{"id":7906,"date":"2009-06-08T21:12:04","date_gmt":"2009-06-09T04:31:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=7906"},"modified":"2009-06-08T21:12:04","modified_gmt":"2009-06-09T04:31:52","slug":"rob-of-rob-arnie-and-dawn-we-have-simply-failed-on-almost-every-level","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=7906","title":{"rendered":"Rob of "Rob, Arnie and Dawn": "We have simply failed on almost every level""},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week several blogs, including Alas<\/a>, posted about the vicious, bigoted on-air attack on trans kids by some DJs at KRXQ. The blogging was part of a wave of revulsion<\/a>, which included nine advertisers — really huge advertisers, like AT&T — either pulling their ads from KRXQ, or deciding not to renew their advertising when the current ad contract runs out.<\/p>\n

Now it appears that the DJs are preparing to apologize and make amends. The KRXQ homepage currently contains a statement from Rob Williams, of the “Rob, Arnie and Dawn” show, which says:<\/p>\n

As a show, as people, as broadcasters, we have simply failed on almost every level.<\/p>\n

We presented our opinions on a very sensitive subject in a hateful, childish and crude fashion; and then, given the opportunity to retract those remarks, we defended them.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

According to the statement, the show is on hiatus until Thursday’s episode:<\/p>\n

We have reached out to various groups and asked for a chance to make this right; to respond, with their participation, to the education that our audience has provided us. That opportunity has been graciously granted this Thursday morning, June 11th. At 7:30 a.m.<\/p>\n

The word apology appears no where in this letter for a reason. We already hid from doing the right thing once and we\u2019re not going to make that mistake again. Apologizing in a written, posted statement is a form of cowardice. We will say what needs to be said this Thursday.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is certainly promising (I’ve posted the full statement below the fold). I hope they really have been reaching out to trans advocacy groups to discuss making amends — hopefully they’re planning more than just a one-off public apology (although the public apology is important too). I know in the past the RAD show has done fundraising for children’s causes; maybe they can start doing fundraising for groups that help trans kids.<\/p>\n

We’ll see on Thursday, I guess. Curtsy to The Queer Youth Mental Health Blog<\/a>.
\n
\nHere’s the full statement. I’ve copied it from the KRXQ homepage<\/a>, but I’ve changed it from the original all-caps to standard capitalization, because I’m fussy that way.<\/p>\n

To our loyal Rob, Arnie and Dawn followers,<\/p>\n

We have failed you. As a show, as people, as broadcasters, we have simply failed on almost every level.<\/p>\n

We presented our opinions on a very sensitive subject in a hateful, childish and crude fashion; and then, given the opportunity to retract those remarks, we defended them.<\/p>\n

Since then, you, our loyal listeners, have made it clear to us that we went too far. The response has been overwhelming. None of you said that we couldn\u2019t have opinions, yet so many of you said that the way we gave them crossed the line. Further, you said that our attempt to mask our comments as \u201cjokes that would be understood by our audience,\u201d was unacceptable. I would say now that it was worse than that, it was cowardly. You have made that clear.<\/p>\n

We have reached out to various groups and asked for a chance to make this right; to respond, with their participation, to the education that our audience has provided us. That opportunity has been graciously granted this Thursday morning, June 11th. At 7:30 a.m.<\/p>\n

The word apology appears no where in this letter for a reason. We already hid from doing the right thing once and we\u2019re not going to make that mistake again. Apologizing in a written, posted statement is a form of cowardice. We will say what needs to be said this Thursday.<\/p>\n

On a final, personal note, as the leader and owner of the show, I have made the decision that we need to refrain from broadcasting new episodes until we can address this on Thursday . We will return to the air at 7:30 a.m. June 11th.<\/p>\n

Rob Williams<\/p>\n

Rob, Arnie and Dawn<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week several blogs, including Alas, posted about the vicious, bigoted on-air attack on trans kids by some DJs at KRXQ. The blogging was part of a wave of revulsion, which included nine advertisers — really huge advertisers, like AT&T … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[90],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-transsexual-and-transgender-related-issues"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7906\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}