The Family Media Guide (which doesn’t appear to have the fervor of other groups exploiting “family” in their titles) does a, well, painstaking count of every no-no word, thought, or deed on Howard Stern’s first show, even down to damns and craps.
F-word(77)
C-word(11)
A*s(42)
A*shole(34)
Balls(26)
B*stard(2)
B*tch(11)
Christ(6)…
Half those came from Pat O’Brien’s uncensored phone calls.
Yes, Jeff, the show was extremely vile, odious, foul, nauseating, obnoxious, abhorrent, blasphemous, and filled with references to disgusting and perverted sexual acts. Rev’s Falwell, Robertson, and Wildmon need to be notified so they can warn God fearing American families and encourage them to write to their congressional representatives to end this travesty. Me? Hell, I enjoyed the show and am listening right now! Freedom of speech isn’t free in George Bush’s America; it’s $12.95 a month at Sirius! Viva Howard Stern and Bubba the Love Sponge!
i don’t remember Bill Clinton, Al Gore, or John Kerry standing up for Stern either.
Freedom of speech does not mean free. I presume you buy books, magazines and newspapers of which are not free (although the opinions are) and are subject to market forces. The market solved the problem for Howard – (and made him more money than Infinity would ever have) by creating a analogous medium to cable. One where there is no probable interference by the FCC. I frankly think satellite radio will never become a mass market service – even with howard. but who cares. Sirius and XM are building themselves as content providers who I bet will start streaming their wares all over the place. Won’t be long before we have wi-max or 3G radio, etc. etc. who knows. satellite will always be a nice filler.
Freedom of speech is guaranteed by The Constitution. Apparently, quality of speech is not, and Stern’s show exemplifies that.
Not that I’m a bible thumping right-winger, and I don’t have a problem with references to things of a sexual nature, expletives that serve a purpose in what is being said, etc. But the way it’s used on the Howard Stern show, is it adding value to what’s being said, or is it just juvenile?
Many of you including Jeff himself seem to think the world of Howard Stern. Maybe we should all make it a rule, from now on, to include at least 8 f-words, 6 c-words, bitch, bastard, ass, etc in all of our comments on BuzzMachine and then we can all be little mini-beacons of free speech too and Jeff can adore us all.
Howard is living proof of the bad taste of a portion of our people. Too bad the President/King/Governor/Duke does not lock up someone for calling him a jerk etc. That would be a respectable FOS issue. Not a dirty talking crank who makes big bucks.
Now that you have to pay to hear his program, isn’t compiling such a list a little pase? I mean, now more than ever you know what you’re getting when you tune-in to him, so I’m not sure why this would be necessary…
Try using terms that Mr. Jarvis objects to on this site. He’ll delete those, but will allow you to believe he has a strong stomach for speech. Go ahead and test this out.
I thought the great thing about owning your own venue was, you decide what is and is not appropriate there, not the dictate of some other person…
Dear Family Media Guide,
In order to prove that you dont have any bizzare agenda solely against Mr. Stern, please make a list of all the other “naughty words” from all the other shows that people pay for.
you may begin with
The Sopranos
Deadwood
Raw Dog Comedy
Curb Your Enthusiam
and every single adult film that is on Pay Per View.
When adults pay for entertainment, some adults expect adult content. Therefore you are doing us all a great service to let us know where the adult content is.
Thank you and keep it up.
Signed,
an adult
hey jeff is that a Sirius ad halfway down the article? it links right to the network.
perhaps Sirius paid for that bit of comedy on their page?
Menlo, just as Stern can stop Sal from saying certain words on his show, so can I do that here. This is my space.
Menlo, just as Stern can stop Sal from saying certain words on his show, so can I do that here. This is my space.
True, but it seems you want YOUR space kept cleaner than you’d like to see the public’s space on the public airwaves kept.
(where people who have not deliberately dialed in, have no choice what they’re subjected to at stores and other public areas.)
Ravo: As I have explained frequently, I do that primarily so that search engines and advertisers and firewalls don’t mark this site and prevent it from being read. I do not believe that fuck, shit, or other such words corrupt and ruin the world. They are just words. And there there are for all to see.
Mr. Jarvis entertains certain enthsiasms, such as scolding those who object to speech not to their liking, after all they are just words. However, there are words–just words–that Mr. Jarvis will not tolerate on his site. He will scrub those from view. Sure he has that option to clean up his space. At the same time he makes a show of his elastic sensibilities. Mr. Jarvis knows show business.
I do that primarily so that search engines and advertisers and firewalls don’t mark this site and prevent it from being read. I do not believe that fuck, shit, or other such words corrupt and ruin the world.
