Our SÁĹ
Region Responds to Renewed Attack on Hellenes by Talk Radio Network’s
“Mancow” Muller
SÁĹ-Americas, Greek Orthodox
Metropolis of Chicago, Hellenic Congressional Caucus to Protest
Characterization of Hellenes as “Laziest people on Earth,”
“racist,” “dirty, filthy people,” and “scammers” on U.S. Radio
Nationwide
Chicago, Illinois, April 6, 2005 – As part of his policy of having the N. & S. America Region of SÁĹ respond to all unfair media attacks on the image of Hellenes in the Western Hemisphere, V.P. and Regional Coordinator Chris P. Tomaras has written to Mark Master, CEO of the Talk Radio Network (TRN), demanding an on-air apology by WKQX’s (Chicago) Erich “Mancow” Muller for a particularly anti-Greek segment during his March 16 morning radio program, which is syndicated on TRN. The letter followed one by the Chancellor of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Chicago, the Very Rev. Demetri C. Kantzavelos, who heard the segment as he arrived at his Metropolis offices on March 16.
Tomaras wrote: “We wholeheartedly concur with [these] sentiments expressed in the recent letter to you from [Fr.] Kantzavelos:
Mr.
Masters, we are not “Pollyanna’s” who do not understand the dynamics
of talk radio and the essential role that sensationalistic rhetoric plays
in driving audience numbers and advertising rates.
But this is not cable TV, nor satellite radio, but rather our own
public airwaves. Even you
must agree, sir, that there is a point beyond which the public airwaves
cannot be used to abuse the image and reputation of an entire nation,
especially when they are not given an opportunity to respond… Because
given that opportunity, we would have Erich “Mancow” Muller’s
listeners know, for example, that the Chicago Sun-Times cited in a recent
article an international Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development survey ranking of the number of hours worked per person around
the world in 2003 (the last year for which data is available).
In that ranking, the U.S. ranked fourth, behind first-place Korea,
second-place Greece and even behind Mexico.
If the Greeks in Greece are as “lazy” as Mr. Muller told his
millions of listeners they are, what are we Americans who rank two places
behind them?
Mr. Master…there is no end to the clever ripostes our constituents would want us to write here, nor an end to the litany of other outrages uttered by Mr. Muller against other groups, both in the U.S. and elsewhere. But on behalf of the 1.5 million Greek Americans in the U.S., the World Council of Hellenes Abroad must demand that the TRN undertake the following:
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Instruct Mr. Muller to correct, on-air, his misinformation regarding the history of the Colossus of Rhodes and the Greek people’s role in its preservation;
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Instruct Mr. Muller to apologize, again on-air and not just to those Americans of Greek descent, for his characterization of them and their families as ‘lazy,’ ‘dirty, filthy,’ ‘racist’ and ‘scammers.’ “
Copies of Tomaras’ letter were sent to the FCC, the Hellenic Congressional Caucus and the stations that carry Muller’s syndicated program.
