FIRST THEY CAME FOR THE SHOCK JOCKS

Yahoo ^ | 3/10/04 | Ted Rall

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

During the Fifties, actors and screenwriters sympathetic to progressive and radical causes found it nearly impossible to get work. Though they couldn't prove it, blackballed Hollywood talent knew why their telephones had stopped ringing. Somewhere behind the scenes, someone powerful, someone who believed that America was composed only of two kinds of people--communists and right-thinking souls like themselves--was working to silence them.

We tell our kids that America learned from McCarthyism, but a new version of the Red Scare is being born in this new century. Powerbrokers connected to what Hillary Clinton (news - web sites) clumsily called the "vast right-wing conspiracy"--the Bush-Cheney's neoconservative war profiteers, the Christian Right and their media allies at Fox News and Clear Channel Communications--operate out in the open. Their goal: to crush personalities whose influence and eloquence threatens their plan to recast the United States in their white, heterosexual, pro-business image.

Ironically two of the hard right's recent high-profile speech martyrs, Bill Maher and Howard Stern, are libertarians--a group whose distrust of big government traditionally prompts them to vote Republican. ABC, a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Company--a major political contributor to Bush's 2000 presidential campaign and other Republicans--canceled Maher's "Politically Incorrect" TV show after 9/11.

Now, over on AM radio, the Bush-controlled Federal Communications Commission (news - web sites) has targeted Howard Stern for trumped-up decency violations. In a classic tag-team move, Clear Channel Communications, the thousand-station-plus behemoth so closely allied with the White House that it organized pro-Bush "Rallies for America" during the run-up to the invasion of Iraq (news - web sites), declared Stern in violation of a brand-new "zero tolerance" policy for on-air indecency. "Clear Channel drew a line in the sand today with regard to protecting our listeners from indecent content, and Howard Stern's show blew right through it," Clear Channel Radio president John Hogan said before dropping Stern's popular syndicated program--Clear Channel is willing to lose money to promote its political agenda--from its stations.

Citing three separate FCC (news - web sites) sources, Stern says he expects to be hit by a huge fine--then fired. "It's over for me as a broadcaster," he said last week. "I'm checkmated. All they gotta do is fine [Infinity Broadcasting, Stern's employer] and then we're gone. And there's nothing we can do about it." On March 5, he added: "I'm guessing that sometime next week will be my last show on this station. There's a cultural war going on. The religious right is winning. We're losing."

If Clear Channel truly had a true zero tolerance policy on decency, Stern points out, it wouldn't have hired foul-mouthed right-wing Republican Michael Savage at its KPRC-AM in Houston. (Savage infamously shouted that homosexuals should "get AIDS (news - web sites) and die" on MSNBC.) The real reason he's being attacked, Stern says, is that he dared criticize George W. Bush.

"If you don' t think me going after Bush got me thrown off those stations, you got another thing coming," says the "shock jock." "My days here are numbered because I dared to speak out against the Bush administration and say that the religious agenda of George W. Bush concerning stem cell research and gay marriage is wrong. And that what he is doing with the FCC is pushing this religious agenda. And also the fact that the guy takes more vacation than any President ever...I don't think we can stop it, short of me calling up President Bush (news - web sites) and saying 'Look man, I'm going to support you, so don't do this.'"

The New McCarthyism doesn't always flow from the top down. The New York Times, which has published my editorial cartoons for 13 years through three presidents, suddenly excised them from its website on March 1--leaving a Soviet-style hole on its comics page. In an Orwellian twist, it even deleted the archives.

"After two years [sic] of monitoring cartoons by Ted Rall we decided that, while he often does good work, we found some of his humor was not in keeping with the tone we try to set for NYTimes.com," stammered a Times Digital spokesperson to Editor & Publisher magazine when anti-censorship complaints began coming in. "We...recognize an obligation to assure our users that what we publish...does not offend the reasonable sensibilities of our audience."

To his credit, the paper's ombudsman wrote that he disagreed with the decision.

Those "reasonable sensibilities," a Times insider tells me, have less to do with tone than political content: as the most liberal cartoonist in a group of ten, my work drew a disproportionate number of emails from annoyed Republicans--adding to an already short-staffed department's workload. "It wasn't tone. [Times Digital] were sick of the hassle," my source says. "They kept other cartoons that were far more objectionable."

Cowardice, meet laziness. Time magazine was so afraid of the possibility of right-wing hate mail that it stopped running political cartoons after 9/11.

The Internet has become the tool of choice for the previously powerless. Email forwarding, hyperlinks and blogs--a genre dominated by right-wingers--allow anyone with a used Gateway computer and a dial-up connection to rally hundreds of likeminded individuals to point and click, instantly firing off fiery letters to the bosses of radio talk show hosts, cartoonists and columnists who offend their sensibilities.

