Carter strikes back at KMPH over farmworker comments
The FRESNO BUSINESS JOURNAL
Carter strikes back at KMPH over farmworker comments
Written by Business Journal Staff
Thursday, 12 February 2009
Fresno’s Lloyd Carter, the environmental activist decried as a racist for remarks he made to KMPH (Channel 26), is asking the station to post his 8-10 minute on-camera interview with reporter Ashley Ritchie in its entirety.
He is also alleging that a bias of Ritchie’s might have motivated the report’s editing.
Carter said KMPH aired only 10-15 seconds of the interview — conducted before a Feb. 4 water policy debate — and used his comments about farmworkers without the proper context.
Responding to a question about the impact on farmworkers from restricted water pumping from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, Carter said farmworkers are “not even American citizen for starters. Do you think we should employ illegal aliens?”
He also said the children of farmworkers turn to lives of crime, welfare, drug trafficking and gangs.
Carter said his intention was to “focus on the difficulties of farmworker life, not brand all farmworkers as criminals.”
“I have a 35-year history of sticking up for farmworkers,” he said.
He also said it has come to his attention that Ritchie, a Visalia native, and her family farming operation, C.J. Ritchie Farms, have received more than $8.3 million in U.S. farm subsidies since 1995. Ritchie herself is listed on a database as receiving $239,000 in farm subsidies from 2005-2007, Carter said.
“You need to clarify this for your viewers and indicate whether or not you think it appropriate for her to cover stories involving farm issues where her personal financial interests may be at stake,” said Carter in a letter to KMPH.
Calls seeking comment from Charlie Pfaff, KMPH general manager, were not returned.
The fallout from Carter’s incident was swift. About 250 people gathered for a rally Monday outside Fresno City Hall to condemn Carter’s comments and show support for unrestricting water deliveries from the Delta. Politicans in attendance included various Fresno County mayors, Fresno County Supervisor Phil Larson, Assemblyman Juan Arambula and Congressman Devin Nunes,
Carter said political and agricultural leaders are using his gaffe to drive a wedge between environmental activists and farmworkers.
“Guys like Nunes come in and demagogue this issue,” he said. “When was the last time he put in a bill in Congress for decent farmworker housing?”
In a statement delivered at the rally and posted on his website, www.nunes.house.gov, Nunes said “We are here today to call attention to the racist and uninformed view of radical environmentalists — who along with their friends in political organizations and elected offices make decisions that favor fish over our families and communities.”
Carter is also a deputy attorney general for the California Attorney General’s office. He has apologized for the remarks on his website, www.lloydgcarter.com. He also apologized on a KMPH newscast.
He also resigned his position as a board member of the California Water Impact Network and has offered to resign the board of another group, Revive the San Joaquin. Others have called for him to lose his position with the state Attorney General’s Office.
