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Great idea...it worked so well for the Clintons. |
Posted on 06/10/2004 3:55:47 PM PDT by ambrose
Howard Stern having impact with crusade against Bush
By Steven Thomma
Knight Ridder Newspapers
WASHINGTON - Forget Al Franken. Democrats have a new champion on talk radio that they hope will counter the likes of conservative icons Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity. It's shock jock Howard Stern.
Known more for crude talk of sex and lewd acts than politics or public policy, Stern has launched an on-air crusade he calls a "jihad" to defeat President Bush. He blames Bush for a government crackdown on his use of obscenity on the air.
And he's having an impact, apparently boosting the prospects of Sen. John Kerry, D- Mass., according to a new Democratic poll released Thursday. That was welcome news to Democrats who've long ached for a liberal voice on talk radio and have watched in frustration as former comic Franken has struggled with a new program that has limited airplay.
"Howard Stern is the most influential political talk-show host in America today," said Michael Harrison, the editor of Talkers magazine, which covers the talk-radio industry.
Stern is going after Bush with near-obsessive zeal, a notable development in a medium in which 20 of the top 27 talk-show hosts are conservatives, including the top-rated Limbaugh and Hannity.
Stern's Web site preaches the virtues of freedom of speech and includes or links to numerous articles, sometimes obscene ones, criticizing or ridiculing Bush. On the air, he spends more and more time urging his listeners to vote against Bush.
"I'm asking you to do me one favor: Vote against Bush," he said on one recent program. "I call on all fans of the show to vote against Bush," he said on another. "We're going to deliver the White House to John Kerry."
Stern has dabbled in New York-area politics before, endorsing Republican Christine Todd Whitman when she ran for governor of New Jersey in 1993 and Republican George Pataki when he ran for governor of New York in 1994. Both won, and a grateful Whitman named a highway rest stop after Stern, as he'd requested. But Stern's new commitment is national in scope.
His anti-Bush crusade stems from the Federal Communications Commission's efforts to combat indecency on the public airwaves. The FCC recently fined radio station owner Clear Channel Communications a record $1.75 million for airing some Stern comments that the FCC deemed offensive. Stern objects that the FCC is censoring his right to free speech. Clear Channel pulled him off its six stations that aired him, though he remains on the air on 36 other stations nationwide.
It's that audience that could make Stern's campaign so important.
He has an estimated 8.5 million listeners each week, third after the 14.5 million who listen to Limbaugh and the 12 million who listen to Hannity, according to Talkers magazine.
But Limbaugh and Hannity devote their programs almost entirely to politics and policy. Their audiences are already interested in politics, and decidedly conservative. A recent poll by the Pew Research Center, for example, found that 77 percent of Limbaugh's listeners were conservative, 16 percent were moderate and 7 percent were liberal.
Stern's listeners are less interested in politics and more likely to be undecided, and thus are better prospects to be persuaded one way or the other, Harrison said.
"The Hannity/Limbaugh audience already knows where it's going," he said. "The Stern audience is fertile ground."
Stern's listeners are older and more affluent than some might think, having aged with the 50-year-old star. "It's a myth that young people listen to Stern," Harrison said. "He's an old guy to them. Their world is far raunchier, far edgier than anything Howard Stern does. They live in the world of the Internet, of porn sites."
It's not just Stern's listeners who could be swayed to vote against Bush. When Clear Channel pulled the plug on Stern, it took him off the air in two cities in Florida, leaving untold numbers of irate fans in a state where the last presidential election was decided by 537 votes.
Nationwide, 17 percent of likely voters listen to Stern's radio show, according to the poll released Thursday by the New Democrat Network, a Washington-based group. They favor Kerry over Bush by 53 percent to 43 percent, and by 59 to 37 percent in 18 battleground states.
Of the likely voters who listen to Stern, 1 out of 4 is a swing voter who hasn't decided how to vote in November. That means that about 4 percent of the national swing vote up for grabs this fall listens to Stern, according to the poll.
"You're now seeing a guy who has phenomenal reach of swing voters and a huge percentage of people who are going to be critical voters in the election spending all of his day every day going after the president," said Simon Rosenberg, the president of the New Democrat Network.
"Rush Limbaugh has met his match."
