ACTION ALERT: Sick of racial and political bias on WAMC’s ‘The Roundtable’? Let's tell their Fund Drive!
Join in the campaign! Make our demands for change heard!
Take action for fair news coverage of Palestine and our region!
WAMC needs to hear from you! Help us hold WAMC accountable for racial bias and pro-Israel bias on their flagship news panel program The Roundtable. This is your chance to act together with others who care about the genocide in Gaza and fair news coverage!
Below you will find scripts/talking points and WAMC’s fund drive number phone number!
Please join this campaign, led by Truth and Justice for Palestine (TJ4P), to help WAMC Fund Drive volunteers know about the ongoing problem of bias on The Roundtable and that there are MANY listeners who want more inclusion of local panelists from communities of color, the Middle East, and experts from human rights and Palestine advocacy groups and less experts from US and Israeli military organizations instrumental in enabling the genocide!
How to participate: details, scripts, and WAMC’s fund drive number
WAMC starts their fund drive Monday June 6 at 6am. The fund drive pre-empts regular programming with non-stop requests for listeners to call-in and donate. What better time to help dedicated volunteers know about the longstanding problem of racial and political bias on The Roundtable? WAMC’s volunteers are people who really care about the station. Most of them have NO IDEA that The Roundtable suffers from a dramatic pro-white and pro-Israel bias.
WAMC volunteers may also be shocked to learn that management refuses to address these issues even though they violate the station’s own policies:
“Coverage of news events should be complete and accurate. If the subject involves controversy, the views of all responsible sides should be fairly presented,” WAMC’s Code of Ethics
“In our journalism, diversity means the inclusion in our reporting of the vastly different voices and opinions of mis or under-represented people and those often ignored,” WAMC’s Community Representation Statement
Join us in this simple (and fun) action for fair coverage, against racism, and to end the genocide in Gaza!!
Invite your friends! Have a call-in party! Call anytime between 6 am Monday 6/1 through Friday 6/12! Help invite WAMC’s kind volunteers into our movement for democratic change at WAMC! If you want, you can join the many folks stating that you are withholding your donation until the station addresses these problems!
Talking points/call-in scripts
WAMC’s Fund Drive number: 800-323-9262
Below are scripts and talking points that you can use as a script to help WAMC volunteers understand the problem. Station management’s biggest worry is that these issues more listeners will become aware of these problems — and our campaign for democratic change! Listeners who care about racial justice and oppose genocide might just join us and demand change.
Racial bias script
Hi, I want to thank you for your work defending public media to advance diversity and democratic dialogue in this time of Trump authoritarianism.
I’m part of a group of listeners concerned about a problem of racial bias on WAMC’s program The Roundtable. Professional research shows that 98% of Roundtable episodes featured all white or majority white panels last year. White-dominated panels cannot provide full perspectives on racial justice. Without people of color on the panel, listeners are deprived of their perspectives. Yet people of color make up 25% of the broadcast region!
We’ve sent over a thousand emails about the problem over the past two years but station management refuses to respond. That’s why we’re trying to let dedicated listeners like you know about the problem. Please let station management know how you feel about this problem.
That’s why I won’t donate right now. To stand up to the racism of the Trump administration requires we listen to and work with the communities of color most directly affected by racist federal policies. WAMC needs to do more to include those voices.
Thank you!
Anti-Palestinian bias script
WAMC’s Fund Drive number: 800-323-9262
Hi, I wanted to thank you for your work helping to defend public media in this era of growing authoritarianism.
I’m calling because I want you to know about political bias on WAMC’s program The Roundtable that station management refuses to address. Professional research shows that The Roundtable overwhelmingly relies on Middle East experts from the US and Israeli military. Military experts outnumbered independent experts 13 to 1 last year.
This is not only unfair but it also violates WAMC’s own Code of Ethics and Community Representation policies. Despite over a thousand emails to the station over two years requesting more panelists from Palestine and from human rights organizations, those experts remain largely missing from the program.
That’s why we’re trying to let dedicated listeners like you know about the problem. Please let station management know how you feel about this problem.
That’s why I won’t donate right now. At a time when a majority of Americans oppose US policy of unconditional military aid to Israel, it is time for WAMC and The Roundtable to include experts beyond the military institutions who carry out that policy.
WAMC’s Fund Drive number: 800-323-9262