The daily Stern: SternSpace
: Howard Stern is mobilizing his audience to vote his way in this election (against Bush and any Congressmen setting themselves up as our moral jury).
Well, then, he needs SternSpace. What Howard Dean et al built and every presidential candidate then (tried) to use, Stern — or any celebrity activist — could use to mobilize fans and followers. The elements are now obvious:
> A weblog to inform his audience — especially those who cannot now hear him thanks to Clear Channel. It should report on what Stern is saying, on his stand on candidates, on schedules of concerts and rallies, on news from the FCC or candidates. Any volunteers?
> Weblog comments or a forum, where his audience can come together, meet, plan, and talk about their man.
> MeetUps. See yesterday’s daily Stern post; there already is a MeetUp for Stern fans and it’s essentially unused now. All Stern has to do is promote it once and all of a sudden, Stern fans everywhere will be meeting (at bars; forget the cafes).
> Audio and video. Stern can’t and won’t stream his show on the Internet, for that would undercut his radio stations. But he could put up a few segments on this topic as MP3s; I guarantee they would be spread all over the Internet in an instant.
> Merchandise. Stern has always refused to rip off his audience with Stern mugs. But this is different: It’s a movement. And movements need bumperstickers, T-shirts, and buttons to show how big the movement is. Stern can use CafePress.
> Digital stuff. Stern’s audience creates brilliant song parodies and such. So set them loose on the cause (a la MoveOn): Have them create commercials and songs and posters and just give them a placee to share all that.
All this can be set up in a day: A TypePad weblog, a MeetUp, a page with audio and video files, a store. (Bababooey: I’ll tell you everything you need to know.)
This needs to be about more than Stern, of course, to draw a larger digital coalition of those against Bush and Clear Channel and censorship.
Of course, if Stern can do this, any famous person with the ability to promote a cause and a URL can do the same. Celebrity gains new power.
: Stern said this morning that his FCC sources say Michael Powell is “freaking out” that all this could have an impact on the election and so he is thinking about holding off on the fines until after the election.
Stern acknowledges that some may accuse him of crying wolf, but remember that the Wall Street Journal also reported that the FCC is working on fines. And a wolf — that is, Clear Channel — has already bitten him.
So Stern — who had a real impact on the elections of Christie Todd Whitman and George Pataki — now turns to political action. Watch out.
: This is about much more than Stern, of course. It is a cause.
Sandra Tsing Loh has been bitten by the wolf. She was fired by the LA NPR station, KCRW, because the F word got out on one of her commentaries.
Last night on Marketplace, she finally talked about it.
As it turns out, her commentary — on knitting, she says, knitting! — was supposed to include a bleep over her saying the F word. Fell between audio cracks; she or an engineer or producer slipped up and the F word wasn’t bleeped.
And she was fired. Zero tolerance, you know.
This is absurd and it is an indication of how we’re going too far with this moral chill.
The blurb for her commentary says:
The controversy over Janet Jackson’s
