Congressional Hearings on Shock Jocks

Stern from lifted from Clear Channel 4 days after making very vocal anti-Bush statements. I wonder why that is:

http://www.takebackthemedia.com/radiogaga.html

This has nothing with do with indecent broadcasting and everything to do with politics in the USA right now.

listening to him this morning, it sounds like stern expects infinity broadcasting to pull the big NY plug any day now.

Would that mean Infinity nationwide??

I'm no fan, but far as I'm concerned, Stern should not have a problem with broadcasting, so long as he is hired by someone with a transmitter. As Phoenix says, this is a democracy (and a capitalist society, at that). If you don't want Howard on the air, don't listen to him, and convince your friends to do the same. If he loses his fan base, he'll be cancelled. But to keep him off the air for what he says? This isn't "fire in a crowded theater" (thank you, Justice Cardozo), it's not-so-pretty speech. And that's really the kind that needs protecting.

I may not agree with what you have to say, but I will fight to the death for your right to say it.


That even means Howard Stern.

Interestingly, while booting Stern, Clear Channel hired another DJ, last name Savage (sorry, can't remember the first name) who was fired from another radio station for calling a gay caller a "sodomite", and saying that gays should "get aids and die." However, he is a Bush supporter. Just how are these decisions justified??

Jespah--

I'll suppport the Constitution in the abstract and hold your coat, but I'm not going to defend Howard Stern's specific rights to the death.

If the ACLU does.....well, I'll probably pay my dues anyway.

It's backlash for a boobie flash.

Howard Stern is no more a shock jock than Limbaugh, Coulter, Hannity, Horowitz etc. Just different sides of the political spectrum.......

I'm no fan of Howard Stern (blechhh!). I'm not crazy about censorship either. But let's face the facts. We've been living under censorship for years. The government has been policing the airwaves for as long as there have been airwaves. Every now and then, something or someone causes a stir, people get worked up, and the government holds hearings. Then things die down, and we go back to the way things were before. Censored, but less visibly so.

I listened once, mostly because I didn't believe the things I'd heard about him--nobody could possibly be THAT asinine.

I was wrong--I swear, I could FEEL my IQ dropping every secong I listened.

not sure, but if they take him off the air in NY, i imagine the rest of the radio chain would follow.

Stern's shows held no meaning for me. That is, nothing I cared to dwell on, even in moments of boredom. I've never tuned him in more than several consecutive minutes, never more than once a year. But I am disturbed by censorship. After all, I have long championed some of my favorite authors (James Joyce, Henry Miller, D H Lawrence) over the same principle. Free speach is indeed on the decline in America as groupthink becomes more and more the norm. The fact that the number of radio station owners is declining, the fact that most remaining stations are uniformly conservative, is an ill omen. I don't know when if ever responsible people will stand up and put an end to the madness.

Interesting, how differently people experience the world.

I perceive there being much less group-think in the USA than in the past. In fact, I ascribed it to us being forced to deal with the entire rest of the globe, since 911.

It looks like sheepthink to me.

Guess its all in a matter of which side of the sheep your are on edgar

I guess so, Bill.

infinity broadcasting will be heavily fined by the FCC, according to stern on this morning's show, for some objectionable material he did in a 2001 broadcast... he says the story will break officially over the weekend.

I respectfully disagree. I feel that the right wing government has used 9-11 as an excuse to promote whatever agenda they choose. Forget about disagreeing - you are then branded as a terrorist. (didn't the secretary of education recently accuse NEA - teacher's union- of being a terrorist organization). When Tom Daschle qustioned how the funding for the new homeland security would be spent (his job to ask and monitor) he was accused of endorsing terrorist organizations.
In a time of war George Bush encourage Americans to continue to shop, travel, eat out etc.. Translation - consume more oil. Oil is really what got us into this mess. In previous wartimes- didn't presidents suggest that we conserve oil, energy? If we did not rely so heavily on oil, we wouldn't be inadvertently funding these terrist organizations. Why doesn't anyone question these thing? Because in this current political climate that person will be branded a terrorist and be taken off the airwaves, off the tv or dismissed from the newspaper/ magazine.

Howard speaking about this now:

Senator Brownback wrote the letter to infinity pleading to take Howard off the air. He is also a backer of the Marraige Constitutional Amendment.

Senator Brownback lives in a million dollar townhouse with six others in govt. This house is funded by "The Fellowship" a secretive fundamentalist religious group.

Whether you think Stern is disgusting or not, There are people trying to legislate what opinions you can express and what music you want to listen to. These people are taking money from groups like "The fellowship". Something needs to be done.


I'll try to find a link. Re: this "Fellowship"

http://www.tennessean.com/government/archives/03/04/31786118.shtml

Thanks..........