Saturday, March 13, 2004

"Clear Channel vs. The First Amendment" by Katrina vanden Heuvel

CULTURE WARS HEATING UP AGAIN – ON RADIO
Katrina vanden Heuvel
Editor's Cut
The Nation

Censorship and the First Amendment are on the table again following Clear Channel's suspension of shock-jock Howard Stern from the airwaves for violating its new "zero tolerance" obscenity policy. Katrina Vanden Heuvel in the Nation (3/4/04) says it's politically motivated "hogwash." Clear Channel and Viacom, says Vanden Heuvel, control approximately 42 percent of America's radio audience. Clear Channel has stifled diversity and opposed low-power FM, and its officers and PAC are big-time Bush/Republican Party donors. "Is it a coincidence that Stern came out against Bush shortly before his suspension?" asks Vanden Heuvel. "If Clear Channel can yank the commercially successful Howard Stern, then it has the power to silence any DJ or radio kingpin who refuses to … mouth Clear Channel's political line." (Thanks, Allen Welty-Green.)

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