Hatemongers Use Cable TV, Group Says

NEW YORK — Hatemongers have taken to cable television in a big way, attacking such minority groups as blacks, Jews, Hispanics, Asians and gays in 24 of the nation’s 100 largest TV markets, the Anti-Defamation League charged Wednesday.

The league issued a report, “Electronic Hate: Bigotry Comes to TV,” at the opening of its three-day annual National Commission meeting in New York.

The report said there are a total of 57 hate programs being broadcast in the United States in such major cities as Los Angeles, Seattle, Minneapolis, Chicago, Tampa, San Diego, New Haven, Conn., Pittsburgh, Phoenix, Atlanta, Boston, Denver, Houston, Portland, Ore., and Richmond, Va.

Abraham Foxman, ADL’s national director, said that appearances by groups espousing racial intolerance and bigotry on these public access programs are made possible by the Federal Cable Communications Policy Act of 1984. The act requires that free time be made available to the sponsor and states that “a cable operator shall not exercise any editorial control over any public, educational or governmental use of channel capacity.”