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.

[sinkspur]

It is bad business because he makes them money and is done to avoid pressure from the FCC.

Pornography is big business, Destro. Maybe Hogan decided he just can't risk the backlash on a cretin like Stern, any longer.

[fiftymegaton]

I agree with everything you have said.

[sinkspur]

It's not the FCC, Paulson. It's the American public. They're tired of being abused, on the airwaves.

Stern works for a private business. If the owner of that business wants to hamstring him, take it up with the owner of that business.

[BobS]

"You have no right to NOT BE OFFENDED."

Yes, I agree. But you will reach a point where the large majority of people will revolt at what is called contemporary dialogue. The Lowest Common Denominator simply made a strategic mistake for their cause. Boobs on the tube and phony gay marriages are making folks very uncomfortable. In-your-face activities have finally reached the point at which they reap what they sow. The wheel turns. People have been awakened and are aware.

[FreeReign]

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.

Disband the FCC and let Congress pass laws that regulate the public airwaves.

[PLMerite]

I'm not for censorship, but I must say as a Greaseman fan, I do get some satisfaction from this.

[Beck_isright]

Thank you. Pandora's box is open. I was never "forced" to listen to Stern's or Bubba's garbage. But now the fairness doctrine is only one Presidency away.

[Embedded Freeper]

What's the big deal?
His show is televised and they Blur out the ti*s and that other stuff that chicks expose on his show.
What fun is it to listen to naked things on the radio?

[dead]

It's not the FCC

Good Lord, you can be so ignorant.

I guess you haven't been paying much attention to the news since Janet Jackson whipped her boob out.

It's just the opening the government was looking for, so they can crack down on entertainment they don't like, like that Howard Stern trash or that anti-semetic Mel Gibson stuff that's suddenly popular.

All government broadcasting, all the time. And the idiots cheer.

[finnman69]

Howard used to be funny when he did bestiality dial-a-date, call the Bijou Theater movie schedule number, and Guess Who's the Jew w/ Kurt Waldhemim Jr. For years now it's been lesbians 24/7 and that gets old. he has not been funny for 10 years.

[kropcke]

What crappy news :/

I absolutely loved the morning show - especially back in the days when Jackie was still around.

Now, I live somewhere else where I can't tune into a station that carries him anyway - so this is a double-suck I guess.

I remember listening to him live one morning when 9-11 happened, and Robin was all "HOLY-S***" - as they were looking out their studio windows, as they became the best coverage around on the events that transpired. I mean - announcements from across the country were being filtered through his show as he had the largest aduience at that time of day.

He stayed on for several hours longer than his show typically goes - just so America would have somewhere to tune into.

Point is - if you've listened to him at length, you'll find he's quite the patriot. His show is meant to make you laugh. If you don't like it, don't listen. Logic otherwise seems to lean a little to the left in my opinion.

Oh well - not like he's lost stations before. Big deal.

[jetson]

Howard Stern has always been a foul digusting pig and should have been pulled ten years ago. Listening to his show fullfills the poddy talk part of underdeveloped adult mind. If you REALLY LISTEN to what he talks about you realize that he is a child who never got past the poo poo pee pee stage,

[vp_cal]

You have totally missed the significance of this event.

What happens when some people use this as a precedence
to remove Rush Limbaugh because he is 'offensive'?

What happens when Hillary! wins in 2008 (or someone like
her) and uses the same regulation to take out anyone
critical of her?

ClearChannel may broadcast many good talk shows, but in the
end they are just one huge amoral corporation only seeking
to maximize profits.

We have been losing our freedoms ever since the Patriot Act...how can so many people be so blind?

[rpage3]

As a good book says, and by "good book" I mean this one:

http://www.doubletakebook.com

Howard Stern, King of all media
Should quit while he's still the leader
And retire to his bed
....

Oh, if I say the rest, this post will be deleted! Heh!

[fiftymegaton]

So be it don't listen. The point is he has an audience that wants to listen to him and now can't basically because the federal government said so.

[sinkspur]

It's just the opening the government was looking for, so they can crack down on entertainment they don't like, like that Howard Stern trash or that anti-semetic Mel Gibson stuff that's suddenly popular.

I don't see the FCC saying anything about Gibson's movie.

But, the FCC (and most normal human beings) have a problem with descriptions of sex acts and the use of the "n" word on the airwaves.

This "crackdown" is long overdue, on garbage that the vast majority of Americans don't like.

I have to admit, I've always thought Howard Stern was a 50 year old child, who laughs at pictures of sex organs and thinks dirty talk is "kewl."

[Robert_Paulson2]

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?

---

Actually, they can... but after a while, if they persist after being asked to quiet down or leave, they can be forcibly removed from the property. PERHAPS even charged with disturbing the peace, but NOT likely.

If leos were to try to muzzle them physically however... they would lose their jobs and face civil lawsuits, possibly even criminal charges. YOU CANNOT shut folks up who you don't want to hear. You can go elsewhere, change the channel and on occasion have them removed, but NOT silenced. EVEN if it GREATLY offends the powers that be. That means the majority.

The truth is, YOU have every right to yell fire in a theatre. However, YOU might face legal charges (if anybody believed you and was hurt as a result) but your right to yell is NOT restricted by law. REPERCUSSIONS for disturbing the peace are not the same as muzzling the initial action of offensive free speech.

Goverment is too big. It's priorities out of kilter:

• the fcc needs to be eliminated.
• the department of education needs to be eliminated.
• health and human services, eliminated or severely gutted.
• department of defense... tripled in size and scope for our defense.
• the massive federal police force comes very close to being the 'standing army' of military enforcers living amongst us that the forefathers forbad. We should consider thinning it down, by about 75 percent. Moving essential protection into homeland security and protection from truly FEDERAL crimes on a national scale.

WE need less government, not more.

[dead]

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

He does sing. I've heard him sing a song he wrote about eagles soaring or some other such trite crapola.

He sounded like a wounded moose.

But his saccharine lyrics were pure, so he'll be one of the few performers on our new government sanctioned radio. Until Hillary is president and rams her ideas about "responsible broadcasting" down our throats. Then we'll get the Indigo Girls singing about the joys of fisting each other, and all the "conservative" morons who cheered on Powell will wonder how it all went so wrong.

[Destro]

Stupid example since the Libraries are not meant for that. Radio segments are meant to entertain.