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| Thursday, 27 January 2005 |
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Radio station apologizes for song mocking tsunami disaster NEW YORK, Wednesday (Pioneer Press) A New York radio station has sparked outrage across the city by airing a twisted song that shockingly mocks the 200,000 victims of the South Asian tsunami. The radio station, WQHT (Hot 97), was forced to air an apology after the insulting song - whose lyrics include racial epithets aimed at Asians - was played for four days last week by morning deejay Miss Jones. "We are absolutely appalled, saddened, outraged and angered," said Kai Yu of Asian Media Watch. The parody, sung to the tune of "We Are the World," makes light of how the killer tsunami "washed your whole country away." Some of the other lyrics refer jokingly to orphaned children being sold into slavery. "You're sick," Councilman Robert Jackson fumed at the radio station. Councilman John Liu said it was outrageous that the station, owned by Emmis Communications Corp., aired the song for four days before yanking it. "It degrades the more than 200,000 victims," Liu said. "It demeans all of us here in New York City and throughout the world who are engaged in trying to help these victims of the tsunamis." Liu and other Asian leaders have called for the Federal Communications Commission to crack down on the station and demanded that Miss Jones, whose full name is Tarsha Jones, be fired. The song also was denounced by the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations, which said it had received calls from offended Muslims. Jones and the station's program director, John Dimick, both read apologies on the air Monday. Jones and six people working on her show will donate a week of their salaries to tsunami relief, Dimick said. |
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