"Here's the feedback form for Yahoo!'s opinion syndicate," a blog called "The Agitator" suggests. "Write and tell them it's time to drop Ted Rall's column." "No paper should ever run Rall again," howls Andrew Sullivan, a Time magazine columnist who also writes the country's most prominent extreme-right blog. "I urge all of our readers to write to the NY Times," urges another hate site. "Here is their Contact page. I wrote to the publisher this morning."

A few liberals try to censor conservatives, but most opponents of the First Amendment reside on the right.

Unlike Congressional staffers accustomed to the phenomenon of mass letter-writing campaigns, aging editors at old-school print outlets like the Times don't comprehend that they're being fooled and manipulated by fringe interest groups--most of whose members don't even buy their newspaper--into believing these orchestrated correspondence campaigns reflect genuine reader outrage. And so the bullies get their way.

The Right is running scared. Their wars and economic schemes are revealed to be as fraudulent as their fake president, whose poll numbers are plummeting as he turns to face uncharacteristically unified Democrats. Because they have no record worth defending and no ideas anyone will believe, the new McCarthyites have only one line of defense left: censoring their opponents. The question this time is, will anyone stand up for free speech?

(Ted Rall is the author of "Wake Up, You're Liberal: How We Can Take America Back From the Right," coming in April. Ordering information is available at amazon.com.)

[Frank_Discussion]

"The Right is running scared."

Like h*ll. Gimme a Break.

[VaBthang4]

Loserdopian Response: Keep the evil Government out of Radio's business! I'm voting for Nader!!

[johniegrad]

Disapppointing that we weren't mentioned as responsible for this frothing lunatics demise.

[AppyPappy]

FIRST THEY CAME FOR THE CHILD PORNOGRAPHERS

[hosepipe]

[ FIRST THEY CAME FOR THE SHOCK JOCKS ]

Actually first "THEY" came for a central banking system THEN they came for all the rest.
"The rest" is just mopping up the mess..

[spodefly]

Rall is delusional.

[jpl]

Not that tired old lie about the Rallies for America again. For the one millionth time media, Clear Channel had nothing at all to do with organizing them, they were completely organized by Glenn Beck and a couple of his listeners (one of his listeners actually came up with the whole idea).

[Restorer]

The Internet has become the tool of choice for the previously powerless.

Classic. His real complaint is that these people he despises aren't still powerless.

[GodBlessRonaldReagan]

Andrew Sullivan, a Time magazine columnist who also writes the country's most prominent extreme-right blog

Andrew Sullivan is extreme right? Maybe I should start a blog - it's give Mr. Rall ther vapours for sure!

[RightWhale]

Phil Hendrie is doing some interesting skits on this issue. Interesting how he keeps the show interesting--as much as it ever was, that is--while putting just a tad more distance from the marginally obscene.

[garyhope]

Ted Rall is one of the most virulent Anti-Americans around. He's right (I mean wrong or left)up there with disgusting, fat pig Michael Moore in their hatred of their own country, freedom and democracy. Teasonous, turncoat, leftist, socialist scum.

I think anything Ted Rall says is a lie. Of course, this is just my opinion, I could be wrong.

[bassmaner]

"If you don' t think me going after Bush got me thrown off those stations, you got another thing coming," says the "shock jock." "My days here are numbered because I dared to speak out against the Bush administration

No, Howard - you're losing the large part of your fan base that agreed with you when you supported GWB's reaction to the 9/11 attacks: the War on Terrorism.

If your ratings are slipping, that's the main reason why you're gonna get canned. And if you continue alienating your fan base by being a partisan hack, shilling for the party that controlled the FCC when they fined you $1.7 million, your ratings will tank.

I had been a fan since 1986 when you first syndicated in Philly, Howard, but because of your Bush-bashing, you can now count me as a former listener.

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

His real complaint is that these people he despises aren't still powerless.

Exactly! These people fear freedom. Who are they without hate for America?

[bassmaner]

Loserdopian Response

TROLL ALERT!.

[discostu]

Trumped-up decency charges against Stern?! Please, that foul mouthed no talent hack should have been fined off the air a decade ago. His entire shtick is 100% indecent and has never had a legitimate place on the public airwaves.

[FourtySeven]

This "Howard Stern is being persecuted for his anti-Bush stance" is surviving WAAAY too long. I've said it before and I'll say it again: Stern is the victim of "bad timing" and his own ego! He refuses to buckle under the new pressure brought to bear because of the entire Janet Jackson boob hype. It's wrong yes, because it's rediculous that only because of a flash of one single boob, all these "shock jocks" are now being asked to stop doing what they've done for YEARS.

