If you live in the DC area and you listen to talk radio you may be familiar with Casey Lartigue’s show on XM Radio. He’s a radio host and former analyst for the conservative CATO Institute. On June 23, 2007, he posed the question of whether black talk radio is too focused on convenient conspiracy theories and not enough on hard news. The focus of his shows was “Memo 46″ and the rumor that Church’s chicken and KFC were putting stuff in the chicken to make black men sterile. In their debate on Memo 46, they mentioned another host, Joe Madison, who believed in the memo. In general, Lartigue’s shows is focused on debunking urban myths.
For those who don’t know, Memo 46 is a memo purported to be written by the Carter administration’s National Security Adviser that outlined a plan to undermine black leadership and separate African-Americans from Africans abroad. On his show Lartigue, discussed whether the memo was fake and the evidence he uncovered that questioned the document’s authenticity. Lartigue was fired.
The State Of . . . the African American voice on Talk Radio. Latigue explains himself here. He says that he did not attack Joe Madison personally but mentioned that Madison believed in the memo and discussed so on his own show. He claims that black talk radio was too accepting of urban rumors and not focused enough “real news.” He is challenged on what grounds he was fired on this talk radio show. My (rich) first time hearing about this guy was on Sunday while listening to a talk radio show. Is anyone familiar with this controversy? Should he have been fired for challenging the authenticity of the memo, which the other host may have believed in? After all, it’s talk radio.
Filed under: Politics
