Levy slams WLIW for not including him on Lucero panel

Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy Monday sharply rebuked Plainview-based WLIW / 21 for declining to include either him or a member of his staff on tomorrow's telecast about the fatal attack on Marcelo Lucero.

Calling the station's actions "disgraceful," Levy said he had originally been invited to participate in the program, "Crossing the Line: The Lucero Murder," then the offer was withdrawn.

Tomorrow's 8 p.m. program, taped at Stony Brook University in January, is largely a panel discussion about Lucero and some of the factors that led to his death on Nov. 8, 2008, in Patchogue. Seven teens were charged; three have pled guilty to various charges.

Panelists include Newsday columnist Joye Brown, Long Island Association president Matthew Crosson, Francisco Hernandez, Hispanic advisory representative for Suffolk County Legislative District 7, and Robert C. Smith, an associate professor of immigration studies at Baruch College.

At one point during a discussion about hate crime statistics, host Lyn May noted that Suffolk County had declined to provide the program with its statistics while adding, "Steve Levy is unhappy we're doing this program." Levy has been sharply criticized by Latino community activists for his positions on illegal immigration.

Levy said Monday, "We were first invited to do a panel discussion on the issue of immigration and we accepted and tried to find out who else was on the panel, and then they called us back and said, 'We're not doing that anymore.' "

He also said he tried to get a representative of the Suffolk County Police Department on the program, and was rebuked.

Levy added, "This is another example of media bias in their portrayal of this subject matter [and which] tends to focus on only Suffolk County. Well guess what? Hate crimes happen everywhere."

John Servidio, Channel 21's acting station manager, said Monday, "We thought [the program] would evolve, or become more about politics than social issues [but] as we got into it, it focused much more on the murder itself and what all of us can do to prevent something like that from ever happening again. We felt by having the politicians on wouldn't lend itself to that theme or point of view."

In conversations with Levy, he promised the show would be balanced. Levy, he added, "was aggravated, not angry."