Howard Stern suspended from Clear Channel stations

Forbes ^ | 2-25-04

[Indy Pendance]

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Shock jock Howard Stern's show was yanked Wednesday from Clear Channel Communications Inc. radio stations after an incident on his show Tuesday, the first casualty of its zero tolerance policy on indecency.

"It was vulgar, offensive and insulting, not just to women and African Americans but to anyone with a sense of common decency," Clear Channel Radio Chief Executive John Hogan said in a statement.

"We will not air Howard Stern on Clear Channel stations until we are assured that his show will conform to acceptable standards of responsible broadcasting," he said.

Clear Channel has about 1,200 stations in the United States though it was not immediately clear how many aired his show.

Stern's show is syndicated by a unit of Viacom Inc.

[wtc911]

When Rush drops to the level of a Stern I will be the first to show him the door.

[dead]

Don't worry you big baby, Mama Gubmit will protect you from the bad man on the radio. That big old radio was too confusing to operate, so I know how hard it was for you to find the OFF button..

Just don't bitch when Mama Gubmint takes off Rush, pro-wrestling, and gospel because your neighbor needed protecting from "offensive" broadcasting too.

I'm sure Michael Powell has some real entertaining broadcasting ahead. Maybe he'll even let Ashcroft sing to us. If we're good.

[Beck_isright]

Soon to come: Rush, Beck and Savage suspended for espousing conservatism which is insssssssssssssssensitive to the "poor" and "underlings" in society. This will happen of course when the new FCC Chairman, Chelsea Clinton, is appointed if Kerry wins....

[hchutch]

I must disagree here. First, it was a caller who made the comments, NOT Howard. Second, I listen to Howard on occasion, and happen to like him. If he goes over the top, I pop in a CD and listen to that.

Quite frankly, one reason I like Howard is because he sometimes is politically incorrect, and because he's been a David to the FCC's Goliath. I hate to see conservatives form a lynch mob to go after the guy.

[VMI70]

Bump for later

[fiftymegaton]

Show him the door by not listening. Don't try to have him fired because his words were too 'offensive' to you(liberal censorship way of action). DON'T LISTEN!! This is ridiculous. Where is it going to end? Don't say potty anymore as you might 'offend' someone.

[billorites]

You might be interested in this guy's point of view regarding Stern, Clear Channel and censorship.

[Robert_Paulson2]

You do not understand the point. Think deeper. What this is about is people want to be treated with respect

---

I do understand the point, YOU think deeper. Hillary types in the future will claim that YOUR speech is not giving them their due respect (for example if you were saying perhaps that "GAYS should not be married" it might be considered disrespectful by some gays)... and any website where you expressed that opinion could then be censored.

It's called muzzling free speech. and it's not any more legal or right to do it, just because it offends you or me. We have no constitutional right to NOT be offended by what we hear in the public arena. on the contrary. Potentially being offended by others speech is the price we pay for our own right to speak our minds.

You have no right to NOT BE OFFENDED. Neither do I. That goes double when we are considering using the power of the FCC to do so, either through direct regulation or back door "persuasion".

At some point hillary types will say YOUR or MY stated position on issues lies beneath the level of civil discourse the law allows... and use power to stiffle us.

Then it will be too late. And from the comments I read here amongst us supposed conservatives, it already is.

Having said that, I never listen to howard and have found him repulsive in the past. I don't want him censored. I want to have the right to choose to listen to whomever I want, not have it sorted, censored and altered to fit ANY one group's perspectives on morality, right, wrong or practicality. Being an adult, I would rather maintain the right to change radio stations, without having them altered for me by nannystate lovers... of the left OR the right.

[Robert_Paulson2]

spot on.

[redrock]

Clear Channel can do whatever they want...it is, after all, their stations.

Personally...good riddance to a POS.

redrock

[Robert_Paulson2]

dead center of the target.

---

too bad that nannystate lovers here want the fed to protect us from being offended by what we hear, when we refuse to CHANGE our OWN RADIO STATION channels while we are driving on the public roads...

only fools would willingly forge for themselves stronger chains for their own slavery.

remember "Bridge on the River Kwai?" circa 1950's alec guiness? The prisoners of war were building a better bridge, whose intent was to better defeat the nations that were their allies prior to their capture.

[sarasmom]

Two letters.
XM.
Want to indulge your taste for filthy trash talk radio?
Pay for it.

[Mark Felton]

Do you think that pay radio, like XM, should be uncensored? (aside from obvious illegalities, such as broadcasting threats, etc.)

yes. The satellite owners, broadcasters and radio owners should have sole discretion over content.

[Destro]

Ashcroft does not sing or dance - it is a sin.

[cnote55]

are you also on farakahn's side?

[finnman69]

Howard went off on bush yesterday and loves Al Franken now....

http://www.marksfriggin.com/news04/2-23.htm

Howard's Review Of Al Franken's Book. 02/23/04. 7:45am
After the break Howard wondered if they were done talking about what a douche bag Jay Leno is. Robin said they were off of that subject and had talked about the party. Howard ended up taking a call from a guy who said they really don't need John on the show. Howard said that it's Jay who is a ''bizarro'' and they love John. Howard said he doesn't understand what John has to do with Jay's show. Artie said it's (Leno's show) going to be like that disco station that plays one rock song every hour trying to get people to come over. Howard said that Leno is desperate and can't develop his own stuff.
Howard said over vacation he read Al Franken's book ''Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right.'' He said that in the first page Franken insults him but he can get past that. He said if you read the book you'll never vote for George Bush. He said Franken had a bunch of Harvard kids investigate stuff and it's great. He went on to say that he's had bad feelings about Bush since the FCC stuff went down. He also said that the economy thing is also a factor in that. He said he might be a ''anyone but Bush'' guy now. He said that even Ralph Nader running is a good idea.

Howard told Scott DePace from E! that he has to read Franken's book. DePace said that he will read it but he thinks that Bush is doing the right things at this point.

[eddie willers]

Stern got fired from 6 Clear Channel stations. They own the stations....Stern is their employee and they didn't like what he was doing. They tossed him out. Hurray for private ownership.

No different than Jim Rob tossing out disruptors who come whining how "there is no Free Speech Free Republic".

Quit whining and get XM (and try channel 150)

[FreeReign]

Freedom of speech does not mean you can poop in public Of course not - freedom of speech means you can talk about it.

Freedom of speech means that you and your ten loudest buddies can walk into a public library and start screaming at the top of your lungs for hours?

[Destro]

It is bad business because he makes them money and is done to avoid pressure from the FCC. If I owned CC stock right now I would be pissed.

[Robert_Paulson2]

Yeah sink buddy, and you also know that the FCC is twisting arms in response to the superbowl nipple incident.

FCC needs to be disbanded or severely gutted along with a few other federal soviet "bureaus" that work to control education, working conditions, health and human services, social policy enforcement and the like.

Socialistic expansion of the central government is NOT good...
I got NO love for howard.

The FCC should not be twisting arms to get tape delays on all programming so that federal police can monitor and restrict unauthorized broadcasting of things that a central government may or may NOT approve of.

EVERY power given to government, WILL without exception be abused. This is not a good idea. Turn howard off. When you can no longer choose to turn him off, I will agree that the fcc can pressure clear channel to pull his broadcast. Until then, we don't need THAT kind of power in a soviet style press-politbureau.