Understood. But…if ok for public airwaves, would it then be presumptuous to think that all the little kids and adults at the Jarvis household are welcome to sit around the dinner table and have every other word be shit, fuck, bitch, whore etc. – like on Stern’s program?
Because if it is not OK for your home, why should it be OK for the public space…for the rest of us and our kids?
I’m not trying to be argumentive…really. Folks who think it normal to use “f—-g” language as a sort of punctuation….and it is literally every other word, have no idea how demeaning they are being to themselves.
No doubt they’ve heard crude speech day in and day out wherever they spend most of their time, until it became automatic in their everyday, every moment expression.
Sure they are just words, but it’d be a real degradation of our civilization if crudities were not used just when you were in an intense situation or for emphasis, but became so commonplace for an entire society. JMHO
I wonder why advertisers, search engines and firewalls would have an issue with a site that contained frequent swear words.
Perhaps they’re trying to maintain a certain level of quality and/or “class” in the sites that they index and serve up results to… Jeff, in doing his cleanup, is also trying to make sure that his site and his commenters maintain a certain level of quality and/or class as well.
Howard stern does not represent class or quality in what he broadcasts. He represents “shock value” and crudeness. That’s fine. I’m not saying that he should be silenced. I’m just puzzled as to why Jeff thinks he’s so worthy of attention.
…and what was the value of broadcasting Pat O’Brian’s phone conversation? Zero?
is also trying to make sure that his site and his commenters maintain a certain level of quality and/or class as well.
Exactly. Certainly a society should have the benefit of maintaining quality and class on it’s public space airwaves.
Otherwise, some would soon be pushing the envelope to show hard porn in all public spaces.
OK, but what was the fart count?
Now that Stern’s on Sirius he can go beyond farts and burps and explore forms of elimination previous unknown on radio.
Free “speech” is a wonderful thing, by golly.
…and what was the value of broadcasting Pat O’Brian’s phone conversation? Zero?
i disagree.
hearing those clips beeped, and hearing them uncensored is like night and day.
if the O’Brien clips had been released uncensored its hard for me to believe that he would be on the air today.
“i [bleep]ing want to [bleep] your [bleep].”
sounds a lot different than
“i fucking want to lick your ass.”
maybe if you listened to the show before you comment you’d know what the hell is up.
“Class” is an opinion, just like “taste” is an opinion. I’m a news junkie – so Howard doesn’t fill my daily routine. Instead, I opt for NPR’s “Morning Edition” on the way to the office, and NPR’s “All Thing’s Considered” on the way home. There’s virtually NO chance of Steve Inski discussing a blow job, or saying “Fuck!” But – like all pay-service media outlets, Howard has his rights, and so does Tarantino with his most recent bloodbath, “Hostel”. I hear it’s the roughest carnage-full thing ever made for the theater. Guess what? I’ll never know, because I have the right to not buy a ticket and to not see it. Just like I have the right not to buy satellite radio and listen to Howard perv-away on the air.
Why would this be a topic here on this site? It’s actually disappointing, Jeff. I guess I need to read your site’s fine print since I somehow got the wrong info. I thought it was open and free, and a place for opposing views to be written with intellect. If a ‘fuck you’ is well-placed (and deserved) then let it fly, I say. And – let those other internet search engines find that particular ‘fuck you’ so that whoever the porn-surfer is, they may stumble on this site and it’s good dialogue.
As a liberal democrat, I find Hannity and Limbaugh can ruin my entire commute to work if I listen to them – so I don’t. Simple, eh? If ANYONE has a problem with the foul side of Howard Stern, turn the fucking dial – and save your comments for yourself because the very nature of what we do here is based on opposition AND if you’re reading a blog site like this one, you should be considerate enough to respect his freedoms.
Enough – let’s get back to Alito, or the Mexican Border, or the Feral Cat problem.
Fred
“if the O’Brien clips had been released uncensored its hard for me to believe that he would be on the air today.”
Heh…
Tony, you haven’t answered the question. What was the value of Howard putting O’Brien’s uncensored phone calls on his show the other day? Has it changed anything. Is O’Brien off the air now? Or was it simply for freak show value?
Fred, I’m not railing against Howard’s right to say whatever he wants on the air. I’m not trying to get him off the air. I’m fully aware that this country is full of people who are willing to tune into Howard, and that he can make a mint doing what he does. God bless him for that.
I also exercise my right not to pay to listen to him. I’m an XM Subscriber instead.
I’m just trying to figure out why people idolize Howard and the show, and in particular, why Jeff puts him on such a pedestal.
Jeff,
I think Howard Stern is an entertaining guy (for some). But … really, to resort to the use of some of the words he does on his show indicates a shortage of talent and a desire to create sensationalism by SHOCK.