Angry citizens fight ethnic lobbies in Austin, Tex.

By David Paulin

Angry citizens in Austin, Tex. are giving local ethnic lobbies a taste of their own medicine.

It's the latest twist in a controversy that has gripped this liberal and open-borders city -- the state's capital --since last week. That's when two local radio hosts engaged in a politically incorrect discussion of illegal immigration during their morning talk show.

Last Monday, the radio station canceled the "Todd and Don Show" following vocal complaints from a local Hispanic group and self-appointed "Hispanic leaders" who felt insulted by the show. But since then, some angry listeners who felt the cancellation was a case of political correctness gone amuck have fought back. They began boycotting one of the radio station's big advertisers, according to an article in yesterday's Austin American-Statesman.

Ironically, the station, KLBJ-AM, had caved into the vocal Hispanic lobbies after they had threatened to boycott the radio station.

The KLBJ advertiser being boycotted is a mortgage broker and small-business owner named Chris Penders. He has "lost out on $28,400 from four clients who chose not to close on mortgage refinance loans because they were upset with KLBJ owner Emmis Austin Radio for canceling the talk show after protests from Hispanic leaders," the Statesman reported.

The paper also noted:

Callers upset over the cancellation of the show far outnumber the other side, said Penders, whose business has about a dozen full-time employees. Penders said he's fielded about 20 e-mails and 15 phone calls about the controversy since Tuesday. He said he is worried that the boycotts will put him out of business.

Referring to the boycotts, Penders -- a long-time KLBJ advertiser -- told the Statesman: "What's really outrageous here is we haven't done anything wrong."

That some Austin residents are taking on the city's bullying ethnic lobbies calls up an observation that Thomas Jefferson once made: "The price of freedom is eternal vigilance." And in Austin, that means public-spirited citizens have decided they've had enough of ethnocentric ethnic groups that have traditionally gotten their way, until now. Those lobbies and self-appointed "Hispanic leaders," to be sure, do not speak for every American of Mexican descent in Austin, far from it. In fact, many have themselves left comments at the Statesman's website complaining about the talk show's cancellation.

An earlier article at American Thinker's blog -- "Ethnic Lobbies Handed Victory in Austin, Texas" -- provides additional background about the controversy.