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Friday, February 06, 2009
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CFRA open-line radio host Lowell Green
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OTTAWA — Veteran Ottawa open-line radio host Lowell Green contravened Canadian broadcasting standards when he made “abusive and discriminatory” remarks against Muslims, the national broadcast watchdog ruled Friday.
According to the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC), Mr. Green launched an “uninformed and unfair” attack when he told his CFRA audience in early December that the majority of Muslims are fanatics and extremist behaviour is symptomatic of the religion, not just a radical minority.
Mr. Green, the self-styled occupier of a mythical “Island of Sanity,” had been inspired by the story of British schoolteacher Gillian Gibbons whose elementary class in the Sudanese capital Khartoum named a class teddy bear “Muhammad” and caused a storm of outrage across the Muslim world.
Ms. Gibbons was forced to leave the country after being threatened with imprisonment and death.
Mr. Green posed the question to listeners: “Is there something inherent in the Muslim faith that promotes violence and oppression of women?”
In response to one Muslim caller who tried to defend Islam, Mr. Green responded “Baloney” and during another call told the sympathetic, but apparently non-Muslim, caller she had “abandoned common sense” and was being “silly.”
“Almost every act of terrorism around the world today is carried out in the name of Islam,” responded Mr. Green. “Don’t tell me this is the work of a few fanatics.”
The broadcast watchdog, an arms-length organization funded by private broadcasters and created by the broadcasters to rule on listener and viewer complaints, was especially critical of Mr. Green for refusing to listen to pro-Islam callers, especially those who were clearly informed about the religion.
“The host has mounted a sweeping, abusive and unduly discriminatory criticism of Islam,” it said. “He conceded none of the diversity that exists in Islam or among its adherents ... and brooked no contradictory observations of persons who were admittedly Muslim, informed about the religion, or of a different viewpoint.”
Worse, said the CBSC report, was the manner in which the broadcaster dismissed those who disagreed with him.
“Green did not merely disagree with opposing points of view;” it said, “he mocked, ridiculed and insulted their interlocutors. Using terms like “silly” and “baloney”, he denied to callers that which is potentially best in talk radio: fair, interactive dialogue. The right to express an editorial perspective is one thing; the exclusion of the opinions of those who would express a conflicting perspective is quite another. Disparaging opposing views with condescending, even childish, words such as those noted above is neither fair nor proper.”
Mr. Green, marketed by CFRA as “the man who gets things done in Canada’s Capital”, did not return calls from the Citizen Friday, but the station did broadcast the CBSC’s decision, read by another announcer.
Under CBSC rules, stations violating rules must broadcast the decision but there is no other punishment.
Mr. Green, much honoured for his charitable work and given a special award by the late prime minister Pierre Trudeau for his efforts in building understanding between Canada’s French and English communities, also had his knuckles rapped by the broadcast watchdog 10 years ago after complaints from the Somali community.
He has also had several complaints against him dismissed by the CBSC.
Read the full CBSC decision here.