Howard Stern’s Suspension is Met with Mixed Reactions
By Brian Dolan
WASHINGTON—Connecticut Congress members had mixed reactions Thursday to Clear Channel’s suspension of the Howard Stern Show the night before a congressional hearing on indecency in the media.
A spokeswoman for Rep. Christopher Shays, R-4th, said the congressman has nothing to say in reaction to Clear Channel’s decision or to the recent general debate over indecency in the media.
“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,” John Hogan, president and CEO of Clear Channel Radio, said in a press release Wednesday. “It was vulgar, offensive and insulting, not just to women and African-Americans but to anyone with a sense of common decency.”
Hogan said in the press release that Clear Channel stations would not air the Howard Stern Show until they could be assured that the show will conform to their standards of decency.
Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., and Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., introduced legislation last month that proposes to increase the penalties for television and radio broadcasters that transmit obscene, indecent andprofane language. The Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act would allow the Federal Communications Commission to issue a maximum fine for each violation of $275,000, up tenfold from $27,500.
“I share senator Brownback’s concerns, as well as those of millions of parents,” Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., said in a statement Friday. “I will be taking a close look at his bill and other possible solutions to this problem.”
“We were very happy to see today’s news that part of [Stern’s] show has been scrubbed,” Upton said Thursday at a hearing on indecency in the media before a subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. “I don’t think what he said this week is much different from what he’s been saying for years. Why didn’t this happen earlier?”
At the hearing, Hogan agreed that Stern’s show was no more indecent Tuesday than in previous shows, but Clear Channel’s regulations for indecency have become less tolerant.
Upton said that Viacom president Mel Karmazin, after testifying at a previous congressional hearing, has heard Congress’s message “loud and clear.” Viacom subsidiary Infinity Broadcasting Operations Inc. owns Stern’s show.
“Karmazin had a conference call with the execs of all 180 Infinity radio stations telling them they’ll be fired if they violate the company’s new ‘zero tolerance’ policy on obscenity,” Upton said.
The hearing Thursday was the second this month after Janet Jackson’s breast was exposed during the Super Bowl halftime show Feb. 1.
“There must be a level of expectation when a parent turns on the TV or radio between the hours of 6 a.m. and10 p.m. that the content will be suitable for children,” said Upton, chairman of the Energy And Commerce Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet. “You should not have to think twice about the content on the public airwaves—unfortunately, that situation is far from reality.”
