FIRST OFF . . .

A Missouri chapter of the Ku Klux Klan declined an offer by American Cablevision, Kansas City, Mo., to let KKK members air their views on two community-access talk shows, and instead is insisting in a federal suit filed Monday that the cable company allow the chapter to produce its own show. American Cablevision made the offer last week, after refusing the group its own show. “At first they said yes to the forums, and now they are saying no, based on the advice of their lawyers (at the American Civil Liberties Union),” said Carol Rothwell, director of the cable company’s public relations department. “This makes me question their motive. We thought we were compromising.” ACLU officials say they are against the philosophy of the KKK but want freedom of expression for the group. “I didn’t know that we had responded (to American Cablevision), but the cable company telling the group when and how they can express their views just isn’t enough (for us),” said Dave Waxse, chairman of ACLU’s legal panel for western Missouri. The conflict between the KKK and the Time Inc.-owned cable firm started a year ago when the local Klan chapter sought air time for its white-supremacist program “Race and Reason.” The company instead sought an amendment to its franchise that would have granted it editorial control over the show. In June the Kansas City Council approved the company’s request.