Oh, fer Gawdz sake ...

From Tom Taylor:

Another push for Emergency Alert System announcements in languages other than English, from David Honig at the Minority Media & Telcom Council.

Honig was galvanized about this issue five years ago – when Hurricane Katrina swamped New Orleans, and various minority populations were left without ongoing emergency information. Some other broadcasters helped a Spanish-language AM get back on the air, but the MMTC started campaigning at the FCC for multilingual EAS.

Now it tells the FCC’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau that conversations with broadcasters in 2007 failed to produce an agreement – and now “the Commission will need to exercise leadership, because this kind of public safety issue cannot be resolved by ‘self-regulation.’” Cellphones are a great aid – but they can’t do it alone, says Honig. He calls it “a moral question” for the Commission.

A moral question, indeed.  Learn English, me little buckos.  My ancestors managed to do it and they didn't have endless Public Assistance dollars to help pay for the classes.  Of course, my families came here in the 1600's...maybe English was easier to learn back then.

Discuss on the STL Media Message Board. (Registration Required)