WGMD declines comment on hate speech

Management at local radio station WGMD declined to comment for the Cape Gazette about a story covering an American Civil Liberties Union presentation on hate speech.

About 60 people attended the Dining with Progressives dinner forum Sunday, Jan. 9, at Fish On restaurant in the Villages of Five Points. Dining with Progressives describes itself as a nonpartisan forum for all progressives.

Speaker Kathleen MacRae, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Delaware, explained differences between hate speech and hate crimes. During the question and answer period, several people expressed concerns about comments they said they’d heard on WGMD, a news, talk and information station.

Views expressed by some forum participants included doing something about comments heard on the station. Hate speech is protected under the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment, MacRae said. A forum participant asked, “How do you address someone who says point a gun at your congressman?” – a comment he said he heard on WGMD. Jack Renault, station general manager, reached the day the story was published, said he had no comment.

Dan Gaffney, station program director, in a Thursday, Jan. 13 email, said comments about pointing a gun at a congressman, “were never said or implied by any host at WGMD.”

“All my other comments were made on the air on 92.7 WGMD. If anyone needs more information, they can call while I am on the air,” Gaffney said, declining further comment.

Gaffney invited the Cape Gazette reporter who wrote the story, Henry J. Evans Jr., to appear live on WGMD. He declined.