L-A Radio: Report..Activists Campaign Against KFI's Bill Handel

A campaign to penalize talk show host Bill Handel, who earlier this month called U.S. Rep. Frederica S. Wilson a whore, is trying to pick-up steam.

According to the L-A Weekly, the group Color of Change is aiming its influence, which includes a membership of 1.2 million, squarely at KFI 640 AM's Handel.

It has started a petition asking the station's ownership, iHeartMedia Inc., to fire the host. An email blast about the petition cites L.A. Weekly's coverage of Handel's remarks.

Frederica Wilson

"After exposing Trump’s appalling and disrespectful remarks to a Gold Star widow, Myeshia Johnson, whose husband, Sgt. La David Johnson, was killed in Niger earlier this month, Rep. Wilson was repeatedly targeted by Trump and his administration," the petition states. "Emboldened by Trump, right-wing radio hosts like Bill Handel made misogynistic and degrading attacks."

The original comments — Handel called Wilson a "cheap, sleazy Democrat whore" — were recorded and distributed by political commentator Jasmyne Cannick, who also posted follow-up on-air remarks in which Handel says he should have used the term "media whore" instead of just "whore." The original "whore" remark was scrubbed from the podcast version of Handel's show.

"I’m glad that Color of Change is taking the lead on this," Cannick says. "As much as I enjoy KFI and the Bill Handel Show, Handel calling Rep. Frederica Wilson a whore — and then double downing on it — was wrong. That’s not why I listen to KFI and as a listener, woman and a black woman, I found his comments extremely offensive and troubling — especially for this city. This is 2017 and in 2017 you can’t say that on the radio. You just can’t. KFI’s management knew that because they purposely removed that part of his show from the podcast posted online probably hoping that no one had recorded his comments."

KFI program director Robin Bertolucci and iHeartMedia have not responded to the L-A Weekly's requests for comment.