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Jay Severin goes too far: Kicked off the air for cracks about Mexicans
By adamg on Thu, 04/30/2009 - 4:43pm
The Globe reports WTKK suspended Jimmy Severino today for saying something awful about Mexicans and swine flu this week. Exactly what, however, the Globe doesn't say Globe posts some audio. Down in New York, El Diario La Prensa fills in that gap:
... For Severin, Mexicans are "criminaliens" and primitives who export venereal diseases to the United States. The shock jock referred to the strain of flu as "swine-aka-Janet Napolitano flu."
That's not the end of Severin's anti-immigrant rants. Immigrants are leeches and their children, he warns, don't speak English, will retard schools, add to crime and spread disease. Amid all of this, Severin has the audacity to state, "I don't mean to hype the story." ...
El Diario La Prensa details his comments even more in this post in Spanish - basically, Severin said it's not Mexicans' fault they're wild, uneducated savages who don't get their kids vaccinated, he's only stating the facts, and one of those facts is that those kids who got the flu in New York got it from illegal Mexicans.
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Comments
I'm not really a fan of
I'm not really a fan of Severin's (he appeals to the conservative and the desperate who look at others to lay blame on) but ... well I don't really believe in 'freedom of speech, just watch what you say' - someone in the military once told me, "I would fight and die, so you don't have to, to preserve your right to free speech to malign my killing and dying."
Was Jay a douche? Yes. Has the overly sensitive liberal intelligensia gotten out of hand these last few years? Most certainly.
This isn't a freedom of
This isn't a freedom of speech issue. Freedom of speech guarantees that the government can't shut you up. Your boss, however, can.
not to put too fine a point on it
but his rants were anti-ILLEGAL-immigrant, (despite what La Prensa wrote). If I were someone who played by the rules, only to see my efforts trivialized by others who circumvented them, I would resent the hell out of them. Is Jay a hyperbolic asshole? Absolutely. But don't ignore the message because you fault the messenger. Buried under this gasbag's blather are some objectively factual points.
I'm sorry, Will
It's probably tough to see your mentor going through a rough patch like this, huh?
Huh?
I've never listened to his show.
Just messing with our resident illegal hater
That's all.
I don't hate illegals
I hate illegals that cause trouble. If they go to work and don't bother anybody, then I don't notice them, and I don't have a problem.
In that spirit, you can replace "illegals" with any other segment of the population.
Illegals are illegal for a good reason
How dangerously naive to turn your back on illigal immigration just because you don't see any overt problems. You are leaving yourself wide open for social decay. Not from Mexicans specifically, the problem will come from hundreds of different countries. Protect our borders or accept the responsibility for the chaos when it comes, and it will.
Freedom of Speech means ...
... that you can run your mouth on the radio after snorting 2 kg of cocaine and drinking from the sewer pipe, and the government won't kill you for it.
There is no guarantee, however, that you will get to keep your job.
Agreed
Hopefully, Howie Carr will take his spot.
Severino has been on a hard right track lately
He started out with a more libertarian style when his show began. Since his nationwide roll-out fizzled he's gone off the deep end w./ the conservative talking points.
Still, he may be right with this one (albeit very crude and un PC)
So much for that "pulitzer"
He might be right? Oh puleeze. Criminaliens? Where did his people come from - most "Mexicans" are of native American ancestry. BTW, is he going to produce immigration documents for his own family? To prove that he is here legally and not an "anchor baby"? Not to mention all the turbostupid about venerial diseases ... Um, okay ...
The guy has no understanding of his own family's immigrant status save to change his name to hide it, and clearly no idea about virology or epidemiology, that's for sure.
Most Mexicans are of mixed
Most Mexicans are of mixed European and pre-Columbian descent but what does that have to do with their right to enter the United States? It's not like Americans have a right to residency in Europe just because most of them are of European heritage.
if you look at it from a
if you look at it from a historical standpoint, Americans with European heritage came here of their own volition, for the most part. Mexicans saw the US border drawn further and further south as their land was taken away. It's the "we didn't cross the border, the border crossed us" argument.
I"m willing to put money down that his family came here legally
and illegal aliens are a major vector for disease in this country. Legal immigrants need to be up to date on their vaccines, illegals not so much. This is a major reason for the resurgence of TB and HepA
He may be a fool and extreme, but the gist of his theory is correct. Illegals = vector of infectious disease
Huh?
Could you point me to any requirement that American citizens be vaccinated for TB and Hepatitis A? Gee, or anything, for that matter?
Mind you, I'm not talking about schoolchildren. Because of course you know that illegal immigrant schoolchildren have exactly the same vaccination requirements as citizen schoolchildren.