But Stern isn't the only shock jock out there, nor is he the only one that's critical of Bush. Don & Mike, two radio personalities (who are also nationwide, but not as big as Stern) that admittedly take much of their inspiration from Stern's show, have chosen to ABIDE by the new rules. Guess what? THEY aren't in danger of getting canned, even THOUGH they are also highly critical of Bush! They mock him almost daily.

I wish the liberals would find something more credible to criticize Bush about, or just shut up. This whole line about Stern being persecuted by Bush is just a load of crap.

[Dolphy]

Their goal: to crush personalities whose influence and eloquence threatens their plan to recast the United States in their white, heterosexual, pro-business image.

What a joke, he is describing the only people I know who even listen to Stern.

[Jimmy Valentine]

If memory serves, it was/is the DemocRATS that were pushing the "Fairness in Broadcasting Doctrine" that Pres. Reagan let lapse, not the Republicans.

They referred to it as the "Flush Rush" bill.

Stern is a whiney loser. He can say what he likes; I don't bother to listen.

Regards,

[Fenris6]

"We tell our kids that America learned from McCarthyism"

Ah, right away the author admits to indocrinating his children with the Myth of McCarthy. I just glanced on through after that. Apparently, the author is both ignorant and stupid.

[NYCVirago]

Ironically two of the hard right's recent high-profile speech martyrs, Bill Maher and Howard Stern, are libertarians--a group whose distrust of big government traditionally prompts them to vote Republican.

Rall confuses libertarians with libertines here.

[NYCVirago]

Geez, the laughs just keep on coming. Not only did the New York Times drop Ted Rall's cartoons for being too radical, even for them, but Rall describes Andrew Sullivan, as writing "the country's most prominent extreme-right blog." Sullivan, who's been bashing Bush for months, and who has nothing but gay marriage on his mind lately, is "extreme-right"?

[Onelifetogive]

...recast the United States in their white, heterosexual, pro-business image.

Recast??? I just want to maintain it's currently being cast that way!

[trisham]

"A few liberals try to censor conservatives, but most opponents of the First Amendment reside on the right."

**********

This is a pretty important statement, but it is given without any support. I presume Mr. Rall believes that it is such an accepted conclusion, that no further discussion is necessary.

An example of poor journalism, as well as an incorrect statement of fact.

Just my opinion.

[GeorgiaMike]

This isn't the first time Stern's had a run in with the FCC. In 1995, the FCC issued a whopping 1.7 million fine against...I believe it was Infinity Broadcasting...which owned a DC station that carried Howard's show. The company fired him.

Did Stern blame Clinton?

[Russ]

I remember several years ago Stern was bashing the Clinton F.C.C. for trying to drive him out after he was fined a large amount of money for something or other. The fact is he brings it on himself and has only himself to blame.

[sergeantdave]

"After two years [sic] of monitoring cartoons by Ted Rall we decided that, while he often does good work, we found some of his humor was not in keeping with the tone we try to set for NYTimes.com,"

---

Gee, I can't get my views published weekly in the NYT either.

Waaaaah!

Censorship!!! McCarthyism!!!!

It's Bush's fault.

Waaaaaah!

[Thoro]

I remember several years ago Stern was bashing the Clinton F.C.C. for trying to drive him out after he was fined a large amount of money for something or other. The fact is he brings it on himself and has only himself to blame.

This whole scenario with Howard is kind of cylical. It's happened before, it's going to happen again. Howard loves to play up this martyr schtick because he believes it makes for good radio.

Everything Howard says or does is done precisely for ratings. There's no more substance to it than that.

[contessa machiaveli]

what rules are supposed to be followed? other than the 7 words there are no definitions of indecency. i'm an adult and have listened to howard for 20 years. he's less risque than he was at the beginning.
if you don't like what he says, turn the dial. what is it we're supposed to be listening to? jimmy swaggart? barney? i live in NY and am offended by the many radio programs which broadcast in arabic, chinese, urdu, french, spanish, etc....to me it's a waste of my airwaves. guess what i do...i turn the dial.
no one is holding a gun to anyone's head and making them listen to howard, or rush, or sean, or o'reilly.
i was as appalled when ESPN fired rush. remember, it won't stop at one kind of broadcast. when morons have too much power (michael powell and the FCC) we all lose.

[Judith Anne]

1. It's all, always, Bush's fault. /sarc

2. McCarthy was right!

[bc2]

BILL MAHER IS NOT A LIBERTARIAN AND NEITHER IS HOWARD STERN

I don't think it's possible for me to scream that as loud as is necessary.

[lodwick]

First they came for the states' rights, then the banking, and now we're living the mess...

[hosepipe]

[ First they came for the states' rights, then the banking, and now we're living the mess...]

I stand correct'ed... cudos..

[jmc813]

You go Girl!!!!!!