The Hispanic/Latino Anti-Defamation Coalition, along with the National Hispanic Media Coalition (8/11/09), "applauds" the San Francisco Board of Supervisors for being "the first elected body to take a stand against hate speech in media" by having

approved unanimously a resolution urging the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to conduct a comprehensive investigation on hate speech in media, allowing public participation via public hearings, and for the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to update its 1993 report the "Role of Telecommunications in Hate Crimes."

The Supervisors responded to grassroots activists in the Bay Area who have organized to call attention to the alarming increase of patently false and hateful language in media. For the last three years, the Hispanic/Latino Anti-Defamation Coalition SF has organized annual protests held at Clear Channel Communications.

Clear Channel is specifically "selected as the protest site due to the corporation's record of promoting some of the most virulent purveyors of hate and intolerance, including Michael Savage and Glenn Beck, who denigrate communities, groups and individuals."

Read the resolution on the City of San Francisco's website.

Also check out the profiles of Savage, Beck and other media hatemongers on FAIR's Smearcasting.com site--and see FAIR's magazine Extra!: "Hate Speech, Media Activism and the First Amendment: Putting a Spotlight on Dehumanizing Language" (5/09) by Candice O'Grady.

Former Sean Hannity show regular Hal Turner recently was arrested for blogging that "we have enough bullets to put... down" those not heeding his "warning to others in government: Obey the Constitution or die." While criminal prosecution most definitely is not the general solution for hateful commentary, the Hartford Courant's Edmund H. Mahony (6/25/09) reports facts that clearly move the Internet radio host's rantings from the realm of First Amendment protection solidly into incitement of violence. Turner, Mahony writes,

was arrested again Wednesday on charges that he threatened to assault and murder three federal judges in retaliation for a ruling upholding handgun bans in the Chicago area....

The federal charges in Chicago arise from Internet postings on June 2 and 3 in which Turner allegedly proclaimed his "outrage" over a June 2 decision by Chief Judge Frank Easterbrook and Judges Richard Posner and William Bauer of the Chicago-based U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals.

"Let me be the first to say this plainly: These Judges deserve to be killed," said the postings, which also included photographs, phone numbers, work addresses and room numbers of the judges, along with a photo of the building in which they work and a map of its location.

The upholding of this handgun ban--stemming from white supremacist Matt Hale having contracted the slaughter of a U.S. District Court judge, her mother and her husband--offended Turner so much that he commented that "apparently, the 7th U.S. Circuit court didn't get the hint after those killings.... It appears another lesson is needed." One has to wonder if this further intensely violent call to arms will be enough to force Sean Hannity's  repudiation of his documented history of association with Turner.