LA council mulls condemning on-air slurs

• Tweet

LOS ANGELES, March 22 (UPI) -- The Los Angeles City Council is considering a resolution that would condemn certain types of speech on public airwaves.

Council member Jan Perry introduced legislation that would call upon media companies to ensure "on-air hosts do not use and promote racist and sexist slurs" while broadcasting, CBS in Los Angeles reported Wednesday.

The resolution drew attention to uproar over comments by KFI-AM talk show hosts John Kobylt and Ken Chiampou when they called late pop singer Whitney Houston a "crack ho" soon after she died in February. The two were suspended.

The proposal also cited remarks made conservative talk-show host Rush Limbaugh in which he called Georgetown University law student Sandra Fluke a "slut" after she testified in Washington about women's access to contraception.

The proposal said KFI has a "long history of racially offensive comments, as well as deplorable sexist remarks, particularly towards women and black, Latino, and Asian communities" and called on parent company Clear Channel Communications and other broadcasters to hire a more diverse workforce as a way to address the trend.

"It is easy to become desensitized to what other groups find intolerable, which ultimately fosters an environment where negative comments can go unchecked and corporate guidelines and policies are no longer being enforced," the resolution said.