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For more on the New Democrat Network, go to www.newdem.org
For more on Stern, go to www.howardstern.com
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(The New Democrat Network poll of 1,515 likely voters was conducted nationally May 19-26 and had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points. Its polling of battleground states was conducted in Arkansas, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Washington state, West Virginia and Wisconsin.
This - from the man who brought us "Retard Card Sharks", mocking developmentally disabled persons. It was a disgusting spectacle. Oh, that Mr. Stern, he sure is someone we should listen to.
How apropriate, the Evil Dums have a champion that abuses the mentally retarded. Yet the "media" never mentions his latest disgusting behavour.
"Rush Limbaugh has met his match."
I don't think so.
Sounds like your typical Democrat.
Maybe Larry Flynt & Stern can team up to beat Bush!
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Great idea...it worked so well for the Clintons. |
Stern.....Stern, where have i heard that name before?
Stern can go to work for AirAmerica. that would most certainly finish off the remaining 5 stations.
Oh, wait. They can't pay their bills now. No way they can afford the mega-bucks Stern is getting.
I've never lived in an area where Stern was an available choice on radio. Apparently i'm the lucky one. :o)
Howard Stern is a whiny pissant.
you know, nobody ever said except for Rush that when Larry Flynt was defending BJ Clinton and was basically the George Soros of his day that this guy is a lower-dwelling scumbag. I mean, he was on CNBC for crying out loud.
Sterns is still on? Aren't his 15 minutes up yet?
I wouldn't have had any idea what Stern's schtick was except that we were over at my hubby's cousin home last month, and "Private Parts" was on HBO. We were all in the room with the television, so I saw nearly all of it. Yikes. I'd never heard him before. I saw a few minutes of his abuse of the mentally retarded on the Entertainment channel last week, and I must say, I was appalled and sickened. I've seen and heard all I need to see and hear of Stern.
Another flip flopper like Kerry..First he supports Bush then he doesn`t because Bush isn`t into cursing so he turns to the guy who curses like himself. Lovely. "Hey vote for Kerry because he`s into effen cursing" Maybe Kerry can show Howard how to curse in French.
I know, he is so scarey looking. Here is this old man (for his schtick) ,nasty long hair, hiding his face, talking dirty etc, etc. It makes your skin crawl. He better save his money, because his job propects are nil. He LOOKS like some kind of serial rapist or child molester, yuk.
Mr Harrison is either a liar or a fool to say something like this
Easily done :>)
Anybody who listens to Stern is too stupid to find the polls , much less vote.
You know, years ago, he used to rag on Don Imus as a guy who had obviously stayed in the business far past his prime. He ruthlessly attacked him on his show for not realizing that he was no longer on the cutting edge, and not having the sense to retire.
I think what is making Stern act as bizzarly as he does is the recognition that he is turning into EXACTLY what he once mocked.
And it's KILLING him
And I'm LAUGHING about it...
It is long a democrat wet dream to equate stern and limbaugh. Time did it to discredit limbaugh back in the early days of libaughts rise. NOW they reverse this to give Rush' credibility to Stern.
Stern has only one problem. He is boring. Stern would be well advised to remember the dixie (who?) chix. They are reduced to touring small french nightclubs.
Stern is a fool because he made his money by being unpredictable. Bashing Bush and being Kerry's DNC b*tch is predictable. Stern should consider being UNpredictable and not just doing a same old same old objection to all things Bush or Reagan.
Imagine Stern's ratings if he were to come out against Kerry.
>>Stern is going after Bush with near-obsessive zeal
Can you say, "backlash"?
If this is his tour de force he will get absolutely paltry support for his cause.
In some ways,case in point Howard Stern, they have a real point. When you milk and market something for a long time, it can become amoral or Late Capitalism.
That guy is a marketing brand in search for an audience which has become increasingly stupid, male, white and young. Come to think of it, Stern is a very good example of Postmodernism trying to gets its nastyness past the nose of the general public.
He is a shill for porn. His mentor and patron, Mel Karmazan is gone.
Trying to attract nonRush Listeners.
Ifluence to do what? Think about sex? The public needs no help there.
If my sister, who I love dearly despite the fact that she hates Bush, ever inadvertently says anything that resembles a positive remark about this vermin, I hope there is some place I can direct her to so she can read about what he indirectly thinks about her daughter.
