By Michael Miner
The site is an elaborate piece of work. The home page sets the stage: “Arab Americans and non Arab Americans are protesting the firing of Mike Monseur by CLTV management on Saturday, Sept. 2. We urge you to join in protesting this firing and in combating what we believe is bigotry and discrimination at CLTV.” There’s a “Law Suit Update Page”–though at this point there’s a lawyer but no suit–a list of CLTV advertisers to remind that “there are more than 150,000 Arab American families in the Chicagoland region,” and boilerplate text for angry letters to station manager Denise Palmer. There’s also an update of “events, rallies and protests” on Monseur’s behalf, an announcement that 26 “Arab American and Muslim organizations” have formed a coalition on his behalf, and a chat board inviting messages to lift his spirits.
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Hanania, who’s married to a Jew, has a keen sense of grievance and as keen a sense of theater. “This is going to be one of our issues,” he tells me. “This is a spin-off of what happened in Palos Heights [whose city leaders tried to keep Muslims from establishing a mosque there]. It’s almost like we’re ghosts walking around the city. We get called names–people don’t want to work with us, don’t want to hire us. They get mad when we get involved with community stuff. We’re lying in the street and a policeman comes up and writes us a ticket for blocking the road. That’s how we feel.”
Hanania read the piece and fretted. He says, “I called Mike up and said, ‘I’m really surprised you allowed him to go public with the fact you’re Arab-American. It could cause a problem.’”
The reporters, producers, and camera crews–Monseur’s group–rejected AFTRA by a vote of 24 to 19. Ten months later Monseur lost his anchor duties. Disch replaced him with Lee Ann Trotter, an African-American woman. According to Monseur’s statement, Trotter believed she’d been chosen to undermine any discrimination claim Monseur might make. Monseur wrote that “she was offended that her race would be used in such a way.”
But one CLTV employee did have a conversation with me–reporter Bob Arya. Arya’s the Bob who, according to Monseur, got him into the AFTRA campaign to begin with. They used to be friends, but the campaign ended the friendship.
Bettes, I must add, is one of the two former colleagues to whom Monseur sent his three-page statement for a reaction. She tells me she was busy and never got back to him.
