Less than three months after praising a guest on his show who reportedly is a “founding member” of the League of the South, KHOW-AM host Peter Boyles described the League of the South on his September 13 broadcast as a “hate group” and a “separatist, racist organization.”
Boyles called League of the South “racist” -- three months after praising guest who reportedly was a “founding member”
Written by Media Matters Staff
Published
Less than three months after praising a guest on his show who reportedly is a “founding member” of the League of the South, KHOW-AM host Peter Boyles described the League of the South on his September 13 broadcast as a “hate group” and a “separatist, racist organization.”
On June 22, Boyles hosted John C. Vinson, president of the American Immigration Control Foundation (AICF). As Colorado Media Matters noted, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) reports that Vinson is a “founding member” of the League of the South. The AICF and the League of the South are considered "hate groups" by the SPLC. The Denver Post reported September 13 that both the SPLC and the Anti-Defamation League “consider the organization [the League of the South] a white-supremacist hate group.”
In addition to being a founding member of the League of the South, Vinson was a contributor to the League of the South publication The Grey Book: Blueprint for Southern Independence (Traveller Press, 2004), which argues that Southern states should secede from the United States and form their own country. A review of the book by Frank Conner on the Florida League of the South chapter's website states: “The League of the South's vision provides a jolting contrast with the South of today -- which is being run by Scalawags, to force upon us the amoral multicultural socialist society created by the Northern liberals."
As Colorado Media Matters noted, during his June 22 interview with Vinson, Boyles repeatedly played an anti-immigration ad produced by the AICF. The ad purported to translate into English the comments of a Spanish-speaking immigrant, who said, in part, “If things keep going this way, there may soon be enough of us to make the Americans have to learn Spanish.” The ad asked listeners, “Do you think that America needs tens of millions more people who don't want to learn English?”
Though Boyles said the ad was “going to be called racist” and “mean-spirited,” he asserted that it “speaks the truth” and congratulated Vinson for the ad, which he called a “home run.”
Boyles made his September 13 declaration that the League of the South is a “racist” organization while defending the controversial appearance of Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Littleton) at a September 9 event in Columbia, South Carolina, attended by members of the South Carolina chapter of the League of the South. A September 11 SPLC article stated that the South Carolina “chapter of the League of the South (LOS), a neo-Confederate hate group, hosted [the] barbeque in honor of Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo.” The Denver Post reported that the South Carolina chapter of the League of the South “falsely claimed to have sponsored the event,” and the Rocky Mountain News reported that the chapter has since said it did not organize the event. The News also reported September 13 that Tancredo spokesman Carlos Espinosa said the South Carolina League of the South “is very racist and a horrible group that is desperately trying to seem relevant by attaching themselves to an event they had nothing to do with.”
Defending Tancredo, Boyles said on September 13, “So the League of the South really is a hate group. They really are a separatist, racist organization, but they had nothing to do with this.”
From the September 13 broadcast of KHOW-AM's The Peter Boyles Show:
The League of the South claims they're the ones who put this on. It's a lie. They weren't the ones who put it on. They claimed it on their website. That was enough for the Southern Poverty Law Center, which really is after Tancredo, and again, I would urge you, and we're talking about doing reading, look at the piece that Vanity Fair did on Morris Dees and sleeping with his stepdaughter, and the rest of this stuff. This stuff is like spit on the ground. So the League of the South really is a hate group. They really are a separatist, racist organization, but they had nothing to do with this. They simply made a claim on a website. So there were re-enactors there; they hold it in a museum.