We want to share with you that our phone lines and e-mail have been inundated with people who were outraged by the recent broadcast on C-SPAN2 of a news conference featuring Malik Shabazz, the racist and anti-Semitic leader of the New Black Panther Party. Joined by Muslim clerics and others, Shabazz staged a three-hour tirade of anti-American, anti-Israel and anti-Jewish bigotry.

While ADL stands behind freedom of the press and the First Amendment, the unabashed anti-Semitism and hatred expressed by participants in this televised October 31 press conference of "Muslims for Truth and Justice" was extremely upsetting.

We understand C-SPAN's longstanding mission of bringing press conferences, meetings and other public news events into American homes in an unedited format. Clearly, C-SPAN exercises discretion in making programming decisions about what to air and what not to air. We believe that in this case it was inappropriate to provide a three-hour "open mike" for such venomous bigotry, especially at such a sensitive time for America.

Attached for your reference is information on the New Black Panther Party and their history of bigotry and anti-Semitism.