“Fear Channel” and the FCC Silence Howard Stern’s Anti-Bush Speech

"Fear Channel" and the FCC Silence Howard Stern's Anti-Bush Speech

by Roman Bystrianyk and Meryl Barr

OpEdNews.Com

On February 26, Clear Channel Communications pulled Howard Stern off its six stations that carry his syndicated show as part of the radio giant's new "zero tolerance" policy against indecency on the airwaves.

As a reason for the action, Clear Channel cited Stern's interview on Tuesday with Rick Solomon, the man who was filmed having sex with hotel heiress and Fox reality star Paris Hilton in a video widely distributed on the Internet.  According to a transcript released by Clear Channel, Stern asked Solomon about his sexual practices and referred to the size of certain body parts. Using a racist term, a caller asked Solomon if he had ever had relations with any famous black women.

"It was vulgar, offensive and insulting, not just to women and African-Americans but to anyone with a sense of common decency," said chief executive officer John Hogan.

But was it the "indecency" which caused Clear Channel to ban Stern on their stations or was it for other reasons?  Howard Stern and his "shock jock" antics have been the same for the last 15 years.  Clear Channel never complained in the past about his behavior, and what occurred on the cited day was not out of the ordinary.  What had changed is that in the four days prior to his banning by Clear Channel, Stern began to heavily criticize Bush.

Lowry Mays is the Big Daddy of radio. The founder and CEO of Clear Channel, Mays oversees 1,233 radio stations with some 100 million listeners across all 50 states, and runs a company with $8 billion in revenues and a $23 billion market cap. [ii]

Lowry Mays, a rancher and one-time George W. Bush business associate, from Clear Channel has ridden a wave of acquisitions, spending more than $30 billion to become the world's largest radio broadcaster, concert promoter, and billboard advertising firm. Clear Channel owns approximately 50 percent of the U.S. radio stations, five times more than its closest competitors, CBS and ABC.  Considering the fact that prior to the Telecommunications Act, a single broadcaster could not own more than 40 stations in the entire country, it is hard to see the behemoth as anything but a creation of the act itself. [iii]

Clear Channel company founder and chief executive Lowry Mays and the Mays family have a long history with the Republican Party with Lowry Mays having been a big financial backer of President Bush.

According to the director of the telecommunications project at the Center for Public Integrity, John Dunbar, "If you have a politically active CEO who is of a particularly ideological bent you become worried that if they control entire markets, which Clear Channel does, that ideology might make into some of the coverage," [iv]

Also, according to corpwatch.org, "Far from fostering a diversity of voices, Clear Channel's monopolistic practices are accelerating the homogenization of our airwaves. The company syndicates both Rush Limbaugh and Dr. Laura to hundreds of stations nationwide, shuts out independent artists who can't afford to go through high-priced middlemen." [v]

Clear Channel's pattern of behavior is that of pro-Bush and pro-War.  Their stance is reflected in the many actions they have taken over time.

Clear channel even found it necessary to let go of a conservative talk show host that dared speak against the war. He said,

"Why did this happen? Why only a couple of months after my company picked up the option on my contract for another year in the fifth-largest city in the United States, did it suddenly decide to relegate me to radio Outer Darkness? The answer lies hidden in the oil-and-water incompatibility of these two seemingly disconnected phrases: "Criticizing Bush" and "Clear Channel."  Clear Channel made it clear""With you, I feel like I'm managing the Dixie Chicks," said my program director""that they would have liked to fire me anyway. While a well-drafted contract made that difficult, it did not prevent them from tucking me away outside prime time." [vii]

Love him or hate him for what he says, Howard Stern speaks honestly on the radio and now represents a threat to the Bush Administration because of his shift of support from pro-Bush to anti-Bush.  After Michael Powell, head of the FCC, makes the trumped-up charges against Howard Stern with enormous fines attached, Infinity Broadcasting will have little recourse except to fire Howard Stern.  They will have accomplished their goal of silencing Howard Stern not only on Clear Channel stations, but on all stations hammering yet another nail into the coffin to bury dissent.

The FCC move will send a chill through the industry and more people will think twice before speaking in opposition to President Bush and any of his policies.  Those that continue in some measure will be targeted and systematically removed from the airwaves and from other media including the Internet using "decency" as a pretext for such a removal.  Voices such as Pacifica radio, Democracy Now, commondreams.org, and others may soon be only a memory as the thought police continue their moves to concentrate power and crush dissent under their boots. 

Before we easily dismiss Howard Stern because he is just a "shock jock" we should remember the immortal words of Martin Niemoller, "In Germany they came first for the Communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.  Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.  Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.  Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant.  Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up."