“The Bishops of the United States have supported the passage of comprehensive immigration reform in our nation for many years.  Until that finally happens, particular, ad-hoc issues such as providing drivers licenses for undocumented individuals will inevitably arise.

“I wish to express my support for the proposal to provide special, limited licenses for undocumented individuals in Rhode Island.  It seems to be a rather practical approach that will obtain information about individuals who are already driving in our State.  Additionally it will, in the long run, promote public safety. It is common sense legislation that will do much more good than harm.

“Our Holy Father Pope Francis has reminded us that he himself is the son of an immigrant family, and he has urged Americans to welcome immigrants into our midst.  “I am certain that, as so often in the past, these immigrants will enrich America and its Church,” the Holy Father said.

“As the current proposal is debated, I encourage all parties to discuss the issue in a reasonable and constructive way, and to work together to promote the common good of our community.”

Tobin’s stance puts him at odds with his right-wing talk radio fan John DePetro, and at odds with the Republican Party, of which Tobin is a member.

Tobin’s letter was read at State Rep Anastasia Williams‘ press conference held today at the State House.

The Providence American

The writer describes tuning into The John DePetro Show and listening to a discussion about Ebola. DePetro’s reports, according to the writer, were “inaccurate and rumor-based.” DePetro suggested that “restrictions be placed on the movement of Liberians coming into RI.”

I have written many times in the past about DePetro’s lurid, misanthropic and hateful rhetoric. The radio host is an embarrassment to WPRO and taints the otherwise fine work being done by WPRO news. Now DePetro is seeking to stigmatize an entire ethnic group here in Rhode Island for ratings and entertainment.

I am beyond being surprised by how low DePetro will go. What does surprise me is the tolerance for DePetro demonstrated by the owners of WPRO who, by providing DePetro a platform for his bile, support racism, misogyny, anti-Semitism, homophobia and intolerance.  WPRO almost single-handedly drags the entire public conversation into the mud, and it’s almost entirely the fault of DePetro.

Fortunately, more and more people are starting to speak out against WPRO and DePetro. In doing so, we are affirming the worth and dignity of the people DePetro attempts to dehumanize. The Providence American piece says it well. “John DePetro is NO more a Rhode Islander than any other member of the Liberian community. He needs to realize this and know that his rights as a citizen ends where the rights and liberties of other Rhode Islanders begin, and that includes members of the Liberian community in RI!”

You can read the entire op-ed here: WHO IS THIS JOHN DEPETRO (JOHN DEPETRO RADIO SHOW ON WPRO RADIO) IN RHODE ISLAND?

Justin Katz (in the first link above) uses the economic argument, that this is government intervening in the economy for personal reasons. He also sets up the idea that politicians (specifically Chafee in this instance) aren’t allowing their constituents to hear them.

Katz’s argument doesn’t hold up. Businesses can get hammered for the things they say or the things they support. If WPRO had a white supremacist or a communist host or someone who said things more repulsive than DePetro’s pronouncements, I doubt that Katz would be rushing to defend WPRO maintaining their business relationship with such a person. Even if they were a ratings bonanza. But because Katz’s views and DePetro’s are largely in line with one another, we’re being “pushe[d]… one step farther into the realm of Banana Republics and Lord of the Flies“.

Meanwhile, Marc Comtois posits on Twitter whether it’s more effective for politicians to boycott going on-air on WPRO or to go on and express their distaste and then sit through the interview.

Comtois has a way more interesting point. First, let’s talk about the politics of this. WPRO and its hosts tilt conservative. The constituencies that elect Democratic politicians tilt liberal. Therefore, there is very little for a Democratic politician to lose (politically) by refusing to going on-air on WPRO over misogynist comments made by WPRO’s most conservative host. Case in point, Gina Raimondo, whose fundraiser was the reason for the protest which led to DePetro making this remark, was one of the first politicians to join the boycott. Raimondo is one of DePetro’s favorite politicians (I suspect largely because DePetro hates unions, many unions dislike Raimondo, and the enemy of my enemy is my friend). Raimondo doesn’t appear see any problem with calling for the removal of possibly her biggest supporter in Rhode Island’s media landscape.

