More Loh down*

Backlash continues from KCRW's dismissal of Sandra Tsing Loh. The hometown Santa Monica Mirror's editorial this week, titled "Loh Blow," blasts the station and general manager Ruth Seymour.

Like almost everyone we know, we are longtime subscribers to KCRW...but every once in a while Seymour or someone at KCRW goes absolutely nuts, as she or it did last week...

In firing Loh, KCRW has joined that sorry company of self-anointed Big Brothers who seem bent on quashing the First Amendment. Even Rush Limbaugh, the semi-official voice of the Right, raged over the effort to shut Stern up — not because he likes Stern, but because, with us, he cherishes the First Amendment...Now we find ourselves in the thoroughly bizarre position of agreeing with Limbaugh and disagreeing with KCRW.

This is not just a big issue, it is THE issue now.

Yesterday, the First Amendment Action Committee of PEN USA issued an alert that called on KCRW to reinstate Loh.

PEN USA has long warned against such self-censorship. Stephen Rohde, PEN Vice President of Freedom to Write Domestic, and a constitutional lawyer, said, “KCRW, normally a place for innovative and charismatic programming, has denied its audience an independent, inventive voice out of fear that the government might reprimand the station. Given all the circumstances, the FCC might well not have taken any adverse action at all. But now, KCRW has taken the most draconian step all by itself."

Also, the L.A. Press Club is holding a party in support of Loh on Thursday, March 18, at the Figueroa Hotel downtown. It's co-hosted by Cathy Seipp, who commented on her friend Loh's situation for CityBeat and follows it closely on her blog, and Emmanuelle Richard.

Meanwhile, in the course of admitting that he never got Loh's style of wit, Matt Coker in the OC Weekly offers up his five favorite words to find in the L.A. Times: "Liz Smith is on vacation."

*And now for something completely different: Marie Osmond hits the air with "Safe Radio"

Earlier: Loh ho ho, Et tu, KPCC?