Morton Downey Jr. Appearance Has CSUF Students Talking Picket Line

Acerbic former talk show host Morton Downey Jr. is raising hackles again. Downey’s scheduled appearance at Cal State Fullerton on Tuesday has sparked protest plans and charges of racial insensitivity against the sponsoring Associated Student Productions.

The university’s Multi-Cultural Council, comprising representatives from 28 campus organizations, passed a resolution Thursday condemning Downey’s appearance and made plans to picket the 8 p.m. event.

Audrey Perry, head of AS Productions, said the student-funded organization has decided to proceed with the event on grounds that it is a matter of protecting free speech.

But Judy Perry-Lichtenstein, chairwoman of the Multi-Cultural Council, rejected the free-speech argument. “We hope to make a distinction between ‘free speech’ and ‘fee speech,’ ” Perry-Lichtenstein said, noting that Downey’s appearance is being paid for by $5,000 in student funds, which are collected through a mandatory student fee.

“If (Downey) wanted to come into the middle of campus and spout off (at his own expense), that’s OK with us,” Perry-Lichtenstein said.

The graduate student in public administration said that in past public appearances Downey has used racial epithets in reference to blacks and has denigrated a number of cultural and minority groups, including Arabs, Iranians, gays and lesbians. Downey, whose controversial TV talk show was canceled last July in the face of declining ratings, could not be reached for comment.

Downey’s planned topic is “Censorship and Free Press.”

Perry said AS Productions booked Downey after surveying students about whom they wanted to see. “Morton Downey Jr. won the voting, so we went ahead and booked him to speak on campus,” she said. Many posters for the event have been torn down, Perry added, while some have been defaced with graffiti swastikas.

“We’ve expected the controversy,” Perry said. “We could have canceled the show” but decided to proceed “as a matter of principle.” If the show were canceled, Downey would still be paid the contracted $5,000.

“We’re not thrilled about their survey methods,” Perry-Lichtenstein countered, charging that the survey did not reflect the campus’s ethnic diversity. About 100 survey forms were distributed to students outside the University Center, in an area where fraternity and sorority members typically gather, she said.

Perry-Lichtenstein said the Downey booking is an example of increasing “public acceptance of racism as a form of entertainment.” In its resolution, the Multi-Cultural Council also condemned a recent comedy event sponsored by AS Productions in which, Perry-Lichtenstein said, comics on the bill made derogatory remarks about blacks and gays.

The Multi-Cultural Council has vowed to boycott future AS Productions events deemed “racially insensitive.” Some members of the council have vowed to boycott all events sponsored by the student-run organization.

The Downey brouhaha comes on the heels of other racial controversies, including a recent fraternity “slave auction.” In 1986, a large protest erupted when it was discovered that former California Ku Klux Klan leader Thomas L. Metzger was using a Cal State Fullerton public-access television studio to tape his nationally distributed cable-TV series, “Race and Reason.”