Notice I used the phrase “media landscape” there. That’s because WPRO is not the only radio station in town, much less the only media outlet in Rhode Island. If Rhode Islanders need to be informed as to what their politicians are doing, they can pick up a paper, turn on the T.V., check the Internet or turn the dial on their radio. It’s possible to cover virtually all of Rhode Island while missing one outlet (as disrespectful a practice as that might be).

The politicians may also have a bit of room here when dealing with WPRO. They’re not going on-air, but it’s unclear whether WPRO’s reporters will be able to get quotes. I’d bet they will. And they’ll still be able to attend news conferences and the like. But just because you have a media organization doesn’t mean you’re entitled to interviews from politicians (RI Future can attest to that).

The politicians also have a bit of leverage. It’s not as though WPRO is going to blackout coverage of the boycotting pols. After all, what Gina Raimondo and Angel Taveras and Lincoln Chafee are doing is news that gets ratings. And for any blackout to be effective, it’d have to include other media organizations. Which means getting all those other news sources above to take a stand, and tacitly support the right to say misogynist things on air without consequence; while also losing the ability to gets views for their coverage of important political figures. Somehow, I don’t see this happening.

But finally, while denying WPRO’s talk-show hosts access to their lovely personalities is one thing, actually joining the boycott of the businesses that advertise on DePetro’s show is another. And it’s unlikely to me that we’ll see politicians doing that. There’s far more to lose by doing so.

UPDATE: While this post was was waiting for approval, Alan Fung announced he’s following suit. And so did the RI Republican Party. Oh and so is Ken Block.

It seems there’s nothing we enjoy more than a good ol’ fashioned religion in the public square debate here in Rhode Island. And, once again, WPRO has come for The Tree. Due to the un-Christian manner in which so-called “Christians” behaved last time, Governor Lincoln Chafee has declined to host a tree lighting ceremony.* I think this is sort of lesson: if you want something to continue, don’t behave like jerks during it.

Personally, I’m weary of the whole damn thing. Okay, obviously, it’s a Christmas tree. People ain’t exactly throwing fir trees up to celebrate the Fourth of July. But the whole issue is surreal. John DePetro crashes the 2011 lighting singing “O Christmas Tree”, not realizing that the song itself is a repackaging of a completely secular song, “O Tannenbaum” (lit. “O Fir Tree”). “Keep Christ in Christmas” they say, but no one is complaining that the word “holiday” has ceased to mean “holy day” and instead just refers to any old day off.

Secularization isn’t just something you can use when it’s convenient. It’s not alright to declare a crucifix a perfectly secular monument to the dead of all creeds, but say that a tree can’t stand in for the celebration of a host of religions. The doublethink here is astounding.

A fir tree by any other name would smell as sweet. I’m sure that Mr. DePetro and his adherents would be horrified to learn that in Russia the tree was almost completely secularized under the Soviets. Laugh to yourself at the idea of these folks crowning their trees with the Red Star of communism for Novy God. But there you go, a symbol depends on the eye of the beholder. I mean, the Vatican didn’t even have a tree until 1982.

Here’s the great thing about Christmas; even an atheist like me can celebrate it (and atheists & non-Christians have been for years). Some people hate the stress of the Christmas season, but the whole idea of it has really affected American culture. There was a good point made by Hank Green of the Vlogbrothers about the holiday shopping season; yeah, it’s sort of symbol of rampant consumerism; but can you really get angry at people for wanting to go out and buy gifts for people?

This is the most altruistic part of the year, between Thanksgiving and Christmas. People get all dopey and cheery, all the music starts to be happy and kind of sappy. I mean, people get annoyed because things are too nice. That’s a pretty sweet problem to have.

I kind of don’t want to end this with a downer thought, but here it is: maybe conservatives are losing because they get worked up about things like what a tree is called and not worked up at all when someone says something terrible about rape, the poor, or anyone not white. Sweating the small stuff, ignoring the big stuff.

________________________________________________________

*Update: It was announced that Governor Chafee will in fact continue with the tree lighting as normal, and the tree will remain a “Holiday Tree”.

