably good that we didn't, or Cisneros might also be reporting that LULAC doesn't much like those "outrageous and outspoken" weblogs.
UPDATE: I just remembered one line from Baker's shows on this topic that stood out because he repeated it over and over: "There are no winners here." Baker said this many times in what I thought was a balanced, fair treatment of the issue. I thought it was worth tacking on to this post (that's the peril of late-night posting -- I forget things).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/02/05 12:08 AM | Houston Media | Technorati | Sphere | Comments (3)
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