| | |  Entertainment | June 2009 
Talk Show Host Severin to Return to Air, Despite Comments on Mexicans
 Martin Finucane - Boston Globe
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| | Jay Severin | | |
Controversial right wing radio talk show host Jay Severin, suspended for a month for making derogatory comments about Mexican immigrants, will return to the airwaves Tuesday. He regrets the remarks and understands they were wrong and hurtful, his station, WTKK-FM, said.
"He understands that we will not accept this type of commentary on our airwaves in the future. Based on this understanding, we have agreed to conclude Jay's suspension and he will return." the station said.
Severin was suspended April 30 after calling Mexican immigrants "criminaliens," "primitives," and "leeches," and saying Mexico's leading exports included venereal disease and "women with mustaches and VD."
Severin also called America "the magnet for primitives from around the world," and said hospital emergency rooms had become "essentially condos for Mexicans."
His remarks sparked a firestorm of protest, led by organizations such as the Massachusetts Immigrant & Refugee Advocacy Coalition. Some sponsors pulled their advertising and said they wouldn't resume them if the station reinstated him. Some observers felt Severin, who had gotten in trouble for other remarks before, was on his last legs.
"We want to emphasize that WTKK still strongly supports an open and spirited debate about the many issues our community and our country currently face," the station said. "There will no doubt be times when people disagree with what Jay says. Our goal is to maintain a level of discourse that is compelling and thought-provoking, yet civil and respectful. While we will not always succeed in walking this line, we will continually strive to do so."
The station posted a similar statement on its website, concluding, "We hope you'll experience what Jay has to say this Tuesday and every weekday from 3 to 7 p.m. Warm regards, WTKK Management."
The station is owned by Greater Boston Radio Inc., which is a subsidiary of Greater Media Inc. Greater Media is the parent company of 23 AM and FM stations in the Boston, Charlotte, Detroit, New Jersey and Philadelphia markets, the station said.
Here are some of the comments on Mexican immigrants that got Jay Severin suspended for a month from his job:
• "It's millions of leeches from a primitive country come here to leech off you and, with it, they are ruining the schools, the hospitals, and a lot of life in America. Now, at this particular moment in history, they are exporting to us a rather more active form of disease, which is the swine flu."
• "We should be, if anything, surprised that Mexico has not visited upon us poxes of more various and serious types already, considering the number of crimaliens already here."
• "So now, in addition to venereal disease and the other leading exports of Mexico – women with mustaches and VD – now we have swine flu."
• "Other countries won't let people into their country from the source of the illness if there's some kind of plague, but we do, and tonight we will let the usual 5,000 criminaliens that come across the Arizona border - will probably be 8,000 tonight and maybe tomorrow it will be 12,000 - because even Mexicans are going to be trying to get out of Mexico at a greater rate"
• "Yeah, well, that's become essentially condos for Mexicans." (In reference to hospital emergency rooms.) |
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