The Barrington house where radio shock jock John DePetro allegedly sexually harassed WPRO coworker Dee DeQuattro is owned by former state Rep. David Caprio.

Sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity confirmed the address of the house in question as being 32 Lorraine St., a very high end vacation rental known as Beach House, a 9,000-square-foot, 1895 Victorian-style mansion that rents for $8,800 in the summertime, according to a vacation rental website.

Barrington property records indicate the property is owned by John LaRochelle and David Caprio, both Providence attorneys. It is appraised at $1,545,800 and has 24 rooms, 14 bedrooms and 5 full bathrooms.

Caprio, a Democrat, was a state legislator representing Narragansett from 1999 until 2010 when he lost in a primary to Rep. Teresa Tanzi. His brother Frank ran for governor against Linc Chafee and famously told President Obama to “shove it.” Their father Frank is a well-known local TV judge on the show “Caught in Providence.”

A phone number of the vacation rental website rings Caprio’s phone, who could not be immediately reached for comment. According to a press release dated January 21, 2011 from his web designer, Caprio has recently stepped up efforts to rent the property.

“Former State Representative David Caprio recently stepped up efforts to attract visitors to his 9,000 square foot vacation home in Barrington, Rhode Island,” reads the press release. “Although the Victorian estate, affectionately known as the Beach Mansion, has been available for booking in the past, Caprio received fewer reservations than he would have liked.”

According to DeQuattro’s lawsuit, her and DePetro were to get lunch together on the afternoon of May 21.

“DePetro instead stated he had another place in mind and drove to a house on a dead end street in Barrington,” according to the filing. “Plaintiff inquired where they were and DePetro said he owned the property and insisted plaintiff exit the car and come into the house while he retrieved an item. While inside the house DePetro made sexual advances towards the Plaintiff.”

DeQuattro declined to comment on the lawsuit or the house in question.

When we reported on Anthony Gemma’s suspicious social networking prowess way back in March, we just knew things didn’t seem right. WPRO actually put it to a test and found out as much as 79 percent of his Twitter followers might be fake. While having 80 percent of your followers might seem high, it actually might be low; if WPRO’s analysis is correct, he’d still have almost 200,000 real followers and I doubt he does.

GoLocal accuses Gina Raimondo of helping to funnel state work to a venture capitalist who donated to her campaign and helped launch her career in finance.

The Providence Journal editorial board seems to be the only ones in the nation who doubt Paul Ryan’s conservative credentials. They say not until Obama became president did “the deficit and Big Government suddenly became all-important to Mr. Ryan.”

Here’s more on his Medicare proposal.

And we meant to mention this one the other day … the Rhode Island Center for Freedom for the Prosperous got a half true from Politifact for its assertion that RI has the highest number of health insurance mandates in the country. It’s actually not true, but the Projo gave them half credit because they did read it somewhere.

On this day in history both Elvis Presley and Babe Ruth died. Conversely, Charles Bukowski and Madonna were born. By the way, Babe Ruth died when he was one year younger than Madonna is now. Elvis was only 42 when he left the building once and for all.

Here is the email he sent me in its entirety:

I have been suspended for my part in the story that appeared about me this morning.  I have already denied the allegations against me, and I should not have discussed the matter beyond that.  To make things worse, the quotes that were attributed to me were not entirely accurate.  I hope it is clear that I do not speak on behalf of Cumulus with regards to the investigation or any other Company employment matters.   I have learned from my mistake and look forward to returning to the air on Monday.  Going forward, I shall have no further comments about this matter.

On Tuesday, DePetro called me after reading a post I wrote imploring WPRO to replace him with a more suitable talk show host. Without asking for the conversation to be off the record, he told me what he thought about the allegations brought against him.

I also got an email from new WPRO Program Director Craig Schwalb, 15 minutes prior to getting the email from DePetro. He did not mention DePetro being suspended and could not be immediately reached for comment. Here’s that email in its entirety too:

Our usual policy is not to discuss pending litigation or confidential employment matters with the media. That said, we must correct statements that were attributed to Cumulus earlier today. Cumulus did a prompt and complete investigation of the concerns that Ms. DeQuattro raised with the Company. Cumulus encourages employees to report these type of concerns and we are glad she did so. By its nature, this sort of investigation focuses on whether specific allegations can be confirmed or refuted. In terms of the results of this particular investigation and the actions taken by the Company, we will continue to respect the confidentiality that should be provided to internal employment matters.

