Clear Channel, the media company that broadcasts Howard Stern, has decided to terminate his program in the face of FCC fines totaling $495,000. The New York Times yesterday quoted a statement posted by Stern on his website: "It is pretty shocking that governmental interference into our rights and free speech takes place in the U.S. It's hard to reconcile this with the 'land of the free' and the 'home of the brave."'
One hopes that minus his day job, Stern doesn’t take up a second career in the law. On second thought, perhaps he should go to law school; he might learn that free speech is not an unlimited right. It would be shocking if the government did not interfere with an assertion of unlimited free speech rights, shouting fire in a crowded theater for example, or burning a cross in a black family's front yard. To the extent that Stern broadcasts on public radio spectrum, he is beholden to standards of public decency, and defining those standards is the job of the government.
That Stern doesn't get this is obscene.
Posted by publius at April 9, 2004 07:33 AMPeople make the argument that Howard Stern has been doing the same schtick for over 20 years. Why is he being persecuted now. I will tell you I listened to Howard in 1982 when he was on DC 101 and he was not nearly as obscene then. I listened in NJ when he moved to NY in 1987 and he was a little more obscene, but if they have recordings of the show it was much less obscene than now. Even in 1991 when I lived in Los Angeles I listened to Howard and he was a little more obscene.
But it is much worse now, what we accept on TV and radio, what gets an R rating, they are all much worse now than they were 20, 15 and 10 years ago. A line had to be drawn. It had become a competition over who could be cruder and push the envelope more, not who had talent, which I think Howard Stern does.
Thank you for your comments.
I agree with you on two points, first that Howard Stern has radio talent, and second that his program has become much cruder over the years.
While I haven't listened to Stern as much as you have, I do have some familiarity with his work and I have discerned a trend downward into the gutter. It is a trend that is matched by other so-called "Shock Jocks" and it is a trend that should be stopped.
There is no good reason why society should allow common decency standards to be subverted by the toilet humor of eighteen year old boys.
Posted by: Soldier at April 9, 2004 05:31 PM