The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights

This week is the "2009 Media Violence Fast", an annual week-long campaign that encourages people to take a stand against violent media by making a conscious decision to not watch or listen to it.  The campaign is sponsored by the So We Might See Coalition, a diverse group of faith organizations that includes the United Church of Christ, U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops, the Islamic Society of North America, and others.

This year's focus is on the increasing amount of anti-immigrant hate speech in media, particularly in television news and talk radio.  You can go to the campaign's website to sign a petition asking the Federal Communications Commission and the Department of Commerce to conduct an inquiry into hate speech and update a government report that collects statistics and information about the connection between hate speech and hate crimes.