The lawsuit has nothing to do with WPROs day-to-day operations and will be resolved through the court system. Dee DeQuattro continues to be a valuable part of the WPRO team and we all continue to work together to provide WPRO listeners with the very best news and commentary.

They bill themselves as the station of record, but give not even a mention to its infamous moral-crusading shock jock John DePetro being on the hot seat for allegedly having a moral lapse with a coworker. She claims he took her to a house he uses for sex parties and made several passes at her. But don’t blame Bill Haberman and his news team for this journalistic foul; word has certainly come down from corporate headquarters that employees talk about this situation at their peril.

The silence is even more deafening coming from the John DePetro Show itself. It’s doubly hypocritical in this instance, too. Such fodder is typically DePetro’s bread and butter: in fact just on Friday he chided Mike Tyson on air for not owning up to his sexual malfeasance. I wonder if he will follow his own advice, if it turns out he is guilty as charged?

Imagine the hateful vitriol that would be spewing from DePetro’s microphone if such an accusation was made about a Democrat in the General Assembly? There is no doubt he would be not only calling for their resignation, but also calling them every name in the book.

In fact, just in June I warned him of the dangers of throwing stones when living in a glass house.

But far be it for John DePetro to take advice from anyone. And while he’s been quiet on the air, he hasn’t been quite so quiet off of it. Tuesday afternoon, after reading my piece calling on WPRO to get rid of him, he called me to offer his side of the story. He says he did nothing wrong.

He said an investigation done by the company has already exonerated him of any wrongdoing. “Internally, I was cleared,” he told me. “They did a full investigation.”

He also said DeQuattro brought the suit against him as a way to defend against losing her job, which he said was in jeopardy because of how she handled a story. “There was never a mention of anything until she fucked up The Who story,” he said. “That sent her into a tail spin. Were they going to fire her, I don’t know.”

He wouldn’t answer any questions about the Barrington house he is alleged to have taken DeQuattro to, but said he expects many details to come out in a trial.

He took little issue with me calling for him to be taken off the air. But he thought it should be his advertisers that determine his fate, not the media. “I get that people don’t like my politics and don’t like the show,’ he said. “But let the marketplace determine that.”

DePetro never asked for his comments to be off the record, though he did indicate he could get in trouble for them. I thought about giving him the benefit of the doubt, but he knows well how the media works and he can take care of himself. Or not.

He lectures us about morals, but he sure doesn’t seem to live by them when he’s not behind a microphone. He’s the state’s loudest opponent of marriage equality, but he seems to have a very hard time respecting his own nuptials. He blames the governor for not being able to control his teenage son when he can’t even seem to control himself.

This is at the very least the second time he is being publicly accused of cheating on his wife. (DeQuattro, it should be pointed out, said she resisted his unwanted sexual advances, but she also said he bragged about bringing women to sex parties in her complaint.) The previous instance was via another woman’s divorce

And neither instance is even the biggest public slap in the face he has given his bride. That honor would be held by the time he let her take the heat for some faked Nielsen ratings forms that came from the DePetro house in East Greenwich.

It’s a wonder Bishop Tobin himself isn’t writing penning one of his famous press releases calling for DePetro to step down. In fact, the Christian values crowd really ought to be embarrassed by letting this guy be their public face.

But, let’s face it, hate radio is a business and DePetro will likely be poisoning our local airwaves until either us listeners or station advertisers have decided they’ve had enough.

Postscript: I took no pleasure in writing that it’s high time for WPRO to severe it’s long and rocky relationship with John DePetro. We worked well together when I was at the station, and consider him a friend when he isn’t being a lying jerk on the radio. But my job is to advocate, via the blogged word, for what is best for Rhode Island; and it’s hard to argue that DePetro isn’t a big time bad guy for Rhode Island’s best interest – and I’ll bet advertisers start to realize this as well.

And, full disclosure, Dee DeQuattro and Barbara Haynes are both friends and former coworkers of mine as well.