The Federal Communications Commission has taken action against Radio Station WHOM in Jersey City, N.J., for disseminating pro-Fascist and anti-Jewish propaganda in German, Italian and Arabic. The FCC issued a 90-day renewal of the station’s license, instead of the usual six-month renewal, and ordered that its programs be scrutinized during this period to determine what further steps should be taken.
The FCC’s action was, taken on the basis of a report by its legal staff and complaints from listeners. The staff’s report called one Italian-language weekly program “calculated to incite race hatred and therefore cannot be regarded as in the public interest,” but nevertheless recommended full-term renewal of the license. The commission, however, voted unanimously for the trial extension.
a transcript of the Domenico tombetta program broadcast in Italian on Sept. 18 was cited by FCC Chairman George H. Payne as justification for limitation of the license. Translated excerpts from the program follows: “The efficacious reagent came because the Jews and their friends wanted it…Why have the Jews of the world declared themselves pro spanish Communists and against Fascism?…Jewish anti-Fascism in these last years overstepped its bounds and Italy has run to the rescue, to a just and duty-bound rescue.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
