02/27/2004: 
Criminally Absurd
The Breast That Jiggled Around The World
Despite the apparent success that Bush, Jr. has had in taking on Al- Queda and Saddam, he has bungled mightily in terms of who he has surrounded himself with, specifically John Ashcroft, and now, Michael Powell. Due to one breast, religious conservatives have ratcheted up their (to their credit) well- oiled polticial machine to force the FCC to take action. Hearings are taking place, and a witch hunt has started to take down those who are peddling "indecency." Communists and terrorists have been neutralized, and now apparently the enemy is within, exercising their rights to free speech.
Yesterday, lovable conglomerate Clear Channel removed Howard Stern from 6 markets and cancelled a Stern clone. Instead of fighting for their right to free speech, John Hogan, Clear Channel President, prostrated himself before the House Energy and Commerce Committee later in the day, saying that his company was "ashamed of material like that spewed by 'Bubba the Love Sponge' and 'The Howard Stern Show."'
"We were wrong to air that material," Hogan said. "I accept responsibility for our mistake, and my company will live with the consequences of its actions."
Clear Channel has made plenty of money off of Howard Stern, and notable Stern clones Opie & Anthony. The moment Clear Channel's bottom line became threatened, they immediately gave Howard Stern to the wolves, hoping the sacrifice before Congress would be enough to stave off further censorship.
This move was triggered by the anger of religious conservative groups. Through their grassroots efforts, their voice was heard and action was taken. So where is the response on the free speech side? Nowhere, because our apathy has now become a millstone around our necks. Religious conservatives are the ones who are politically active these days. I have not seen any libertarians, liberals or greens half as organized or effective. If you don't like what these people have to say about any issue, don't whine about "how dare they say such a thing," organize and fight back! Everyone has the right to say what they want until they start punching. If you think the religious conservatives are getting away with too much, write or call your Congressperson. Do you even know who yours is? Stop reading this and go out and do something before it is too late! HowardSternStutteringJohnBaBaBooey
6 Annotations Submitted
Friday the 27th of February, santo26 noted:
For the record, my Congressman is on the Energy and Commerce Committee and I may just write him a letter. I want to go through the remarks he makes in these hearings to see where he stands on the issue. I will keep you informed on what happens.
Friday the 27th of February, santo26 noted:
The following is from Rep. Edward Markey (D- MA)'s bio:
" -When your 6-year-old watches an educational program from your local commercial broadcaster, she is taking advantage of the 20-30 hours of educational programming for children required by Ed Markey's Children's Television Act of 1990.
-Rep. Markey is the author of the 1996 V-Chip law which led the TV industry to develop a TV ratings system to warn parents of violent or sexual content. Beginning in the summer of 1999, parents will be able to buy TV sets that can be set to block automatically TV programs or movies that contain material rated as not appropriate for their children.
-Rep. Markey's Child On-Line Privacy legislation, which became law in 1998, addressed children's privacy on the Internet by helping to ensure that that web-sites aimed at children provide mechanisms for parental consent before private information is sought or transmitted electronically.
-Rep. Markey's Cable Act of 1992 spurred the growth of the 18-inch satellite TV industry as a competitor to the local cable monopoly.
-Rep. Markey insisted on the open-access provision in the Telecommunications Act of 1996 that makes it possible for small upstarts like RCN to compete for local cable and telephone customers simultaneously."
Friday the 27th of February, prof noted:
writing a letter to congress is great. not listening/watching major media outlets is better. less frustrating too. less outrage, more watching/buying stuff from people you like will send the message a lot quicker.
btw- the indignant outrage that we arent "organized" came on a little strong there.
Friday the 27th of February, Lefty McLeft noted:
Don't go lumping (pardon the pun) us liberals in with the greens, libertarians, and independents. We're not up in arms because it was a stupid move on the part of CBS-MTV and there's no doubt an obvious backlash.
Is the backlash that unreasonable? Hardly.
First, you can still say, write, think up, watch, buy, consume all the explicit material you can tolerate before you wonder if there is something wrong with you.
Second, Howard, hasn't been funny since Private Parts. He won't be missed.
Maybe if you voted with a major party you would see the organization, but if you choose to stand on the fringe, vote third party, and speak whatever enters your mind, you have to realize you are positioning yourself as lone voice in the wild.
Dude, democrats are very good at organizing. Ever hear of Unions. And I was amazed when anti-war protest shut down Mass Ave last year. I had never seen anything like that in my life. So, if the situation warrents it, it will happen.
Monday the 1st of March, crazywriterinla noted:
I met Ed Markey years ago when my boss met him at some panel and they had a disagreement. Ed means well...but he still fails to understand the full-throttle stranglehold that five companies (Viacom, GE, Microsoft, Time-Warner, Disney to a lesser extent) have on the public and the technology.
Monday the 1st of March, Abe Froman noted:
HERE...HERE...why are there so few content providers??? Were's Wierd Al and UHF with Rauel's wild kingdom.
Its like you can't get through a program without being subliminally barraged with ads and placements of other Family products (meaning Viacom family, or GE family).
That's why I laugh everytime I see some watching "I love the '80s" on VH1. It seems so hip and off the cuff, but they are really selling you other albums, movies, and TV shows. They don't give a fuck how quirky or silly the 80's were, its just a way to sell you shit. Every clip, every sound bit, every guests are there for a reason. Pay attention to who they have dropping the commentary, they're likely someone the industry is pushing, not 80's experts. It might as well be like the smoking advocate from Family Guy, "Smoke!" Just in this case, its "Watch The Daily Show", "Watch Ed", "Watch American Idol", "Smoke."
