Demand Diversity and Fairness on WAMC's The Roundtable

Sign This Petition

First Name
Last Name
Email *
Zip/Postal Code *

Not in US?

United States

Comments
- You may receive email updates from Berkshires DSA, the sponsor of this petition.
- Edit Subscription Preferences Close Preferences
- - Opt in to email updates from Berkshires DSA

Flag As Spam

Demand Diversity and Fairness on WAMC's The Roundtable

The President of WAMC and the Producers of WAMC's The Roundtable

Roundtable producers covered entire Gaza war with ZERO Palestinian panelists, ignored Palestinian requests to appear, deleted complaints from social media. Demand that WAMC live up to it's own commitment to community representation by signing this petition.

Sponsored by

Berkshires DSA

To: The President of WAMC and the Producers of WAMC's The Roundtable
From: [Your Name]

Now more than ever, with Trump threatening the ethnic cleansing of Gaza and attacking the basic idea of equal rights, we need diverse voices on local media. Yet, during the 15 months following the start of Israel’s War on Gaza, producers of WMAC’s The Roundtable have failed to include a single Palestinian or Palestinian-American panelist (1).

Producers Sarah LaDuke and Joe Donahue have rejected and ignored numerous requests from Palestinian-American sources ready to appear on the show (2).

In contrast to the exclusion of Palestinian sources, LaDuke and Donahue have repeatedly included panelists from the Democrat and Republican parties, as well as the DoD, NSC, DHS, and even the IDF (3, 4). These are institutions tasked with designing, defending, and implementing US policy of unconditional support for Israel’s war.

This pattern of exclusion clearly violates WAMC’s own Community Representation Statement, which states: "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." (5)

We demand that WAMC and the producers of The Roundtable diversify their coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza. Fairness requires balancing institutional sources with regular inclusion of those affected by their policies, namely Palestinians and Palestinian-Americans. In line with WAMC’s own fairness policies, WAMC must include Palestinian perspectives – we see no reason not to include those Palestinian-American sources who have already expressed a willingness to be on the show.

Sources:
(1) https://jamesearlowensphd.com/p/palestinian-exclusion-on-wamcs-the
(2) https://jamesearlowensphd.com/p/palestinian-exclusion-on-wamcs-the
(3) https://jamesearlowensphd.com/p/palestinian-exclusion-on-wamcs-the-666
(4) https://www.albany.edu/news/91878.php
(5) https://www.wamc.org/employment