Outraged protests have forced a disc jockey off the air here because of a racist reference he made on his show about the murder of a black man dragged to his death behind a truck in Jasper, Texas, for which a white man has been condemned to death by lethal injection.
Not even the free speech guaranteed by that sacred document, the US Constitution, could protect the disc jockey, Doug Tracht (48), known as "the Greaseman" to his fans.
The station's apology reads: "It could not be associated with the trivialisation of an unspeakable act of violence now at the heart of the national debate on race." It apologised profusely "for any pain these remarks have caused".
The remarks were made shortly after 7 a.m. on Wednesday as Tracht played a song by the black hip-hop artist Lauryn Hill, a Grammy award winner, on his show, Classic Rock.
The disc jockey then commented: "No wonder people drag them [blacks] behind trucks," an unmistakable reference to the murder of a black man who was dragged to a gruesome death and decapitated on a chain behind a truck last June in Jasper, Texas.
John William King (24), an ex-convict, self-proclaimed white supremacist and racist, was convicted this week of murdering the black man, Mr James Byrd jnr (49).
In Washington DC, which has a black majority, there is outrage and many calls for a boycott of station WARW and its advertisers. Such a boycott might also extend to CBS radio, of which it is an affiliate.
Some recall that this is not the disc jockey's first offence. In 1986, on another station, Tracht commented on the new Martin Luther King national holiday. "Kill four more and we can take a whole week off," he said.
Race relations generally are good in Washington, but fear remains of a repetition, arising out of a lesser incident, perhaps, of the riots that swept the country after the assassination of Dr King.
Blacks have been strong supporters of President Clinton in his troubles, black leaders, such as Mr Hugh Price, president of the Urban League, point out. Mr Price wants an end to what he calls "the open season" on blacks and minorities generally as far as police are concerned.
"These are the very people who stuck with you through thick and thin," Mr Price told the President.
At a news conference, black leaders called for a White House summit meeting to place "the spotlight" on the problem. They urged the Justice Department to find solutions to crime and police problems.
The concern of black leaders has grown since the shooting this month in New York of Mr Amadou Diallo, an immigrant from Guinea, West Africa, in the course of which 41 bullets were fired as the victim stood in the door of his apartment. "We have a national epidemic of brutality," Mr Price said.
Four police officers are being investigated in connection with the death of the 22-year-old west African. No reason has been offered for the brutal killing of an innocent man standing at his own door.
The excuse given by the Mayor of New York, Mr Rudolph Giuliani, for the behaviour of the police officers, in testimony before a congressional committee, is that his administration is fighting to reduce crime in New York and is succeeding. Among his concessions to public unease is to cut down security at City Hall and ban demonstrations in front of the building.
These security concerns were adopted in lower Manhattan, he said, "to thwart possible terrorist attacks after the bombing of two American embassies in east Africa". Only those who can prove they have business in City Hall are allowed past the police barricades.
Under Operation Bravo, as it is called, news conferences and demonstrations were banned from the steps of City Hall. Following the decision of a federal judge, who permitted an AIDS rally to take place there, these measures have been eased.
The Rev Al Sharpton, pointing out that blacks are Mr Clinton's staunchest allies, told the President: "Now we need you to intervene to meet directly with civil rights leaders so that Americans of colour no longer have to live in fear of the cops and the robbers." The Attorney General, Ms Janet Reno, acknowledged the problem of police misbehaviour. In the past five years, her department has prosecuted 500 police officers and convicted more than 200.