BuzzMachine

The media pundit's pundit. Written by NYC insider Jeff Jarvis, BuzzMachine covers news, media, journalism, and politics.

The Daily Stern

12 comments on The Daily Stern

The Daily Stern

: Be warned: The Daily Stern is about to rise again. Congress is about to send its indecent indecency bill to Bush’s desk. So if you are on TV and say “F Bush,” you could be bankrupted. Well, let me get this in while I can: F Congress.

On Howard Stern yesterday, they recounted a Dr. Phil show in which the quack put a 9-year-old boy on, showing him smearing feces on a wall, and said he had most of the warning signs that said this kid was going to be a serial killer. Now I call that obscene (and irresponsible and inhuman). But Congress — and, apparently, the American psychiatric governing body — won’t go after that. But Congress and the FCC will rule that a four-letter word and a breast are obscene.

I’m just getting revved up.

12 responses to “The Daily Stern”

  1. Mike Avatar
    Mike

    The only thing I would have a problem with is this statement by Brownback from the linked article:
    Brownback also said he was unaware of any opposition among lawmakers to adding a provision that would permit the FCC to also impose penalties against individuals for such incidents without first giving them a warning.
    I would want that provision further explained as to who this would apply to and when. For instance would the producer on CNN be fined for what he said during the DNC that mistakenly went out over the air? For those who don’t remember he said, “what the f*** are you guys doing up there” when the baloons weren’t falling. As a general statement it would be nice if the FCC could explain the standards better, eliminate the grey area that they call indecent behavior. This has been a problem with these laws for some time now.

  2. pdq332 Avatar
    pdq332

    I had long since given up on this point, but I am set to revive it again in the light of Rathergate. Maybe what television needs is “open source content” just like the CBS operation benefited recently from a good dose of “open source journalism.”
    In other words, if you argue that the FCC should loosen one set of regulations dealing with sexual content, why not loosen the regs on who can broadcast? I’d love to set up a television or radio transmitter and broadcast from my own backyard at 10,000 watts, but I would be physically restrained from doing so by the government, (Even the mere suggestion of opening the airwaves to the masses would probably scare the pants off of Viacom.)
    I think this is going to happen anyway. People are going to have fiber into their homes eventually, and tune into internet TV multicasts. Broadcast will die precisely because it is the playground of favored corporate entities who have government forces clobber anyone who treads on their claim to the public airwaves. While maybe it is true that the medium of broadcast would suffer from the technological anarchy of different people jockeying for the same frequency bands, but it could be regulated on a more local scale. And from your own example of children spreading feces on the wall, how can you really argue that restraining the masses in this way has been good for the medium? I really think your career as an entertainment critic would take off like a rocket if it turned into a hunt for diamonds in the local broadcast rough, instead of dumping criticism on the same old network fare year after year.

  3. Don Mynack Avatar
    Don Mynack

    F Stern.

  4. Andy Freeman Avatar
    Andy Freeman

    Yup, there’s nothing like possible restrictions on boobie broadcast by media to get Jarvis riled up.
    Meanwhile, he’s still happy with restrictions on political speech by not-media.

  5. pdq332 Avatar
    pdq332

    Heck, with internet multicasting and buffering, you could have the “Jeff Jarvis” internet TV channel, all at the cost of maintaining a configuration file.
    Scary.

  6. jackson Avatar
    jackson

    Jeff,
    Did I read ‘public airwaves’. There’s no such thing. The double standard set by the FCC is appaling. Blogging is the closest thing we have to true freedom of expression, and I wonder how long before the whip comes down on us. F Don Mynack, F the FCC, I have no idea what Andy Freeman is on about, but F him too.

  7. matt Avatar
    matt

    Full speed ahead Mr. Jarvis. Full speed ahead.

  8. pdq332 Avatar
    pdq332

    The real unfairness of it is that if Viacom is going to make $$ by starting up a new reality show, “World’s Greatest Tits” or whatever, why am I enjoined from competing by the FCC with my own “JiggleTitTV” channel from my own backyard, or whatever? The public airwaves are not public because the government gives huge investment opportunities to companies like Viacom while taking them away from citizens like me.
    And I’m sorry for the examples I used in this comment. Blame Janet Jackson. (Jeez… and some people should just go rent a special movie every now and then. Pining away for Janet Jackson nipplage is just so pathetic.)

  9. button Avatar
    button

    Her breast wasn’t bare. She was wearing a pastie. This is a fraud.

  10. Mike Avatar
    Mike

    Yeah right, a breast shaped pastie with a huge sunburst nipple ring through it. Button, are you aware that there are extreme close-up photos available of her exposed tit?

  11. Andy Freeman Avatar
    Andy Freeman

    > I have no idea what Andy Freeman is on about, but F him too.
    I’m just pointing out that Jarvis’ ire is reserved for restrictions on whether MSM can show/talk about boobies. (JJ’s nipple shield cost CBS 7.3 seconds of Superbowl ad revenue.)
    Meanwhile, ordinary folk are faced with far more draconian restrictions on their political speech, restrictions that MSM advocates.
    It’s illegal for an ordinary person to spend $3k telling other folks why they should vote for Kerry. It’s perfectly legal for CBS or Stern to do the same thing. That difference doesn’t bother Jarvis, but it does demonstrate that Jarvis doesn’t mean it when he says “they’ll come for you next” – they came and he didn’t care.
    The relevant agency is the FEC.

  12. SSG B Avatar
    SSG B

    Please Mr. Jarvis, don’t restart the Daily Stern. I read Buzzmachine daily for months before you started your crusade for Stern. I stopped reading because it just became so much whining. Despite all the calls of doom-and-gloom and government mandated Ozzie and Harriet hour on primetime cable, it hasn’t happened. Despite his claims of being minutes from being censored, dragged out into the street, and shot by the FCC gestapo, Stern is still on the air.
    I listen to Stern while flipping between stations on my drive to work. My personal opinion of him is he’s not offensive. He’s also not funny, witty, informative, or entertaining in the least. I would love nothing more than for the FCC to say “Mr. Stern, we at the FCC will no longer pursue any actions against you for anything you do on air.” The moment they do that he will be gone from the airwaves because the only appeal he has is to people who like to think they’re being rebellious, or anti-establishment, or whatever.
    Anyway, have a good day, I’m done with my time on a soapbox.