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Sidebar:
By Ed Oliver Jeannine
Graf often said she believes in encouraging “the free market of ideas.”
In the political correctness of our day, many are saying that her sudden
dismissal last week from radio station WTKK was another nail in the
coffin for that concept. One
of her frequent guests and a champion of free speech, Nat Hentoff, was
shocked and angry when he heard the news about the dismissal. In
praise of Graf, Hentoff told Massachusetts News that he can’t claim
yet to have met every talk host around the country, but if he were to
give a prize it would be to Jeannine Graf and David Brudnoy equally,
“for holding up the idea that we all presumably believe in, which is
free speech.” Hentoff,
who first gained nationwide praise as a writer for the liberal Village
Voice, has according to the Washington Post, “come to be acknowledged
as a foremost authority in the area of First Amendment defense. He is
also an expert on the Bill of Rights, the Supreme Court, student rights
and education.” The
prominent columnist and author was born and educated in Boston. Hentoff
said, “You can’t say you believe in free speech if what you mean is
you only believe in the free speech of people with whom you agree.” He
said that it is those few radio stations which allow responsible talk
hosts who hold strong ideas about freedom of speech and who welcome
others on their show to voice their ideas, which keep free speech alive.
This is the current equivalent of the town meeting, he said. “The
loss is obviously the station’s. I think they have disgraced themselves,”
said Hentoff. He
said the Fistgate scandal was probably the most controversial topic
Graf covered. “I got on the air then too. I broke the judge’s gag rule.
People had a right to know what went on at those sessions at Tufts.
There was nothing wrong with her putting that on the air and getting
such constitutional experts as Alan Dershowitz of Harvard and Harvey
Silverglade, who is a very prominent national civil rights and civil
liberties attorney. “She
was doing her job, and the other stations were not doing their job.
That was a time when the newspapers, except briefly in the Boston Herald,
were silent.” Hentoff
said he knows something about gag rules because he writes about the
law and he writes for the prestigious Editor and Publisher magazine.
“That
was the largest gag rule in the history of the United States,” he said.
“It applied not only to newspapers, radio and all the media, it applied
to the state legislature! The other media, the other radio stations,
television stations, newspapers, except again the Herald, were silent. “The
only people that went to court and broke at least part of that gag rule
was a lawyer for Fox News television. Here you had a city that was put
on silence by a judge — which is not, to say the least, ‘the American
way’ — and only Jeannine had the courage to tell what was going on.
“As
a result, as a reward, she’s fired.” Hentoff
said he does not believe that she was fired as a result of a fiscal
decision, which is what the radio station told Graf when they called
her at home Thursday and told her not to come in. “If
it was a fiscal move, let them justify it by the ratings. The burden
of proof is on them. Particularly since she is so controversial, which
is the whole point of talk radio. If it was a fiscal move, why did they
change her prime time slot and put her on later hours? Was that a signal
for her to leave?” Related: Many upset about firing of Jeannine Graf Jeannine Graf fired because of Civil Rights Act
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