Category: politics

Howard Stern is not talking today.

He started his show with a brilliantly edited montage of words from the news and from Congress yesterday about free speech and stopping it. He mixed it with music of protest and freedom.

And we heard a message he left for his producer, Gary Dell’Abate, in the middle of the night saying that he was headed into the station to make a show in which he doesn’t talk.
Because, if the American Taliban has its way, soon he won’t talk.
It is a strong statement, well done.

Stern did this for the first hour and a half of his show. [BuzzMachine]

Sign of the times: 21% of people aged 18 to 29 cite The Daily Show and Saturday Night Live as chief sources for presidential campaign news. By contrast, only 23% of young people mentioned ABC, CBS or NBC as a source, says the Pew Research Center. A startling change from the 9% and 39% who cited comedy and network news, respectively, in 2000. [Trendsetters]

Interestingly Clear Channel still feels Howard is good enough to use on air as voice talent for commercials he reads. Nice…

From the moment last week when Clear Channel Communications suspended Howard Stern’s syndicated morning show from the company’s radio stations, denouncing it as “vulgar, offensive and insulting,” speculation erupted that the move had more to do with Stern’s politics than his raunchy shock-jock shtick.

Stern’s loyal listeners, Clear Channel foes and many Bush administration critics immediately reached the same conclusion: The notorious jock was yanked off the air because he had recently begun trashing Bush, and Bush-friendly Clear Channel used the guise of “indecency” to shut him up. That the content of Stern’s crude show hadn’t suddenly changed, but his stance on Bush had, gave the theory more heft. That, plus his being pulled off the air in key electoral swing states such as Florida and Pennsylvania.

This week, Stern himself went on the warpath, weaving in among his familiar monologues about breasts and porn actresses accusations that Texas-based Clear Channel — whose Republican CEO, Lowry Mays, is extremely close to both George W. Bush and Bush’s father — canned him because he deviated from the company’s pro-Bush line. “I gotta tell you something,” Stern told his listeners. “There’s a lot of people saying that the second that I started saying, ‘I think we gotta get Bush out of the presidency,’ that’s when Clear Channel banged my ass outta here. Then I find out that Clear Channel is such a big contributor to President Bush, and in bed with the whole Bush administration, I’m going, ‘Maybe that’s why I was thrown off: because I don’t like the way the country is leaning too much to the religious right.’ And then, bam! Let’s get rid of Stern. I used to think, ‘Oh, I can’t believe that.’ But that’s it! That’s what’s going on here! I know it! I know it!”

Stern’s been relentless all week, detailing the close ties between Clear Channel executives and the Bush administration, and insisting that political speech, not indecency, got him in trouble with the San Antonio broadcasting giant. If he hadn’t turned against Bush, Stern told his listeners, he’d still be heard on Clear Channel stations.

[Salon.com]

The death of broadcast [BuzzMachine]

…and what it might very well mean to radio, not too mention free speech. All based on Clear Channel’s decision to knock out Howard Stern’s broadcast signal.