As far as Señor Severino goes, well, he's really Hispanic himself, right? Changing his name and going off on immigrants like that makes one think he must have some problems with his dad or his heritage. I wonder if his abuelita had a moustache.
BZZZZZZT! Wrong Answer
You should be happy that I consider it unethical to make bets with ignorant betters in areas of my professional expertise - otherwise, you'd owe me bigtime as I have a really good idea how various diseases enter our sainted and hallowed God's country that wouldn't have any diseases otherwise - or at least didn't have many until the livestock-consorting Europeans entered the landscape and wiped out much of the population of two continents!
Bear in mind that the "Spanish Flu" of 1918 originated in Kansas.
Illegals don't go back and forth across the border much. They come, they stay, they get what everybody else has. They generally have to be healthy to get here and stay here given the circumstances of their transit.
You know who does spread epidemics? Sex tourists like your buddy Rush Limbaugh and his Viagra junkets to brothels in developing nations.
Unless you consider the European invaders of the 16th century to be plague spreading illegal aliens. I'll buy that.
That onslaught of sex
That onslaught of sex tourists to the US is obviously the problem. My bad.
FYI Many infections are silent or asymptomatic for the carriers. They go about their life blissfully unaware that they are infecting all their neighbors and customers. Ever heard of Typoid Mary?
You don't need to bounce back and forth over the border and they don't catch what is already here. They come with the disease and spread it while they are here. They can be latent, or pre-incubation and look fine. They'll still look healthy while those who came in contact with them get sick three weeks later.
HepA is endemic in many S. American popluations, once the acute phase passes they appear perfectly healthy. It just those who eat the food coming out of the restaurant kitchens who get very sick (and sometimes die). Most recent HepA outbreaks have been found to originate with kitchen help.
Vaccine Volume 18, Supplement 1, 18 February 2000, Pages S57-S60
At age 11–15 years, nearly 90% in Mexico and 91% in the Dominican Republic had been infected, compared with 54% in Argentina, 62% in Venezuela, 60% in Brazil and 70% in Chile. By age 31–40 years, over 80% of the populations in all six countries had been exposed to HAV
United States epidemiology of hepatitis A: influenced by immigrants visiting friends and relatives in Mexico?
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16271542
"Asymptomatic pediatric travelers-who acquire hepatitis A abroad and are infectious on return to American communities-contribute to the silent transmission of hepatitis A to playmates, caretakers, and contacts in households, daycare facilities, and elementary schools. "
You kinda got it backwards there
Hep A has no carrier state: either you're sick with it or you don't have it. If 91% of Dominicans had it as kids, then almost 91% of adult Dominican immigrants are currently immune to it, and cannot serve as carriers.
That means two things:
1) Immunizing them isn't going to do a damn thing. They're already immune.
2) They can't be carriers of Hep A, because they're immune, and are thus actually less likely to be vectors in spread of Hep A in America than you and I (well, you... I've had my shots) are.
You may have noticed that the article you link to doesn't talk about immigrants to the US (legal or illegal) spreading Hep A. It talks about people visiting Mexico possibly getting it. This isn't an immigrant vaccination problem, it's a traveler vaccination problem. Get your shots before you go to Mexico.
And of course, the other thing you have backwards is the sex tourism -- that tends to go the other way, like when fat old creeps like Limbaugh go down to the DR with bags full of Viagra. Where, yeah, they might get Hep if they don't have their shots up to date.
If you have anything but anecdotal evidence for your 'getting the Hep from the dishwasher' theory, please share. But I doubt we'll be seeing any.
Gettin' the hep from restaurant workers
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5224a2.htm
The probable source of the hepatitis A outbreak described in this report was a food handler in restaurant A who worked while infectious and contaminated food that was not cooked subsequently.
During 1992--2001, approximately 230,000 cases of hepatitis A were reported in the United States (7). Although food handlers are not at higher risk for HAV infection because of their occupation, approximately 8% of adults reported with hepatitis A are identified annually as food handlers (CDC, unpublished data, 2003), indicating that thousands of food handlers have hepatitis A each year.
Here's some local flavor:
ARLINGTON
By Christine McConville, Globe Staff | July 1, 2004
A spokewoman for the company that owns Friendly's restaurants said this week the firm is willing to reimburse Arlington for the cost of giving immune globulin injections to some 2,800 people last month after a waitress at the company's restaurant at 105 Broadway contracted hepatitis A.
----------------
Class Action lawsuit on behalf of all individuals who required inoculation against hepatitis A to following exposure to the virus at a Boston Quizno's on July 9, 2004.
