Is it Hate Radio ?

COVER STORY:
Hate Radio
September 17, 2004   Episode no. 803
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/week803/cover.html

BOB ABERNETHY, anchor: In much of rural America, talk radio tends to be conservative --rarely liberal. And in some places, archconservative radio broadcasters rail against immigrants, environmentalists, the UN, and everything they think is liberal. Critics call them purveyors of fear and say they sow the seeds of hate. Defenders say it's a free expression of ideas. Lucky Severson reports.
LUCKY SEVERSON: Traveling under the big sky of Montana requires some sturdy wheels, preferably a pickup truck, and a good radio, which usually offers FM music and AM talk.
In this part of the world, on the airwaves conservative talk has a virtual lock. Odds are the talk will progress from Rush Limbaugh to someone even more conservative -- like John Stokes, owner of station KGEZ in Kalispell, Montana.
JOHN STOKES (Radio Host, KGEZ, Kalispell, Montana, on Radio): When the Left extremists are out of power, they are vicious, and it is pure, unadulterated, satanic evil. And they may look like your neighbors. It's evil.
SEVERSON: If you're in Montana, or much of rural America, you will hear very little of what people in these parts call "namby-pamby" liberalism on AM radio, and that's music to John Stokes's ears.
Mr. STOKES: I think it's gone so far extreme to the left that there was a backlash, and that's where you're probably seeing more people come out of the closet and say, "Enough is enough."
SEVERSON: He thinks talk radio is an outlet for America's aggravations.
Mr. STOKES: This is the great thing about America -- is that you can still get on your soapbox and do something. These people say that I incite people to violence. That's the last thing I want.
SEVERSON: But his detractors say some of his broadcasts have incited harassment and stifled public debate. Consider his program shortly after 9/11, when he equated environmentalists with terrorists.
Mr. STOKES (On Radio): So when these left-wing lunatic liberals complain that I have somehow connected them to this, yes, you are responsible. The Green extremists out there, the Green Nazis. Look in the mirror; it's your political correctness that has caused these problems.
KEN TOOLE (Montana Human Rights Network): People contacted us and said, "I've had things happen to my house, and I think it's because they talked about me on the program." Then you've got a problem, and that definitely affects not only the ability to have civic debate, but it also affects the decision making.
SEVERSON: Ken Toole is a Montana state senator and program director for the Montana Human Rights Network. He has been critical of Stokes's talk show called THE EDGE. He says the rhetoric has pushed some listeners over the edge to harass targets of Stokes's attacks. That may be why Stokes refers to Toole as "king fool of the human rights nitwits."
Mr. TOOLE: We went to Stokes and said, "You've got to knock this stuff off," and called him out on it. This is bullying. Does the schoolyard bully affect the schoolyard? I think so.
Mr. STOKES: There hasn't been one incident of violence at all by anybody that's been related to this show.
SEVERSON: How about harassing phone calls?
Mr. STOKES: We get them.
SEVERSON: How about some of these people who are mentioned on your program -- do they get them?
Mr. STOKES: I wouldn't know about that.
MARIA ARRINGTON (Quaker): Since he came into the valley, I'm seeing bumper stickers that are totally offensive to me, that literally say, "Kill the Green Nazis," and from their definition of a Green Nazi, here I am. Do you want to kill me?
SEVERSON: Maria Arrington and Jean Hand Triol are both Quakers and self-described liberals living in the Kalispell area.
Ms. ARRINGTON: I don't think there's any problem having conservative talk radio. My problem with the stations that we're talking about right now is that they're sowing the seeds of hate and fear, and that is dividing the community.
JEAN HAND TRIOL (Quaker): Even if we had different political views, we could have a dialogue, and now a lot of people are afraid to even express a liberal view.
SEVERSON: There is, of course, the other point of view, one you might hear from many of the men in this Bible study group. They call themselves "dirt bags" instead of "sinners," and they meet every Friday morning for Scripture lessons at a local casino.
JOHN CREAMER (Bible Study Leader): Father, we thank you for good health, for this beautiful place ...
SEVERSON: The "dirt bag" Bible discussions are conducted by John Creamer. He's a friend of John Stokes and has a religious program on Stokes's radio station. Creamer thinks talk radio is good for the community because it gets the juices flowing.
