I tend to find Jeff Jarvis’s posts on the Howard Stern/ClearChannel situation more than a bit hyperbolic. Of course I’m outraged at the way the federal government (Democrats and Republicans, by the way) are using thinly veiled anti-First Amendment blackmail to influence the broadcasters, and at how ClearChannel used Howard as a sacrificial lamb to placate the FCC and Congress (and, perhaps, the White House). But Stern is an unfunny idiot, and had no problem at all infringing on free speech when rival jocks (and fellow Infinity Broadcasting employees) Opie & Anthony were the ones doing the speaking. (Stern used all his clout to get Infinity to crack down on O&A’s anti-Stern jokes, to the point where the company forbade the duo to mention Stern’s name, or even elliptically refer to “a certain morning DJ.”) Stern is an obnoxious hypocrite, and if he’s a poster child for belief in the Bill of Rights, then I am Mickey Mouse.
That said, I couldn’t help but chuckle in disbelief at Jeff’s latest Stern-news installment. Jarvis posted a report from a reader who heard some anti-satellite-radio commercials on his local broadcast stations, ostensibly created in anticipation of Stern’s threatened defection to Sirius satellite radio. What did the broadcasters come up with as one of their big selling points? Yes! We have more censorship!
The second ad is amusing in an odd way because it spend more than half the time having people complain about foul language. Someone complains about hearing swearing in songs when normally it’s bleeped out on regular radio (yeah, people love it when radio edits the song of their favorite bands); another person talks about how he often forgot to change the dial when his kid gets in the car so the kid hears all the swearing (forego satellite radio–for the children!).
Amazing. The broadcasters and their big-government friends are touting their ability to parent you and your children, so you won’t have to. Well, at least they know their culturally conservative audience: “Janet Jackson’s nipple, Howard Stern’s cursing, and committed gay relationships bad! Taking the kids to watch Jesus get flayed alive for two hours good!”