Anyone who finds this slimy bag of p!ss humorous and entertaining is a sewer dweller as well.
Frankly, I wish he'd get off the politics (which he painfully knows little about) and back to the lesbian stories. I doubt he's having that much of an effect on Bush.
He uses a couple of developmentally disabled regulars for humor, but's I wouldn't call it mocking - he is nice to them but it is funny to see them play a game which requires some skill.
Howard Stern is a greasy slimey guy. His marriage and family life fell on it's face. Howard should look in the mirror and know that one day his daughters will go on line and read and view his words and actions. He can explain why George Bush is a bad guy and he is a wonderful Dad and entertainer. When his daughters read what their father said to females on air and what he does for a living they will be the judge of just what kind of man is better for America and the people living here. Howard is a very dirty old man and that is exactly what his daughters will see.
My guess is that the FCC had to tread very carefully as long as terrestrial radio had a monopoly; no matter how loathsome, they probably felt they had to give programming the widest possible latitude, allowing just about everything short of overt advocacy of felonies and the disclosure of classified military information. But now that satellite radio is here (in the form of a government-licensed [ironically enough] duopoly -- XMSR and Sirius Satellite Radio), Stern and others of his ilk do have a place to go, just as some fringe TV programming has found a home on pay TV (cable or satellite).
It is very telling that the great hope of the democrat party is not kerry but howard stern.
Stern for the Democrat Party VP?
>>Theorists of culture would call this an example of "Late Capitalism"...
A good point, and I do think that the culture theorists are not entirely wrong. However, I would point out that the distinctive feature of capitalism is endless invention, both in the sense of tangible goods and culture. Fads come and go; the fruit ripens, then decays to make soil that nourishes the tree. Cultural theorists, being a bit square, tend to observe items of popular culture that have already entered decline, so everywhere they see decline. A pop culture figure in decline tries ever more desperate measures to get attention: witness Janet Jackson, Madonna, Howard Stern.
Howard Stern's time has come and gone. His petty concern with bodily functions is tittilating to those with immature tastes. It quickly becomes very boring. Aren't his petty ravings so 9/10?
I did a Google image search for Ho !-----ward Stern and it ain't pretty.
HA ... HA HA HA. HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA.
Anyone that listens to or watches Stern is too stupid to know HOW to vote, much less who to vote for. Of course they know all the latest fart jokes and which "adult film" stars like anal sex, but I doubt any percentage of them will have the inclination to vote ... they're too busy smoking dope and masturbating to internet porn.
Michael Savage refers to that moron as "Howard Sterno."
http://www.homestead.com/prosites-prs/index.html
I trust most polls about as much as I trust most media."0".
The Administration and the FCC must act to Stop Stern before the election.
Thanks.
More importantly, however, are the facts that people who do go vote on November 2 are going to take this election very seriously, and that most of Stern's anti-Bush rants are paranoid conspiracy ravings, not meaningful policy discussions. How many people, even Stern listeners, are going to base their decision purely on what a DJ tells them to do? Especially when the DJ has already been proven a fool over and over on his claims ("Bush is gonna have me off the air within a week, you wait and see!" - and that was four months ago) and gives "reasons" not to vote for Bush because John Ashcroft is a member of a Christian cult that makes him afraid of calico cats (an urban legend, created on purpose by Democrats, that has been proven false many times)?
Stern's influence will be negligible, and we're not going to win the places he's influential anyway. Does it really matter whether we lose New York by 3 points or 30?
Can you just picture John, Teraaaaaaaaaza, and Howard all holding hands in the air at some function? That would be a Kodak moment if I ever saw one. LOL !!!!!
Howard Stern Fans For John Kerry website:
http://www.eccentrix.com/members/sternfansforkerry/
I don't care if Turdhead is "nice" to them.
Oh, yeah, he was nice to them. He made snide little comments about their performance, and the audience was getting a good hearty guffaw at their expense. It was a despicable performance. The two I saw playing Stern's little game may have wanted to do it, but I doubt they understood that they were being taken advantage of, and everyone was getting a laugh at their expense. How amusing.
most more than likley, his listeners are too stupid, or better yet, arent even registered to vote come election day...
but so typical of the dims to want a... person of sterns caliber on their side
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