Mr. CREAMER: I think it stimulates a lot of thought and discussion, and it may not be the best way to do it, but what is a better alternative to get people thinking about what they should be thinking about?
SEVERSON: But the expression of views on talk radio is almost exclusively one-sided. That's been the trend since the demise in the 1980s of the fairness doctrine that required giving voice to opposing opinions. There are differing views on National Public Radio, but Montana NPR stations play mostly music during the day. By and large, radio talk is coming from local personalities like John Stokes and nationally popular right-wing hosts like Michael Savage.
MICHAEL SAVAGE (On Radio): And the Democrats are now functioning like old Soviets before the fall of the wall. And I do believe that they're finished. That's why they're getting this desperate. Akron, Ohio: Joe, you're on THE SAVAGE NATION ...
SEVERSON: In this part of Montana, dozens of timber mills have closed, costing hundreds of jobs. Many locals blame government regulations, and especially the environmentalists, Stokes's so-called Green Nazis.
Mr. STOKES (On Air): This hue and cry now that you're starting to hear from the environmentalists, the Green Nazis: "We need have a dialogue. We need to sit down and understand each other." Don't. We need to finish them off and make sure they don't have babies.
SEVERSON: This is a scratchy picture of John Stokes's Earth Day protest. He is burning the swastika, his symbol for Green Nazis or environmentalists.
He says a thousand people turned out to join his protest against the United Nations, where they shot the UN flag full of bullet holes.
Mr. STOKES: America is in peril. We are under threat of imminent attack. You know, we are being invaded. You can't get anything changed unless you can get people excited about the issues.
SEVERSON: But it's not only issues. It's gays, African Americans, all illegal immigrants, and others. Montana Human Rights Network director Ken Toole:
Mr. TOOLE: We very regularly bring a Holocaust survivor to Montana to talk about the Holocaust, to talk about bigotry and intolerance and take them through the schools. Stokes referred to him as a whore doing the work of the Human Rights Network.
SEVERSON: Researchers have reached different conclusions as to whether biased talk radio simply reinforces listeners' values or causes them to take action. So how influential can a station like KGEZ be? Stokes says he has about 20,000 listeners in a market of around 100,000. But Ken Toole says the size of the audience isn't that important.
Mr. TOOLE: Despite the fact people say, "Oh yeah, he's wacky. It doesn't matter. Nobody listens to him," we think people do hear it. It's not that they do agree. It's not that they're fans, but it is that those kinds of hosts tend to cast how the community debates occur.
SEVERSON: The Reverend Donna Schram of the Flathead Valley United Church of Christ is concerned about the chilling effect of Stokes's brand of discourse.
Reverend DONNA SCHRAM (Flathead Valley United Church of Christ): It's pretty hard, I think, to live that Christian life of give and take of love when you're constantly looking over your shoulder and being in a fearful state.
SEVERSON: The reverend's church is part of the Montana Association of Churches, which has begun asking members to get more involved in civic affairs to counter the influence of talk radio.
Mr. STOKES: The Association of Churches is one of the most leftist, communist organizations in Montana. They put stuff out in churches to boycott all my sponsors. I mean, they're an extremist group.
SEVERSON: Stokes's defenders contend that talk radio is nothing more than a gauge of small-town America's pent-up frustrations.
Mr. CREAMER: It's one of the first times that there has been a measurement taken of the people's temperature, and it's frightening to some people what that temperature is, and it's like, "Oh my gosh, we need to put this thermometer away because it's showing much too high of a temperature."
SEVERSON: Jean Triol agrees that the temperature is much too high, but blames talk radio for elevating it.
Ms. TRIOL: Everyone I speak with is concerned about the same thing and kind of ashamed that they're hunkering down and, you know, not out there with their opinions. It's a bad feeling.
Mr. STOKES (On Car Radio): Good morning on THE EDGE. What do you want to bet that when all is said and done, the foundations that fund our local environmental terrorists are also the primary foundation behind the Taliban? There will be a connection.
SEVERSON: And if you don't agree with him, John Stokes says there is a solution.
Mr. STOKES: Anybody who doesn't like what I'm doing can turn the radio station off. Turn the dial.
SEVERSON: For now, Stokes says his audience keeps getting bigger and bigger.
For RELIGION & ETHICS NEWSWEEKLY, I'm Lucky Severson in Kalispell, Montana.