|
i don't know why they have just decided to pull the plug now. howard stern has always pushed the limit on the radio and in public.
Although this could be why...
-----------
Stern Blames Suspension on Janet Jackson's Breast
18 minutes ago
Add Entertainment - Reuters to My Yahoo!
By Larry Fine
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Radio shock-jock Howard Stern on Thursday blamed a conservative backlash prompted by the exposure of singer Janet Jackson (news)'s breast on television for the suspension of his show after a broadcast including talk of anal sex and offensive racial slurs.
Reuters Photo
AP Photo
Slideshow: Clear Channel Suspends Stern's Radio Show
_
Stern was dumped by Clear Channel Communications Inc., which carries his syndicated show in six U.S. markets, over segment of the show on Tuesday.
During on-air banter with Rick Salomon -- whose claim to fame is a widely distributed tape of him having sex with reality TV star Paris Hilton -- a caller asked Salomon if he had ever had sex with a famous black woman, using offensive language.
Stern on Thursday blamed the disciplinary move on a backlash over pop diva Jackson's exposing her breast during a halftime show at the football Super Bowl on February 1, which was broadcast live.
He faulted a radio station general manager for not hitting the delete button to stop the words being transmitted.
"They (Clear Channel) are being forced to say that I did something wrong," he said on Thursday's broadcast.
"I'm under attack. They've been after me since 1992, and they're having their way with me," he said referring to repeated troubles he has had with regulators. "Then Janet Jackson whipped out her boob and it's all over."
Stern's New York-based show is syndicated by Infinity Broadcasting, a unit of Viacom Inc., which also owns television networks CBS and MTV. CBS broadcast the Super Bowl, TV's most-watched event, and MTV produced the halftime show.
Infinity declined comment, as did Viacom, whose President Mel Karmazin vowed to crack down on sexually explicit material in the aftermath of the Super Bowl flap.
VULGAR AND OFFENSIVE
Stern was pulled off radio stations in Rochester, N.Y., Pittsburgh, San Diego, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, Fla., and Louisville, Ky. indefinitely, by San Antonio, Texas-based Clear Channel. He remains in about three dozen other U.S. markets.
"It was vulgar, offensive and insulting, not just to women and African Americans but to anyone with a sense of common decency," Clear Channel Radio President John Hogan said in a statement issued on Wednesday.
The radio giant, with over 1,200 outlets, also complained that Stern asked Salomon about anal sex and the size of his penis. On Thursday, Stern thumbed his nose at that complaint by replaying that segment on the air.
The move against Stern came a day after Clear Channel fired Florida radio's "Bubba the Love Sponge," after federal regulators accused him of airing sexually graphic material.
Stern suggested another motive for being pulled off the air. "They don't admit it in the press but they have admitted to me that they are doing this because they (Clear Channel executives) are being hauled in front of Congress," he told listeners on Thursday.
Hogan was testifying on Thursday before a Congressional committee hearing in Washington on a proposed law to tighten decency standards in the media.
Dr. Paul Levinson, head of the Communication and Media Studies department at Fordham University, said he thought it was "hypocritical" of Hogan to suspend Stern rather than defend his rights to free speech.
"With the Super Bowl incident,. a lot of people were totally surprised by that. But no one can be surprised by what they hear on the Howard Stern show," Levinson said. "Clear Channel is just going along with what the government wants. (Additional reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles)
----------------
Bottom line... GET OVER IT!
|