Free Republic

Only a quarter of the radio stations contacted by the New York Post say they're willing to go to the mat to continue broadcasting Howard Stern's radio show. Seventeen stations, representing just under half of Stern's 35 national affiliates, were surveyed by the Post's John Mainelli late last week, after steep FCC fines prompted Stern's syndicator, Clear Channel, to drop him from the roster of six of their outlets. "Only four station managers expressed unabashed support [for Stern]," reports Mainelli. "Another is on the fence, and 12 more avoided all comment." He calls the result of his thumbnail survey a...

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...