Station Screens Calls on Insurance Issues

KABC radio, which is airing a series of talk shows this week on the five insurance ballot initiatives, said Monday it is taking steps to keep the shows balanced after seeing an insurance industry letter asking its campaigners to “flood the air” with loaded questions during the programs. “We’re screening calls, trying to circumvent their campaign that way,” said a spokesman for show host Michael Jackson. On the first show Monday, featuring the chairman of the Proposition 100 campaign, which the insurance industry opposes, several questions appeared by their almost professional slant to have possibly been planted, but by both sides. One person who asked a question corresponding to one of 34 questions suggested in the insurance industry letter was challenged by Jackson, but the man insisted that he was acting on his own.