----------------------
By Donovan Slack, Globe Staff | July 13, 2004
Emergency Medical Services trucks were stationed outside the Taxi Pool Caf yesterday, manned by city health workers distributing information about the disease.
An unidentified worker at the caf, normally frequented only by cab drivers waiting for airport fares, tested positive for hepatitis A and may have infected those who ate at the restaurant between June 30 and July 4, according to Boston public health officials.
A little further away:
---------------------
Washington: McDonald's hepatitis A Litigation
Marler Clark represents two people sickened with hepatitis A after eating at a Mount Vernon McDonald's restaurant in February 1999.
Health officials reported nine cases of hepatitis A and traced them to the McDonald's, where an assistant manager continued to work after contracting the disease.
----------------
Washington: McDonald's hepatitis A Litigation
Marler Clark represents two people sickened with hepatitis A after eating at a Mount Vernon McDonald's restaurant in February 1999.
Health officials reported nine cases of hepatitis A and traced them to the McDonald's, where an assistant manager continued to work after contracting the disease.
---------------------------------------
Tona Kunz of the Chicago Daily Herald
Between Jan. 8 and Jan. 19 the family of Rebecca Johnson - along with at least 3,000 people estimated to have eaten at the restaurant - were potentially exposed to the virus when an infected employee was working while potentially contagious. Most at risk are patrons who had drinks with ice, which was potentially tainted, according to the Kane County Health Department, which investigated the exposure.
----------------------------------
CHICAGO, IL (January 25, 2007) — A class action lawsuit will be filed tomorrow against Houlihan’s, the Geneva, Illinois, restaurant where a food worker was diagnosed with hepatitis A
Looks like you got one thing right
Thanks for responding. That's some good information, and it led me to some interesting reading. It clearly demonstrates that you were correct in that people are at risk for getting HAV from restaurant workers. I was not aware of this risk (which is not a risk to me, as I have been vaccinated).
However, your sources do not demonstrate that any of the people who served as vectors were immigrants, legal or otherwise. It is also virtually certain that none of the restaurant workers who served as vectors in these cases had Hep A as children, as do 90% of the children in Mexico.
As American adults are at much greater risk for actually contracting (and thus being contagious with) Hep A than are Mexican or Dominican adults, I suggest that it is more than likely it was not Spanish-speaking workers who caused the outbreaks, but the natives. It looks like about 30% of Americans end up getting Hep A at some point, and we're more likely to get it as adults (i.e. people old enough to work in restaurants) than are Latin Americans.
It sounds to me like a good idea that all restaurant workers have Hep A vaccinations.
But it's still much more likely that an American traveling to Mexico on vacation will get Hep A than that a Mexican traveling to America to work will spread it. If you wanted to reduce Hep A in America, you'd do better going after tourists than going after immigrants.
There's no real way of
There's no real way of knowing the immigration status of these people. I just know that a high percentage of kitchen workers are illegal immigrants and that there is a high prevalence of HAV (and other diseases not endemic to the US) in these populations.
I agree. HAV vaccinations are a good idea for everyone (I have it as well).
I still dissagree with you regarding risk of traveling vs immigration. Hep A is only one example. Legal immigrants are required to have a battery of vaccinations before they arrive (whooping cough, pertussis, mumps, etc).
Either way, this thread is getting long. I'm retiring.
Immigration is fine, just be legal.
Correlation vs. causation
You bring up a good example of the difference between correlation and causation.
We've got some facts:
A: Lots of Mexicans get HAV
B: Lots of Mexicans work in restaurants
C: HAV outbreaks happen at restaurants
You want to assume a causal relationship here. But there really is no way to trace it from A to B to C. In fact, it's highly unlikely to work that way.
The one thing is certain in terms of causation (without being able to inquire who Waiter A really is) is that the 90% of Mexicans who get HAV as kids are not capable of being vectors for HAV outbreaks, because they are immune to it, and you can only get HAV from someone who either is sick with HAV or is about to be sick with it.
If it helps, you can think of it this way:
-Would it be a good thing if 90% of restaurant workers were immunized for HAV?
-Well, they are, if they're Mexican.
Far fewer than 90% of Americans are immunized or have developed immunity for HAV, so in fact you're safer if your server is Mexican.
That's a pretty big leap to
That's a pretty big leap to make about seropositive rates and prevention. If everyone in Mexico is immune why are there so many outbreaks in strawberries and lettuce from there?
Back to the original topic: I'll still take a legal worker over an illegal one anyday.
Sounds like you're leaping
From 90% to 100%. Everyone in Mexico isn't immune. Just 90% of adults.
