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Censorship in radio For the past several years Freedom of speech in America
has had it’s meaning changed many times. Although the changes have gone
unnoticed by most Americans, In the radio business they are felt day in and day
out. radio personalities, programmers, and owners have to deal with this
everyday but they too have no real idea what the Federal Communications
Commission’s idea of free speech is. You see the rule seems to change depending
on who you are. If you are tagged by the FCC anything the broadcaster does or
says is monitored and picked over and fined.( Howard stern. King Of All
Media.165-166 )
The FCC has been picking on Howard Stern for years, they singled Howard for
doing “trash radio”. But according to Stern other programs are saying or doing
the same if not worse things than he is. Stern tells of when Geraldo said (Stern
Miss America. 526-530.) in a show about the Mennendez brothers being molested
for doing something wrong. “Hell, I’m not for child molestation, but if I knew
anal sex . . . punishment, I’d keep my room clean.” Geraldo goes untouched. but
Howard got fined for saying “lesbian’s filled with lust.” (Howard Stern. Miss
America.519). That seems a bit more tame to me but since Stern is tagged he gets
fined. The First Amendment states. “congress shall make no law . . . abridging
the freedom of speech.” This rule, over the years has changed to “congress shall
make . . .” as interpreted by the FCC (king of all. 165) this makes no sense the
word freedom, according to Webster’s Dictionary means the state of being free
from constraints, possession of political and civil rights, unrestricted access
or use yet, the FCC is in charge of what can and can’t be said over the
airwaves.
The FCC is the god of the broadcasting industry, they do not have to answer
to anybody they have all the power to do whatever they want. The basic rule for
a deejay is that he/she may not use the seven dirty words, all know them and
understand they can not use them, But what nobody knows is, what else can’t a
deejay say over the air. The rules are not documented. Most stations go by their
own policy, And if their policy is wrong and something goes over the air that
isn’t supposed to they can get pulled ( off the air) or fined. Martin Espada is
a person who got pulled from the air and his poem censored. ( all things
censored. 20-22 ) Espada says, he wrote a poem for the radio program All Things
Considered called “imagine the angels of bread” about an African American
wrongly accused of killing a Philadelphia police officer.
And with the heat the poem would have generated the program with some
forceful help from the FCC type group called National Public Radio the poem was
pulled and Espada was no longer allowed to read his poetry on the air. Now
Espada was never fined from the FCC because his poem never made the air waves,
but the real question is, If it had, would Espada been fined? probably not,
Because so many deejays that do “trash radio” never even get looked at by the
FCC Because they are not marked yet. This shows the hypocrisy of the FCC. I
myself have lived in many different cities all across the United States and I’ve
listened to just about every local deejay in those cities and they are all
pretty much doing the same thing as Howard Stern, yet no fines hardly at all, I
watch television and see the same type of show, again no fines, Joe salzman
writes about the hypocrisy of free speech. ( hypocrisy rules the air waves.)
He points out that shows like Seinfeld, (In prime time when most kids are
watching) can talk about “Sexual intercourse, Masturbation, bodily functions,
male and female sex organs, Impotence, homosexuality, and birth control
methods.” and people and the media love him. And a show like the Howard Stern
Show.( in the morning, when most kids are in school.) talks about “sexual
intercourse, . . . and birth control methods.” and people and the media hate
him. He goes on to say “most people who rave about Seinfeld watch his program.
most people who rant about Stern haven’t actually listened to his show.” the
same goes for the FCC according to Stern, He says some fines he gets the FCC had
not actually listened to the show, but have heard about it from letters from
people who were listing.( Stern radio show ).
Censorship happens in Canada as well, Stern is going to be pulled from the
air because the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council doesn’t like the racy show.
( this are the same people who got the Mighty Morphine Power Rangers pulled off
the air in Canada). They demand that Montreal’s CHOM-fm and Toronto’s Q-107 take
Stern off the air for violating the industries code of ethics. this got back to
Stern, he responded with this statement. “It looks like I’m Hitler or something
, get a sense of humor we’re just goofing. I’m not a rocket scientist or a
philosopher .
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