Posted on 06/11/2004 8:33:41 AM PDT by KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle
WASHINGTON - Known more for crude talk about sex and lewd acts than politics or public policy, shock jock Howard 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, which Stern defends as freedom of speech.
The Federal Communications Commission announced Wednesday that it had fined radio station owner Clear Channel Communications a record $1.75 million for airing some Stern comments the FCC deemed offensive. Clear Channel had pulled him off its six stations that aired him, though he remains on 36 other stations nationwide.
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 Rush Limbaugh and Sean 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's reach and the makeup of his audience offer great potential for impact on the November election.
"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 has an estimated 8.5 million listeners each week. Limbaugh has 14.5 million and Hannity 12 million, according to Talkers magazine.
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."
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.
"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, president of the New Democrat Network.
Go away, Howard!
if Stern tries to "Jihad" Bush there'll be 100 million Americans that'll kill him
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Riiiiight. Stern has not been in my market for about ten years; I'd forgotten how political homeless jeopardy was.
Howard Stern = 9/10...
"Shock Jock Stern Calls For Bush 'Jihad'"
OK! I'm all for Bush unleashing everything and bombing the !@%$@$#@Q% out of "arabia"......
;-)
These folks don't remember that Howard Stern was once a candidate for the office of Governor of New York. I think he may even have been the nominee of the Libertarian party. His platform included pledges to restore the Death Penalty (so it must have been while Cuomo was still Gov.) and also to do all road repair at night.
I don't remember how he did, except of course, that he lost.
He also was a big booster of Christie Whitman when she ran for Gov. of NJ, and if I am not mistaken, in gratitude she named a rest-stop on the NJ Turnpike after him.
In Howard's eyes, when it comes to Howard, it's all about Howard.
How do you figure? New York is going for Kerry, anyway. And I bet that the average Stern listener isn't even a registered voter, much less a 'likely' voter.
I'm wondering when Stern became a "political talk show host". Guess I should rank him right up there with the Franken and Moore news team.
Owl_Eagle
”Guns Before Butter.”
"...But not-serious people have a vote too."
That is true but what who would they be voting for? These non-serious people would cast their ballots for a vain man who would capitulate to Islmamic fascists. If Kerry wins the yahoos who elected him will have to get serious really quick.
I was stuck doing some menial filing work at my office the other day, and the radio was tuned to Stern's show (much to my dismay). Howard was discussing the passing of President Reagan, which opened like this (verbatim): "I don't know too much about politics. I guess Reagan did an OK job. I do know that he didn't do anything about AIDS, though. Never mentioned it once in his speeches." Needless to say, the string of blue language I let out as I stormed towards the radio caused quite a few heads to pop out of the cubicles.
I don't think people - even Howard Stern listeners - aren't stupid enough to take their voting cues from anybody else - let alone a crude, uneducated shock jock who admittedly doesn't "know too much about politics" and defines Reagan's presidency from the perspective of the AIDS crisis.
ROTFLOL
michael harrison sounds like a raucnhy, edgy pervert. What a nasty ass world he must be mixed up in. Go home, michael, your family misses you.
Dhimmi wannabe?
more like
Houri wannabe.......
Yup. A vast majority of sleazy Stern listeners could care less about politics. They are mostly interested in sex and degrading tarty, dumb-as-a-rock women.
If anything, Stern will just infuriate and mobilize the conservative and moderate voter that objects to his potty mouth tactics.
One would think that Kerry's people would not want their already iffy candidate identified with the likes of Stern (or Larry Flynnt types) if they want the moderate base support. A lot of moderates detest Stern.
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