I'd wager there are more children working in the fields in Mexico than in our restaurants. And I'd wager there's probably a good bit more human feces used as fertilizer also. Not to mention the fact that the water supply (which they use to drink as well as irrigate crops) is contaminated. So it's entirely probably that there is juvenile fecal contamination on your lettuce.
As far as the original topic, sure, I'd rather have a legal worker too. But that's no reason to make up all kinds of crazy nonsense about illegal immigrants.
Arlington Friendly Outbreak
You have no clue, do you. Did you ever go there? That was garden variety sobriety-challenged and challenged-by-new-sobriety white folks working in that place. The kitchen was open to both the dining room and the ice cream counter, and my kids went to daycare down the street. I also knew someone from church who ran a recovery house and sent people there to work - that's how I know.
I think it's you who doesn't
I think it's you who doesn't have the clue. (And is a fucking reactionary hypocritical illiterate loon btw)
I never said anything about the ethnicity of any of those people. The quiestion was wheter HepA outbreaks happen in restaurants.
So you've been there. Congrats. What does that have to do w/ anything.
Jay Severin
So much for free speech.
What's free speech got to do with it?
He was suspended by his employer for saying stupid things on their time, using their equipment to access the public airwaves and making them look particularly bad. He's free to say whatever he wants, but his employer, WTKK, is just as free to can him for it when he's doing it on their time. He's more than free to say what he wants whether he's standing on a soapbox on the Common, accessing the airwaves through his own licensed radio station or muttering incomprehensibly as he walks down the street.
But he's the leader of the
But he's the leader of the Best and Brightest, oh what will they do? I guess they'll just have Graham offer the same bile in even less witty form. Imus should have capped him on stage like he threatened to.
Publicity Stunt
How many of us would even know what he said if his boss didn't toss him off the air - need to do something like this every few years to keep the ratings up! Think Howard Stern - every time he got tossed off a radio station he got a media market promotion and a giant raise.
What was it they said about howard - the average fan listened 65 minutes every morning because they wanted to hear what he would say/do next and the average person who hated him would listen for 3 hours because they wanted to hear what he would say/do next - either way the advertisers loved it.
How are his ratings?
My initial reaction was that his ratings must be slipping and TKK is trying to get out of the remainder of his contract. He's been saying stuff like this for years. Why is TKK suddenly offended by it?
Never heard of the guy,
Never heard of the guy, never heard of the station. Do people listen to this hack? I've been in Boston for pushing a decade now but am willfully and thankfully ignorant of locals whose celebrity outpaces their intelligence-- that is, my radio never gets above the 91s and I don't watch local tv news.
Question
When did we all decide that "illegal" was a noun? I don't really mind, since anytime I hear someone using it as such, I'm pretty confident I can disregard anything that person has to say.
This makes me so happy..
Now all they have to do is get rid of "publicity hound" Michael Graham and "cop groupie" Michelle McPhee and we're on our way!
Was it really Mexicans or Don Imus?
Severin Watch finds it curious that WTKK kicked him off air for stuff that isn't any worse than anything else he's said over the years and wonders if it was really about some fulminating he'd been doing about Imus, who runs in the Howie Carr Memorial Drivetime Slot.
Severin
Why do I sense the Fine hand of Imus in all of this?? Let's face it...little Jimmy Severino's skid from top of the mount has been wayyyy overdue. I think that The St. Patrick's Day blast from the "I-Man" was the extra grease under his tootsies that was just enough to finally scoot this guy right into the WTKK parking lot where he belongs.
I think my favorite Jimbro broadcast was where he referred to those who were gay as having a "BIRTH DEFECT"....oh, no..wait...how about when he took an agonizingly long time to answer a hard breathing caller who had asked him how much he paid the last time he enjoyed the services of a hooker, ("whenever he's alone on the road"). He was "Ummmm-ing" and "ahhhhhing"...Like he was figuring out his income taxes on the long form. I was waiting for the sound of a pocket calculator.YEEEEUUUUCCCCHHHHHHH!!!!!
I stopped listening when I realized that according to this dimwit my dad, a wounded WWII vet and lifelong Democrat, was NOT a PATRIOT. EEEEENOUGH. His show became an audio version of a very painful root canal. Wake up, Boston.
I will never buy a car from Herb Chambers
because he sponsors that show.
This isn't freedom of speech, it's just a crazy man spewing hatred & filth & KKK stuff.
I don't know how he ever got a radio show. If he was making the same noise outside the Park Street station you'd start walking faster to get away.
At least flying spit....
...can't come (physically) through a radio speaker.