Flashback to the year 1974.
It was August 8th,
the day that Richard Nixon announced that the following day, he would resign as
President of the United States of America. A short time after the announcement,
a disc jockey on KHJ (930 AM) opened up his microphone, and on the fade ending
of the Hues Corporation’s “Rock the Boat,” he said,"K-H-J, and your brother Tom Dooley. That’s Hues
Corporation, “Rock The Boat.” And, we've all gotta do that once in a while, you
know? I believe Richard Nixon, President of the United States and his close
associates should be thoroughly investigated in regard to the concept, design
and execution of the political assassinations of John Kennedy, Robert Kennedy,
Martin Luther King, the attempted assassination of George Wallace, and other
unprecedented and heinous crimes of high treason and murder against the people
of America. In case you don’t believe what you just heard, I’ll repeat
it.”
He then repeated the statement, played his “Tom
Dooley” jingle, segued into The Rascal’s “People Gotta Be Free,” and walked out
of the studio. The version I heard of the story told of executives all being in
a meeting and missing the whole thing ... wondering why he was leaving, but the
end result was the same: the station made an on-air statement during the news
that the views expressed by Dooley were “not those of radio station KHJ;” within
minutes Tom Dooley was longer employed by KHJ or owner RKO.
Fast forward to last week. Kimberly and Beck,
the morning team on WBZA/Rochester were fired May 22nd for making negative
remarks against benefits for transgender employees working for the city of
Rochester. I have not heard an official transcript, but All Access.Com reported that
the main focus of the firing was related to this statement from
Kimberly:
"The services that will be paid for under the
new coverage: gender reassignment surgery, psychological counseling, because
you're probably a nut job to begin with, that's my opinion, hormone therapy,
cosmetic and reconstructive surgery."
All Access also reported that Kimberly later
posted on Twitter: "Freedom of Speech includes the freedom to offend others. You
aren't granted a right to not be offended in this life #getoverit.”
In announcing the firings, station General
Manager Sue Minn said, Their hateful comments against the transgender community
do not represent our station or our company. We deeply apologize to the
transgender community, the community of Rochester, and anyone else who was
offended by their comments.”
Now, you may be asking why I am comparing these
two totally unrelated events. Am I equating a statement made against a political
figure with a blanket indictment of an entire group? Hardly. I am comparing them
because they both resulted in firings, not because of free speech violations,
but violations of company policy.
Interestingly, Dooley actually wanted out of his
contract because he hated Los Angeles, hated KHJ and wanted to leave. He
knew he would get fired for his rant on Nixon. In the end Dooley was but
a forgotten footnote at KHJ, hardly a memory other than for fanatics like me. I
doubt that happened on WBZA. But the change in attitude is interesting. No one
claimed Dooley was entitled to “free speech” in 1974. Many today are claiming
that Kimberly and Beck were denied their rights of “free speech.”
But as a longtime observer of radio -- and
business -- this is most certainly not a free speech issue. Companies have a
right to have their employees project an image of the company, and a code of
conduct that enforces that image. Disneyland has one for appearance of
employees. Others are similar. If I bash newspapers (which I would never do, by
the way, I am old school and love reading newspapers), do you think I‘d work
here long?
Howard Stern himself was fired numerous times in
spite of high ratings due to things he said. Until he found a company that
basically protected him. Companies have that right too ... to allow in-your-face
on air personalities unafraid to offend.
But does anyone really have free speech when it
comes to representing the company you work for? No. And no one ever really
has.
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