Viral Racism

All this week we've examined the ongoing idiocy and hypocrisy found in the neocon wing of the GOP and the media, from Joe Scarborough's blaming journalists for endangering the safety of Americans by exposing Raisin Brain's illegal torture practices, to Batty Michelle Bachman's (factually false) suggestion that swine flu is positively correlated to Democratic Presidents.  Now a couple of rabid right wing talkers are taking the crazy talk to the next level.

Yesterday, Jay Severin, that lupine loony from Boston, was "indefinitely suspended" from his afternoon drive slot on WTKK  for his extremely racist derogatory remarks about swine flu and Mexican immigrants, whom he labels "criminaliens."  "So now, in addition to venereal disease and the other leading exports of Mexico -- women with mustaches and VD -- now we have swine flu," Severin said this week. During a conversation with a caller complaining about immigrants receiving health care, Severin said emergency rooms had "become essentially condos for Mexicans," and blamed what he deemed the "world's lowest primitives" for the recent outbreak. "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," he said.

Shockingly, both Severin and his attorney seem both surprised at his suspension for this hate speech and certain of his rapid return. "It would certainly be unfortunate if someone was suspended because some people didn't like what he said," attorney George Tobia said, adding, "I'm confident he'll be back on the air soon."  Sadly, given the state of talk radio in this nation, he's probably correct.

In an additional display of racist hate speech, Atlanta-based "Mouth of the South" prejudiced program host Neal Boortz has jumped on the bigoted bandwagon since the swine flu hit the headlines.  On his April 27 program, Boortz suggested, perhaps jokingly, perhaps not, that Islamic terrorists may have created the deadly flu strain (let's call it "fajita flu" he suggested) and introduced it to Mexicans as a sneaky way to spread it to the U.S. "What better way to sneak a virus into this country than to give it to Mexicans....then spread a rumor that there are construction jobs here, and there they come," Boortz stated.

Will Boortz be suspended?  Doubtful.  Neither will Rush or Beck or Savage or Hannity or any of the other major leage hate mongerers who dominate the dial. The Severin suspension is just a single-market drop in the bucket, while the big fish forever swim free