Posted on 03/18/2004 8:09:06 AM PST by Mich0127
Is "shock jock" Howard Stern's voice powerful enough to affect the upcoming presidential election to the extent of sending President Bush packing?
That's what the Boston Globe wants to know, explaining that the liberal talk show host the newspaper describes as a "stripper aficionado, champion of misfits everywhere, all-purpose radio provocateur," has turned his raunchy show into a Bush bashing marathon.
Writes the Globe's Matthew Gilbert, Stern has been devoting hours of his broadcast every weekday "to impassioned criticism of President Bush and support of Senator John Kerry."
Stern, he writes has been "Railing tirelessly against the president, attacking Bush's alleged yoking together of church and state, questioning the legitimacy of Bush's National Guard service, his use of images of Sept. 11 in his campaign ads, his stands on First Amendment rights, his handling of Iraq, and his stands against gay marriage and stem-cell research.
"Join me and friends of this show who are outraged," Stern said on the air last Friday. "Vote out every Republican you can find."
Moreover, Stern is also asking his listeners to send money to Kerry's campaign, calling the Massachusetts Senator "a good man" and praising both his record in Vietnam as well as his anti-Vietnamese war activities.
Stern's voice is powerful, as his ratings show. "With all the talk of liberal talk radio," Michael Harrison, the editor and publisher of Talkers magazine told the Globe. "... we're seeing emerging from the ranks of `shock jocks' one of the most potent and articulate liberal talkers we've seen in years."
Stern's recent crusade, he added, is "historic. Anytime you have somebody suddenly igniting political interest with an audience who has the kind of loyalty factor Stern has, it could turn an election."
Harrison explained that a large percentage of Stern's listeners -- some 8 1/2 million a week - were leaning in favor of Bush. "If Stern could turn several million supporters away from Bush, that has even more impact than Rush Limbaugh, who's preaching to the choir."
"On a national level, I don't know how much influence Stern could have," Chuck Todd, editor of The Hotline, a Washington-based daily briefing on politics told the Globe, adding that "we assume too little at our own peril when it comes to Stern and talk radio in general. . . . Does Bush really need to worry about him? If New York were a swing state, we definitely would take this more seriously. Is Stern's popularity as devoted outside of New York? We only know it is ratings-wise."
Stern's audience, Harrison said, is broader than most people realize. "They're not just 18-year-old, beer-drinking yahoos. They're 20- and 30- and 40-something professionals. They're mainstream American citizens who are well-educated and affluent and socially active and politically interested, though not politically active. But they're being motivated. Wouldn't that be amazing if millions of people vote who otherwise wouldn't, because of this issue?"
Adds Todd, "Some people will dismiss Stern not ... because they believe his listeners don't vote. I would argue that a swing voter is just that; they swing between not voting and voting, not between the two parties. So if he brings some nonvoters to the polls, then that's a big impact."
And, Todd pointed out, Stern has used his clout effectively in the past. Stern was briefly the 1994 New York Libertarian Party candidate in the governor's race, before withdrawing and endorsing Republican George Pataki. "One could argue that he had an effect on that New York governor's race, that he was an impact player," Todd says.
Stern's anti-Bush crusade began in earnest, the Globe reported, after the FCC crackdown on "indecency" had inspired Clear Channel - which he calls "Fear Channel" - to remove his show from six cities the week of Feb. 23.
Although Clear Channel's stations provide only a relatively small part of his audience, the action angered Stern.
Says the Globe, "his outrage has boiled to a head with news that Congress is currently considering a radical increase in the amount of FCC indecency fines (from a maximum of $27,500 to $500,000).
"It's over," Stern said on the air. "When the Senate passes that bill, it's over. The show is over. . . We can't do a radio program that's cutting edge . . . if the government keeps second-guessing everything we do."
Stern also insists that Clear Channel dropped him last month not because of indecency on his show but because of some of his Bush criticism earlier in the year. "There's a real good argument to be made that I stopped backing Bush and that's when I got kicked off Clear Channel," he told his listeners earlier this month.
"He is self-aggrandizing if he thinks he's being singled out here," Jeffrey Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, a Washington-based advocacy organization told the Globe. "Congress is engaging in this kind of witch hunt generally. I don't think they're singling out Stern for his alleged critical comments against the Bush administration."
Chester says it is unclear whether Kerry will indeed be Stern's "savior," adding "I'm no fan of Howard Stern or Rush Limbaugh... Congress is stampeding to censor a whole range of speech."
You nailed it.
I had been a fan of Howard's since 1986 when he was first syndicated in Philly, but I no longer listen because of his constant Bush-bashing.
Buy a clue, Howard: the FCC in an Algore administration would have reacted the same way in the wake of the Janet Jackson boob incident. That is, if we were all here to talk about it, and not victims of another 9/11.
:o)
Stern supported Gore in the 2000 election. He started to cut Bush some slack right before the Iraq invasion. As far as influencing the vote, he couldn't influence his fans into buying tickets for his moderately successful movie. It should have been a smash it but the word got out that it was dull and unfunny.
I'm guessing the b*st*rd has a lot more fans here than either of us would like to believe.
Owl_Eagle
" WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
DIVERSITY IS STRENGTH"
Looks like the muck-ridden Stern and his ugly program are finally going down and out in his own slime.
Stern is on his way out. Only teenagers and people who never grew up waste their time listening to him. Grown-ups have moved on. It's a wonder he hasn't put family members on to strip on his show.
Stay Safe Mich127.....
One person who is likely to be least affected by hate and vitriol is Rush Limbaugh. One of the few times Rush really let go( and he HAD to do something drastic) was when vile cretins said McVeigh of the Murrah Bldg atrocity, was inspired by Rush.
I would venture this on Stern:
Deep down he wants to be loved. He no doubt thinks this is his admission ticket to "love" from the usual suspects.
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