KPFK Drops Two Programs Accused of Using Hate Speech

Public-radio station KPFK-FM (90.7) has axed two weekly programs dealing with African American issues that had been accused by several organizations of broadcasting hate speech.

Dropped from KPFK’s lineup this week were “Family Tree,” hosted by Jan Robinson Flint, and “Freedom Now,” hosted by Marcus Lewis and Ken Carr.

The Anti-Defamation League of the B’nai B’rith, the Hillel Foundation and the Center for the Study of Popular Culture had charged that slanderous and anti-Semitic attacks were made during the two programs.

“There have been problems with those programs,” KPFK general manager Clifford U. Roberts acknowledged in an interview. “I felt that they were using language in those programs in a way that was counter to our mission, which is to bring people together. (Dropping them) was not a capricious or punitive act. It was an action that was part of my job as manager to keep our license and keep our audience.”

Earlier in the month, the Anti-Defamation League filed a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission charging that “Freedom Now” had violated the agency’s “personal attack” rule during its June 22, 1994, broadcast. That program accused the ADL of, among other things, founding the Ku Klux Klan and refusing to speak out about the denigration of blacks.

The ADL maintained that KPFK had failed to follow FCC rules that require a station to inform a person or organization whose character, honesty or integrity has been attacked about what was said and to offer them an opportunity to respond.

Even though the ADL did not cite “Family Tree” in its complaint, KPFK said that it too had been the subject of “numerous complaints.” Roberts said he had issued a memo last year and had spoken repeatedly to the programs’ volunteer hosts about their use of inflammatory language.

“The way we use language can direct many emotions in people,” said Roberts, who, like the three hosts, is African American. “I spent an awful lot of time trying to get (the hosts) to understand about the use of language. I couldn’t find common ground, and I had taken all the time that I could allocate to them.”

Flint, of “Family Tree,” denied that she broadcast hate speech and contradicted Roberts’ account, saying she had never been told what she had said that was offensive.

“Cliff (Roberts) and I have not had meetings about this programming,” Flint said. “He’s lying. There were no discussions, no written notification and no specific allegations. If they had a grievance with ‘Family Tree,’ why was there no verbal warning, no suspension, no due process?”

Lewis and Carr could not be reached for comment.

Roberts’ decision won praise from the complainants.

“Mr. Roberts is to be commended for making this commitment,” said David Horowitz, president of the Center for the Study of Popular Culture. “I think his actions are definitely a step in the right direction toward more balance and more fairness in public broadcasting.”

“I’m very pleased and we think it’s been a long time coming, but it’s certainly welcomed,” said David Lehrer, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League. “We hope that KPFK and Pacifica will fulfill a positive and constructive role in our community and not be a vehicle for the dissemination of hate.”

KPFK has come under fire from the ADL in the last few years for other programming that the organization found inflammatory. The ADL filed a complaint with the FCC in February, 1992, regarding a program called “Afrikan Mental Liberation Weekend,” charging that the show broadcast “a lengthy diatribe against the Jewish community.”

That complaint led to the cancellation of the program, hosted by Kwaku Person-Lynn, and to the development of several multicultural programs.

Listener-sponsored KPFK prides itself on its liberal perspective and its efforts to give a platform to viewpoints that traditionally have not had access to the mainstream media.