Apparently, criticizing the government is no longer free speech. I listen to Howard on WXRK in New York…his primary feed. I tuned in this morning and some horrible top-40 call-in show was on instead of Howard.
I listened to Howard yesterday. The show was nothing unusual, except for the fact that Tim Robbins was on. (Unusual in that Tim Robbins would never normally appear on Howard.) During the news, a caller asked how long Howard thought he would be able to stay on. Howard’s reply was “I have no idea.” Sadly, the actual answer was “approximately 45 minutes.”
This is a horrible day for the first amendment. Howard has been doing the same kind of show for at least the last 15 years. (He’d say the whole run, but the show didn’t really settle into it’s current rhythm until the late 80s, IMHO.) Now, however, he is suddenly indecent.
Howard has said repeatedly that he is also against indecent speech. His problem is that the FCC arbitrarily changes the definition of indecent speech, and then retroactively penalizes him. Explain what indecent speech is, and he won’t do it.
I cannot currently access his page at http://www.howardstern.com/ due to, I’m sure, the volume of people currently trying to access it.
I assume he is off the air in the entire country, since he’s off in NY. Life in America isn’t quite as nice as it used to be.
So WXRK has decided that it’s not worth the possiblity of paying larger fines? Don’t you think that there would have been some sort of goodbye? I haven’t been following this, I just know somw large conglomerate dropped him a few weeks back.
Maybe "THEY"* don’t like hearing the truth, because they’re frightened of it. Mr. Stern may be a little raw at times, but there ***are **many of us folks ( Me included) who enjoy his work. God Bless You Howard Stern!!! Keep up the pressure on your front! Love to all, MICHAEL
Holy shit, it was a joke. An 84 minnute joke. I was amazed that they let it go that long! As soon as I got to work, I got on Stern’s site and the infinity site, and there wasn’t anything on it, but since they were so deleriously in favor of everything Stern rants against, I figured it had to be a joke. God, I was really worried!
Sadly, it is still that horrible generic morning show. The two hosts are discussing how talented a comedian Jay Leno is and playing clips from last night’s Tonight Show monologue. Ugh.
My radio alarm came on at 7 this morning and the first thing I heard was that Stern was off the air due to FCC pressure. I immediately changed to NPR (due to the horrible music). If I had listened for a few minutes I probably would’ve caught on. I only found out that it was a joke by reading this thread! I just checked and as of 8:15 am Howard is on the air in Philly.
I heard some music on his station in Providence this morning and just figured he was indulging some guest so I watched the news instead. I heard about it in the car. This is much better than the year he told people to turn their speakers upside down.
Even if he had been removed, it would not be ‘censorial’ or a violation of free speech. Howard still has all of his rights of free speech. OTOH, a private corporation has no obligation to air him or his views. The broadcaster is an a little different position (vs print publishers for example)as they are stewards of what is essentally considered the public’s property. (The broadcast spectrum)
Yes, there are limits to free speech that go beyond the prohibition of yelling “Fire” in a crowded theater. Howard’s claim that he is somehow a victim are falling on more than a few deaf ears I would imagine. He’s made a career of trolling through society’s gutters in pursuit of ratings. That he would need the FCC to tell him what “decency” is, or rather to inform him as to what the lowest acceptable level of behavior (so he could presumably stay one millimeter above it) needed to stay on the air is, is a sad but appropriate commentary on him.
I work a later shift, so I didn’t turn on the car radio until 10am. He was in the middle of explaining to a west coast listener (who was just then getting the dape delay feed) that yes, he was going off the air and no, it wasn’t an April Fool’s joke. Nearly had a fricking heart attack. Thanks for the morning woosh, Howard! (Ya bastard…)
Love to all, MICHAEL