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The on-air feud that erupted during Monday's march coverage between KFI shout hosts John & Ken and Fox-11's Tony Valdez is heating up behind the scenes (at least—I don't know what the radio guys are saying on the air.) Yesterday in the Times, Paul Brownfield reported in Calendar:
What began as dialogue quickly arrived at the rage beneath the surface, with Valdez, patched in from MacArthur Park, endeavoring to give the radio guys a history lesson about manifest destiny and who exactly had been in this country first. In another context, substitute Israelis and Palestinians.'There's a statute of limitations on old history,'John shouted.
'It's very convenient for you to do that, I say with respect,' Valdez shot back, 'but nevertheless you took this country, you killed people in order to take this country for yourself.'
Can we have a march like this every day? I might actually watch the local news again.
Audio at KFI. Today John & Ken say on their website that Valdez will apologize on his weekend public affairs show. But Latino activist Xavier Hermosillo has emailed friendlies calling for support for Valdez:
Dear Friends,We are on the verge of losing a great Los Angeles news icon, Tony Valdez at Fox 11 News.
Radical right wing talk show hosts John and Ken on KFI are heading an effort to have Tony fired because he took them on earlier this week.
Channel 11 chose to simulcast their afternoon coverage of Monday's immigrant march with the KFI show, and when John and Ken began one of their usual ant-Latino racist diatribes, and attacked Tony Valdez and Channel 11 for their alleged pro-immigrant coverage, Tony responded with a little bit of history about how Mexicanos, specifically, have been treated poorly.
He made a historical point about Mexicans being killed by racists and in mentioning a memorial to a Mormon Battalion of soldiers, some feel he gave the impression the Mormons killed the Mexicans. I didn't get that impression, but the racist talk show hosts are having their listeners bombard KTTV 11 with demands to fire Tony.For more than 25 years, Tony has not only provided coverage for the Latino community that was previously non-existent, but he has hosted "Mid-Day Sunday", a community affairs show, for more than 15 years, giving voice to organizations in our community.
Please join me in sending an email to Channel 11 telling them we know there are efforts to get rid of Tony Valdez and that we support him for his more than 25 years of stellar reporting, that he is an asset to the entire community, and that we will not by quietly and allow him to be attacked. Please tell them that his 25 years of service cannot and should not be ignored over these attempts to silence one of the premier and longest-serving Latino journalists in America.
Time is of the essence because my sources tell me Channel 11 is getting hundreds of emails against Tony and Fox management is feeling pressured. Let's start out own pressure.
Send your email to newscomments@fox11.com
By the way, you can find a full bio of Tony Valdez at this link: http://www.fox11.com/sections/newsteam/valdez.asp
Thank you.
Xavier Hermosillo
Update: Ron Fineman's On the Record reports that Valdez has received death threats at the station and cites Fox-11 assignment editor Carol Breshears saying that Valdez will apologize for his opinions on "Mid-Day Sunday," which airs Sunday at 9 am.