Protest, Calls Assail Talk Show of White Supremacist in Utah

Civil rights and religious groups decried inroads by neo-Nazis in Utah on Saturday while a white supremacist broadcast his new “Aryan Nations Hour” radio talk show.

During the hourlong call-in program, host Dwight McCarthy interviewed the Rev. Richard Butler, leader of the Church of Jesus Christ Christian, Aryan Nations, based at Hayden Lake, Ida.

But the pair spent much of their time on station KZZI fending off calls from outraged listeners protesting the Aryan Nations’ racist doctrines.

“Might I suggest you emigrate to Antarctica?” an unidentified female caller said before McCarthy switched to another line.

400 Protest at Park

Later in the day, about 400 demonstrators gathered in a park six blocks from the station to oppose the Aryan Nations’ arrival in Utah.

“They are not simply nice people who have a few racist or bigotist attitudes, but, rather, they are violently racist,” said Zeric Smith, of the newly formed Utahans Against Aryan Nations. “Violence has followed these people around wherever they go.”

For about an hour, the demonstrators sang and heard speeches criticizing supremacist doctrines. Groups represented included several student organizations from Brigham Young University and the University of Utah, the Roman Catholic Church and the AFL-CIO.

McCarthy, 37, announced last month that he was changing the name and format of his show, known since it began in July as the “Counter-Marxist Hour,” to reflect his white-supremacist views.

McCarthy pays $100 for one hour of air time per week on the 10,000-watt station in this Salt Lake City suburb, which also sells time to various religious groups and even offers a “Persian Hour” in the Persian language of Iran.

During his interview, Butler said mixing of races was partly to blame for a decline in U.S. morality.

Butler also said the Bible taught that God favored Israel, which he said consisted of members of white races such as the Anglo-Saxons, Celts and Nordic peoples.