Newsday's Pinkerton: Radio host Graham was fired for criticizing a "PC thing" -- "the sanctity of Islam"

Fox News political analyst and Newsday columnist James P. Pinkerton argued that the "only reason" Washington, D.C., radio station WMAL-AM recently decided to fire conservative talk show host Michael Graham was "because he went after a PC [political correctness] thing, which is the sanctity of Islam."

WMAL suspended Graham's daily three-hour show after he made numerous inflammatory remarks about the Islamic faith. On August 22, The Washington Post reported:

According to WMAL, Graham said "Islam is a terrorist organization" 23 times on his July 25 program. On the same show, he also said repeatedly that "moderate Muslims are those who only want to kill Jews" and that "the problem is not extremism. The problem is Islam."

On August 24, Rightalk.com, a conservative, Internet-based radio network, announced that it had hired Graham to host a daily program.

From the August 27 edition of Fox News' Fox News Watch:

RICH LOWRY (National Review editor): But what bothers me most about these kind of stories is whenever someone says something controversial or dumb, and then they get criticized or fired or whatever, their free-speech rights are being violated, which is nonsense. He [Graham] had all his First Amendment rights; he can stand on, you know, the roof of his house and shout, "Islam is a terror organization." But he just doesn't necessarily have a right to say it on [WMAL owner] ABC's airwaves.

PINKERTON: I agree. Just as I support the right of TV stations not to run ads, I support the right of WMAL to fire this guy. However, he made a good point. He said, Look, if I had said that the Catholic Church is a haven of pedophiles, if I had said that right-to-lifers are terrorists because of Eric Rudolph, nothing would have happened to me.

NEAL GABLER (media writer): That's not true.

PINKERTON: The only reason I'm being -- well, he said -- I agree with him. The only reason he's being fired --

GABLER: That's ridiculous.

PINKERTON: -- is because he went after a PC thing, which is the sanctity of Islam.

—J.K.