Severin, station discuss future of fiery host after Mexican remarks

“The meeting went well, and he’ll be back on the air soon,” Tobia insisted, declining to provide further details. “We can’t say when, but he will be on.”

Station officials declined to answer questions, but in a statement they confirmed the meeting and said Severin will “remain on suspension until further notice."

“WTKK and Greater Media value an open and vigorous dialogue, but we also strongly adhere to basic principles of civility, common decency, and respect for all cultures,” Heidi Raphael, a spokeswoman for the station, said in a statement. “We believe Jay's suspension is the best way to uphold both of these corporate policies."

During a broadcast last week, Severin called Mexican immigrants "criminaliens," “leeches,” "the world's lowest of primitives," and exporters of "women with mustaches and VD," among other incendiary comments he made as swine flu spread from Mexico to the United States and beyond.

His comments sparked deep concern among Mexicans and other Latinos in the Boston area, prompting what Tobia last week described as a flood of complaints to station management. Some of those offended were concerned about Severin’s possible return to the airwaves.

“People should be allowed to say what they want, but as a broadcaster, I hope they would have a greater sense of responsibility as to the malicious effects of his words, specifically the hate he espouses and the hate he incites,” said Franklin Soults, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition.

He cited a study released last year by the Southern Poverty Law Center that found a 40 percent increase in hate crimes against Latinos between 2003-2007.

Officials at the Anti-Defamation League of New England said they were “deeply disturbed” by “the language of hate” targeting of immigrants.

“We hope that a return to the airwaves by Mr. Severin would be accompanied by an apology and contrition,” said Derrek L. Shulman, the Anti-Defamation League’s regional director.

Some groups calling for more strenuous measure against illegal immigration said they would welcome Severin’s return to the airwaves, with the hope he used less caustic language.

“I’m not particularly happy with some of the words he used, but if you look at some of the effects of illegal immigrants on our country, it’s worse,” said Joe Rizoli, director for the Framingham-based Concerned Citizens and Friends of Illegal Immigration Law Enforcement. “The fact that these people are living lives that are so anti-American is worse than anything Jay Severin could have said.”

But he added: “I think he should try to be a little more respectful. People are people, no matter whether they’re illegal aliens or not. ...You don’t treat them that way.”

Others who have criticized his language and political positions said they support his right to speak.

“The ACLU is watching this with interest, because there are multiple free-speech concerns at issue, including Mr. Severin’s free speech, the rights of the radio station to decide what it wants to air, and the right of the public to protest, and concerns for private demands for censorship to restrict the flow of ideas,” said Carol Rose, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts. “The ACLU supports the broadest possible marketplace of ideas, but as a First Amendment legal matter, the fact that the radio station is privately owned suggests that the rights of the radio station to control its content trumps Mr. Severin’s First Amendment legal claims.”

Harvey Silverglate, a prominent civil liberties lawyer in Boston, said the station had the right to suspend or fire Severin, but he added that media organizations have “an ethical obligation not to take someone off the air just because he said something offensive.”

“I find it puzzling there’s an audience for this drivel, but if there’s an audience for it, we have to accept the fact that somebody is going to pay a broadcaster to give the public what it wants to hear,” Silverglate said. “That’s the nature of a free society: Even if I can’t understand what a listener sees or hears in what he says, we’re not the arbiters of taste. Nobody has the power to prohibit his being hired.”

Severin’s possible return to the air worried Amparo Anguiano, deputy consul of the Consulate General of Mexico in Boston, given that Severin's language reflects a number of radio talk-show hosts who use similar language.

"Such comments generalize and promote distrust, bias, and prejudice against immigrants,” she said. “The radio station can do what it wants, but these statements promote hate, and anyone who runs a media organization, should be aware of their impact.”

David Abel can be reached at dabel@globe.com.