BlogWood: MT Archives

Clearly, Howard is a victim of the righteous right

This week, Clear Channel fired both Bubba and Howard Stern so that Clear Channel CEO John Hogan can tell Congress that he’s being a good boy and cleaning things up. Bubba and Howard share many traits, most of them not to my liking. I’m not a fan of either, and both are borderline indefensible. Actually, Bubba is beyond the border, so I’ll concentrate on Howard.

It’s hard to jump to Howard Stern’s defense, and he’s hardly the type who needs help defending himself, but Clear Channel is so evil, and so much the mouthpiece for the Bush administration that my instincts are screaming for me to start boycotting all Clear Channel stations immediately. Then I remember that I don’t listen to that canned pap that serves as commercial radio these days, and that I avoid Clear Channel venues and concerts like the plague, so I guess a boycott of company that I already shun is rather pointless. Billmon gets to the heart of the story:

Since Stern is a disgusting sexist pig and Clear Channel a soulless cog in the GOP corporate machine, I suppose my attitude towards this fight probably should be roughly the same as Henry Kissinger's take on the Iraq-Iran War: Too bad they both can't lose. But, as hideous as he may be, Howard Stern is probably the most progressive media voice a lot of the F-You Boys are exposed to these days. Which, along with his notoriety, probably explains why Clear Channel singled him out for censorship. So one cheer for Howard.

And from Billmon’s comments section:

It's interesting, though, that Stern gets in trouble ONLY after he has turned on Bush. I'm a long-time listener, call it my guilty pleasure. Stern has always been crude, sexist, homophobic and borderline racist. Clear Channel and Viacom knew that when they signed him. He was for Gore in the 2000 election, but got behind Bush after 9/11. He strongly supported the war in Iraq, even though he confessed to knowing none of the particulars. Lately, though he's defended Howard Dean, had a friendly interview with Al Franken, and apparently declared himself to be Anybody But Bush. Clear Channel was willing to put up with him as long as he was apolitical or pro-Bush, but when he swings the other way, they decide he's suddenly too vulgar to be on their air.

The culture wars are upon us, and many on the right would like to see a return to their utopian vision of a mythical Amerika free of anything that they might be able to paint as being even vaguely offensive to anyone. People will look at today’s congressional hearings and this censorship by Clear Channel and creativity will be chilled. Artists will self-censor to avoid raising the ire of the self-appointed moralists and the noose will be tightened around our collective creative spirit.