New Jersey Radio Hosts Decide To Throw Around Some Slurs About State Attorney General

Hosts go for cheap, bigotry-pandering laughs and earn a suspension.

New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal recently ordered county prosecutors to suspend marijuana prosecutions for at least a month, a move that makes sense since these prosecutions are mostly pretexts to harass minority populations and the state seems on a fast track to legalize the drug anyway. But when Dennis Malloy and Judi Franco, a pair of flapping heads from NJ 101.5, decided to discuss this serious criminal justice reform announcement from the state’s top law enforcement official they decided it was a good opportunity to toss around some racial and religious slurs to enchant their audience of out-of-work cosmetologists and delivery guys who still have Sopranos poster in their garage because, as they’ll tell you, they’re “a lot like Tony.”

Malloy began the discussion by pointing out that he didn’t know the New Jersey Attorney General’s name, which would be forgivable if this guy wasn’t doing a segment on the New Jersey Attorney General. Let’s get this clear right off the bat, before we get to what he did say: Malloy, Franco, and soon every one of their apologists is going to say, “Hey, they didn’t know his name and just improvised.” This is disingenuous bullsh**t. They have producers. They probably have a gaggle of interns. They are, ostensibly, professionals themselves. At every turn before going to air with a story they planned to discuss, they could have looked up Grewal’s name. They didn’t want to know his name. The whole point of the segment was to dismiss and demean Grewal. Full stop.

Which is why the pair would still be worthy of scorn even if they’d just called him “that guy” the whole time. But, they didn’t do that. Instead, they regaled us with their deep understanding of racial politics and their nuanced grasp of the Sikh faith:

Malloy: You know the attorney general — I’m never going to know his name, I’m just going to say “the guy with the turban.”

Franco: OK. TURBAN MAN!

Malloy: Yeah, Turban Man. Listen, and if that offends you, then don’t wear the turban and maybe I’ll remember your name.

So if Grewal were less distinguishable, Malloy would be more likely to remember his name. Because Malloy doesn’t have a problem remember the guy’s name, he has a problem giving a Sikh man the dignity of having a name.

For his part, Attorney General Grewal spoke out on Twitter this morning:

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This is a powerful statement. But with all due respect to the Attorney General, who is completely justified here… your daughters weren’t listening to the Malloy & Franco show and were probably very confused why you wanted them to stop listening to Katy Perry.

NJ 101.5 has suspended the hosts indefinitely. They should make that permanent. This kind of bigotry is played for cheap laughs and all too often sloughed off with a pathetic excuse and stations get away with it because they know everyone has a limited attention span and will be forced to move on to the next news cycle. The station shouldn’t play this game. They should do the right thing.

NJ 101.5 suspends hosts after they called NJ Attorney General Gurbir Grewal ‘turban man’ [NJ.com]


HeadshotJoe Patrice is an editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news.

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