Little people call for FCC to ban 'midget'

Little people are calling on the Federal Communications Commission to ban the use of the word "midget" on broadcast TV.

The group Little People of America said Sunday the word is just as offensive as racial slurs.

The request was prompted by an April episode of NBC's "Celebrity Apprentice" that the group said was demeaning.

In the episode, contestants created a detergent ad called "Jesse James and the Midgets." The contestants, including Joan Rivers, suggested bathing little people in the detergent and hanging them to dry.

Calls to the FCC and "Celebrity Apprentice" host Donald Trump were not immediately answered Sunday. NBC Universal representatives didn't immediately respond to e-mail messages, and the telephone rang unanswered at their Los Angeles office.

In the news

Loading...

Currently in Salon

  • From Balloon Boy to Sarah Palin's death panels, the media chased a lot of hoaxes in 2009 and called them news
  • Special ho-ho-ho-infused, not-quite-gift-guide edition: MST3K, Wenders, film noir, wine snobs and more
  • From cash-strapped polygamists to rogue lawn mowers at Sterling Cooper, the greatest shows dared to provoke
  • Grab a partner. You have some cooking to do. Plus: Last week's winners
  • At least, I was until now. Because in my circle, nothing is more embarrassing than being religious
  • Sex scandals, swine flu, tea parties, Michele Bachmann -- and that's just the first half of 2009
  • What the Democrats can learn from the Republicans about managing the ménage à trois within the party
  • Jacob Hacker breaks with fellow progressives, comes out in favor of the Senate's proposal
  • She never became Hollywood's It girl, but she was as daffy and heartbreaking as her A-list contemporaries
  • An extraordinary new memoir by a college jock whose brain began to bleed

Other News