Yes, Howard Stern's name is, incredibly, going to be
scrawled on the John O'Neill Wall of
Heroes...Meanwhile, Rush Limbaugh is still on the
air...It's the Media, Stupid...
Howard Stern, FMQB: Stern has also started to question ties between Clear Channel and the Bush Administration and now suggests his change in heart about his support for President Bush is the real reason for him being suspended by Clear Channel. "If you don' t think me going after Bush got me thrown off those stations, you got another thing coming," said Stern. "This has nothing to do with anything I said."
"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," Stern
continued. "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.
It's time for him to leave. Having said that pushed me
off the air in six markets."
Stern also brought up the hiring of Michael Savage at
CC's KPRC/Houston. Savage was fired from MSNBC for
saying a caller was a sodomite who should "get AIDS
and die." "Clear Channel had no problem hiring him
after comments like that, because he's pro-Bush,"
Stern alleged.
Break the Bush Cabal Stranglehold on the "US
mainstream news media," Show Up for Democracy in 2004:
Defeat Bush (again!)
http://www.fmqb.com/Article.asp?id=20252
Stern Feels Bush-Whacked End Is Near
March 3, 2004
NEW: Stern Unleashes All Morning Long [more]
NEW: KoRn Video Stirs Stern [more]
UPDATED: "Stern Out?" Source tips Howard to impending
FCC fines [more]
Howard Stern says the end of his career is closer than
the two years left on his contract. "I know that it's
over for me," Stern said Wednesday morning. "I have
been really good at predicting my career and I know
when I'm outmatched. It's over for me as a
broadcaster. I'm checkmated. All they gotta do is fine
us and then we're gone. And there's nothing we can do
about it."
But even with comments like that, Stern is not going
down without a fight. For the past two days the
syndicated morning man has been attacking those he
feels are his oppressors - Clear Channel, the FCC and
the Bush Administration. Yesterday (3/2), he was
pondering the idea of a Million Moron March on
Washington with a legion of his faithful fans. "Can
you imagine CNN having to cover this and putting the
Million Moron March up on the screen?" he joked when
the idea was hatched.
Stern has also started to question ties between Clear
Channel and the Bush Administration and now suggests
his change in heart about his support for President
Bush is the real reason for him being suspended by
Clear Channel. "If you don' t think me going after
Bush got me thrown off those stations, you got another
thing coming," said Stern. "This has nothing to do
with anything I said."
Stern laughed and was miffed at the perception by the
mainstream media that he wasn't on Clear Channel
stations because of indecent content on his show.
Discussing a clip from The Sharon Osbourne Show where
she said "Apparently the talk got very raunchy when
Paris Hilton's boyfriend was on," Stern stammered:
"Wrong! It wasn't that raunchy. I mean, I asked some
questions. I said, 'Did you ever have anal sex?' But
that's nothing out of the ordinary."
"Nothing that hasn't happened here every day for the
last ten years," added Robin Quivers.
"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," Stern
continued. "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.
It's time for him to leave. Having said that pushed me
off the air in six markets."
Stern says the end game of him being thrown off the
air is already set, predicting "the FCC in a matter of
weeks will come out with a trumped up list of things I
said that they find offensive that Infinity will have
to fire me." Later in the show Stern said he was
"tempted to shut my mouth about all of it, because it
will go away." He then added "I don't think we can
stop it, short of me calling up President Bush and
saying 'Look man, I'm going to support you, so don't
do this.'"
Supporting President Bush's Democratic opponent isn't
attractive to Stern either. "Unfortunately, when they
asked [John Kerry] about it, he completely skirted the
issue, so it leaves me little recourse in terms of
going to him."
As for celebrity and media support of his free speech
rights, Stern doesn't expect it. "Most of Hollywood
and most of the media will be happy to see me gone.
They will not fight for my First Amendment rights,
because they don't like me. I make fun of them. I goof
on them. I'm dangerous to them. Everyone wants me to
go down. They've been praying for this for 20 years."
Stern lit into Clear Channel on a couple of occasions.
For two days now he has been questioning why he was
suspended over a caller using the N-word, and asking
why the new zero tolerance policy wasn't used on Ryan
Seacrest. "How come the F-word and the S-word are
going out on other shows? Don't they own KIIS-FM in
Los Angeles? Didn't Ryan Seacrest's first day have the
F-word and the S-word? Why was the guy not fired?"
Stern also brought up the hiring of Michael Savage at
CC's KPRC/Houston. Savage was fired from MSNBC for
saying a caller was a sodomite who should "get AIDS
and die." "Clear Channel had no problem hiring him
after comments like that, because he's pro-Bush,"
Stern alleged.