Extreme TV: Hate groups exploit cable

Boston Globe/September 3, 2000
By Tatsha Robertson

Ranford, Conn. -In a normal week, viewers whose remote controls stop at Channel21 might find a group of local boys sharing wrestling techniques, a town selectman honoring a retiree, or the Rev. Walter Oliver preaching about modern-day evils while a soloist sings gospel music in the background.

This is exactly what you'd expect on a public access cable channel in a town small enough that the appearance of an Elvis impersonator at a local restaurant causes a buzz. So, few were prepared when Matt Hale started showing up on Channel 21 with his chilling call for whites to prepare for a racial war. Hale's white supremacist speeches were first broadcast in half-hour installments last week in seven towns in south-central Connecticut, part of AT&T Cable Services.

Hale is from half a country away, taping his broadcasts in his home in East Peoria, Ill. He got on the air in Branford the same way he has managed to get on in Washington state, Indiana, and Florida: He used the Internet to attract followers who in turn took copies of his tapes to their local cable company and requested that they be aired on the public access channel.

The tactic is becoming more common as hate groups across the nation discover they can spread their messages free and with little regulation on public access television.

While controversial programming has occasionally popped up on public access channels since the 1980s, many in the industry have been taken aback by Hale's avowed campaign to spread his message of racial intolerance one public access station at a time. Specialists say Hale is exploiting a fundamental intent of many local access channels on cable systems nationwide to give ordinary citizens a public soapbox.

Although Hale's extremist views are drawing widespread criticism, cable officials and regular viewers are grappling with where the line should be drawn between free speech and manipulation.

Sitting in a tavern on Branford's main drag, Edward Dimenstein, a local lawyer who is Jewish, said he despises Hale, who argues that minorities and Jews should be deported. But Dimenstein rejects the idea of censoring him. ''I disagree with the man and his views, but he has the right to express those views,'' Dimenstein said.

Hale, 29, the leader of The World Church of The Creator, is banking on exactly that reaction from his critics. Smiling into the camera at the start of his first broadcast, Hale said, ''Public access is indeed for the public, and we intend to utilize it.''

While pressure to regulate the growing number of hate groups on the Internet continues to rise, specialists say extremists are discovering the power of public access and stirring a debate among First Amendment advocates, public access administrators, and racial activists about whether community television is truly the virtual platform the government intended it to be, or whether it has become an alarming ''Gong Show.''

''People have the right to say what they want, regardless of how outrageous it is,'' said John Roberts, executive director of the Massachusetts branch of the American Civil Liberties Union. ''If you give the government the power to decide who will speak and what they will say, then they are going to clamp down on all kinds of political speech.''

But Susan Fleischmann, executive director of Cambridge Community Television, said public access advocates are beginning to look for ways to combat negative programs like Hale's ''White Revolution'' without censorship. If a local subscriber comes to her station with controversial programming, the station will make sure the subscriber is aware of the content and, where appropriate, invite community groups to submit programming to counter it.

''We are starting to say it doesn't make sense to be totally hands off,'' she said.

Norman Gross, head of Tampa Bay's Anti-Hate Committee of B'Nai B'rith, said that might not be enough. For years, Gross has fought to keep groups like The National Alliance off the air in Florida. He says shows like Hale's are far too dangerous to ignore for the sake of free speech.

''I think public access has been a failed experiment. There is some speech that is so heinous that it should not be accepted in a decent society,'' said Gross. ''There are volatile people who look at these messages and, unfortunately, act on them.''

Hale said in a telephone interview that whites who marry minorities should be assassinated, while insisting he doesn't condone violence. Instead, he says, his soldiers are peacefully distributing videos to public access TV stations across the country.

Last month, Brian P. Davis, 21, of Wallingford, Conn., brought ''White Revolution'' tapes to AT&T Cable Services, according to the officials at the station.

Shortly afterward, Davis was arrested in upstate New York when, it was reported, police found several rounds of ammunition and a semiautomatic rifle in his car. He could not be reached for comment.

In his first of nine different programs, Hale dedicates his speech to another follower - Brian Smith, who over the July 4 weekend in 1998 killed two men and wounded eight during a shooting rampage in Indiana and Illinois during which he targeted minorities and Orthodox Jews.

Hale said Smith, 21, who eventually turned the gun on himself, was a kind man who couldn't take the unfair treatment white people face daily.

Oliver, who hosts his own weekly show on Channel 21 in Branford, said after viewing ''White Revolution'' that he's disturbed that Hale is defending a murderer. Oliver said the public access channel is watched by many, adding that he himself is recognized across Connecticut by viewers. Oliver also said he hopes people will reject Hale's message.

''You have to give a person a right to speak, but you have to get someone to rebut him,'' said Oliver, who is black.

Hale said his followers will use public access television to teach ''racism'' to white children and to attract young misunderstood people like Smith to ''the cause.''

''Our goal is to have it [the show] on in as many places as possible, and wherever white people are. We believe we can win them over,'' said Hale, who lives with his father in Illinois.

In 1984, Congress mandated local access channels for public, educational, or governmental use, according to a spokesperson for the Federal Communications Commission. Federal law prohibits cable companies from interfering with the editorial content of the program unless the program is deemed obscene.

Critics say groups have used public access television not only to espouse their views but to threaten others. In May, a Klansman who used his show to threaten a woman and her child settled a lawsuit by agreeing to pay her part of his salary.

But sometimes cable operators say they can do little more than sit back and watch.

''It's happening and it's disturbing. We hold our noses, but we have to allow it. It's tough at times,'' said Dale Clift, executive director of Nutmeg TV, a Connecticut public access organization. ''Whether you believe in the First Amendment or not - you really are tested when the material that is put on the air is something which you don't agree with.''

Locally, Jeff Hansell, executive director of Malden Access TV, said airing the messages of a Neo-Nazi or a Klansman is every public access administrator's worst nightmare. He said Malden's public access station has been able to limit offensive programming by reminding the viewers who want to sponsor it that ''they will be held accountable.''

In the small Branford office of AT&T, the staffers have found a more subtle way to respond to ''White Revolution.'' The show is followed by ''Mr. Crayon Man,'' a children's favorite in which a man dressed like a giant Crayola teaches children that all crayons are different, and no one is better than the other.