This is part four of the memoir of my four-year tour of duty
as a radio talk show host for AM1300 (KAZN).
Throughout my years of hosting the program, I had invited
many Republican and Democratic politicians to the program. Nobody cared to come.
For Republicans, they probably didn't see the point of trying to work in the
Chinese area. For Democrats, they already had 80% of the votes, without much
effort. If they messed with the situation, the only likelihood was for them to
lose votes, so they didn't want to get their feet wet.
One day in late April, I came across a campaign sign of Jack
Orswell, the Republican nominee for House, against the incumbent Judy Chu. I
made a contact for an interview. To my surprise, Jack accepted, but he had
other engagement that Wednesday (May 11), so I had to wait for May 18 to
interview him. At the end of my May 11 program, I announced that Jack would be
my guest of my May 18 program. I did not think much about this.
The next day, May 19, the programming director called my law
office and asked me to cancel the program. He told me that the interview was in
violation with the FCC regulations. I told him that I didn't think that my
invitation of Jack would violate any regulations. In addition, I told him that
Jack's acceptance would increase the chance for Judy Chu to accept my
invitation. I also emphasized to him that it was important for the Chinese
population to know who they were voting for. He said that he needed to get
approval from New York and asked
me to draft an email to be sent to New York
for approval.
On Friday, the response came back from New
York asking the matter to be decided by the
programming director, another host with no management responsibilities (as far
as I know), and a vice president for marketing, to make sure that the
invitation in conformance with the FCC regulations. I thought that the matter
was settled since New York did
not have any problem with doing a program with Jack.
However, that was not the end of this. On Monday, the
station put out a notice to all hosts that all interviews of political
candidates were henceforth forbidden due to the FCC regulations. I asked the
station to show me legal authorities, which I was quite certain that they
didn't exist, or apply the principle ex post facto (since my invitation
predated the published policy that all invitations to all political candidates
were forbidden).
This type of activities had a clear Chinese characteristics.
Since China
never has the rule of law, law is whatever the authority says. So, for a couple
of thousands of years, the authority has been making rules to fit the instant
situation. When the tomorrow's situation changes, they would change the law to
fit their interests. In today's China ,
for instance, the court, the prosecution, and the police are run by the so-called
political legal commission, which almost routinely headed by the police chief. In
other words, the police chief determines the future of prosecutors and court
officials, such as their promotion, salary, etc. The outcome is this type of
practice, administrative edict in the form of universal rule.
The Chinese legal system is set up that way because its
overwhelming priority for a couple of thousands of years has been to suppress
disagreements. People in China
today are still being sentenced to administrative detentions in China
without the legal process for nothing but joking about the government behaviors.
Of course, the KAZN management could not make up laws like
the Chinese police could do. But thanks to the federal government, which
produces ever increasing complex laws and regulations, they could simply name
their laws and make them whatever they like them to be to carry out their
policies, which, just like in China ,
were tightly kept secrets.
After seeing the edict that all political interviews are
forbidden, I could only imagine how many times the FCC regulations have been
used by the station management to carry out its policies with unspeakable
reasons.
According to the programming director, pursuant to the New
York instruction, both the other host and the
marketing VP voted no to my hosting of the show. Therefore, the decision was
made by the majority. His decision does not even matter.
I immediately asked the other host, who said that he has no
objection. Since the objection appear to come solely from a marketing vice
president, I then asked programming director again to either show the
authorities (statutes and legal precedence) of my violation, or ask the
marketing people to stand down to let me do my program to inform our listeners
about the people they are voting for.
That was Monday.
On Tuesday morning all fronts were quiet.
In Tuesday afternoon, the programming director forwarded to
me an email from the station manager, who had henceforth not appeared, that I
was fired, effective immediately, without reason.
My insistence of not canceling Jack has several reasons. First,
Jack was the first politician who agreed to do the program by facing the
Chinese-speaking public. That was precious. Second, more importantly, as I knew
that the invitation did not violate any laws, I could not give Jack the FCC
regulations as the reason for canceling the interview. In other words, if I
cancel, I had to make up a lie to Jack.
Many people think that lawyers and liars, and thus it is
part of my daily work to make up lies. For them, lawyer and liar are simply the
same word with different spellings. But, contrary to the opinion, many people
refuse to believe that many lawyers are squeeky clean. When so many people tell
me that all lawyers are liars, I simply ask them this question: If all the
lawyers are bad, how can the United States
be a reasonable society (comparatively speaking)? Nobody has given me a
satisfatory answer. The problem, of course, is that, when they look for a
lawyer, they want someone to paint them a beautiful picture in the form of a
guarentee. For lawyers, of course, lying is a behavior that gets easier and
easier as one starts to practice it, until one practice that for no purposes whatsoever.
In any case, I don't lie and don't want to start with Jack.
In addition, I didn't believe that any management should put
their subordinates in the situation that they had to lie.
The most important reason for me to insist on seeing the FCC
Regulation that I was violating is, of course, the fact that we need to inform
the Chinese-speaking community about the political candidates whom they are
voting for. That is the reason that I do the radio show in the first place. If
I have to refrain from discussing political matters, why would I do the program
in the first place?
During the conversation, one thing worth nothing is that the
programming manager mentioned to me that Jack could buy advertising time from
the station. Probably he wanted to get me to sell advertisements for the
station. I didn't know the next step. Going to restaurant and extol food that I
hate?
In any case, from a practical aspect, I did not give in, and
put the choice in the hand of the station management, which made the move and
fired me.
A very interesting question is why would the station so
enthusiastically against interviewing political candidates. There are many
people guessing the reasons on the Internet in response to my dismissal. I
certainly have my conjecture, but a conjecture is only a conjecture.
Although the station fired me summarily and immediately, I
did not have a chance to say goodbye to my radio listeners. However, as all my
programs are uploaded to YouTube, on May 18, I posted my goodbye message, the
response was nothing less than overwhelming and heartwarming. Many suggested
that I continue the program over the Internet. This time, the Chinese
government trolls held back. So there was almost no negative voices. That was
moving.
The funny part of all this is that, if Jack had time to do
the show on May 11, my interviewing him would become a fait accompli and the
station would have no way to undo what is already done.
So as the fate goes, my radio career was over.
I believe that everybody should serve his (or her) community,
with almost four years' of service, I have discharged that duty. Now, after I
have earned my tranquility, I can go after some more pleasant pursuits in life.
All my KAZN programming can be found at:
http://www.youtube.com/user/pujiezheng
(... to be continued)
First published on July
13, 2016
Contact information:
Facebook：http://www.facebook.com/pujie.zheng
Blog: http://pujielaw.blogspot.com/
Past AM1300 (KAZN) programs in Chinese: http://www.youtube.com/user/pujiezheng
For law firm business (business, patent, trademark, and
business-based immigration), please write to info@pujielaw.com or call 626-279-7200.
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