The Poet's Eye
commentary by Lightning Rod
The Poets' Eye is skeptical without being cynical, innocent without being naive and critical without being judgemental.
The Poet's Eye--Extra! Howard Stern Talks Dirty
03-05-04
I've never listened much to Howard Stern. On the several occasions that I have listened to him, I found him to be potty mouthed but zany, irreverent and very funny. The man is not asking you to take him or anything he says seriously. He's a comedian.
Our culture needs its comedians. They are as important to us as court jesters were to kings. It is their job to say the truth in a digestible way. If you close the mouth of the comedian, you close your ears to the truth.
wise is the king
wise is the king
wise is the king
that listens to his clown
Janet Jackson's tit is the posterchild for the mood of neo-Puritanism that we see in our country. The false issues of gay marriage and indecency on the airwaves are examples of it. They are designed to take you mind off the real issues like getting raped at the gas pump and the drug counter. All the bluster about decency on the airwaves and the FCC threats and fines strikes me as slightly hypocritical in a world where you can download pictures of men and women where it is possible to see any number of internal organs and every variation on intercourse. All you have to do to see sloppy, slurpy sex in living color is to tune in to any number of cable channels. I don't find any of these things indecent or obscene but merely puzzling.
What I find obscene is not that Howard Stern makes jokes about twats and cocks and doodoo. What I find obscene and worthy of address by the FCC is that Clear Channel can own TWELVE HUNDRED radio stations in every market in the country.
The closer we get to a monolithic media the less likely we are to have the benefit of truth and comparison and perspective in viewpoint. Dictatorship can only survive when the sources of information are all controlled by the same person or group. The Soviet Empire collapsed as soon as the government lost exclusive control of the information media. When fax machines and radio and tv signals began to spill over the iron curtain, it became impossible to sell the Big Lie. Now we have the internet.
We are being sold the Big Lie right now. The Big Lie is that there is any such thing as a War on Terror. In a world where a dwindling handful of companies control access to information it becomes easier to serve unbridled propaganda.
Oh sure, Howard Stern wasn't led off to a concentration camp for his beliefs or pronouncements. In this dictatorship the jackboots have hushpuppy soles. But he was made a public symbol of what can happen if you step out of line. Clear Channel can eat the three quarter of a million dollar fine, but even Howard Stern knows that he's history. He claims that it's not for his sexual humor but for his badmouthing of the Bushies.
This is plausible because Stern has been purveying his ribaldry and bawdy humor for more than ten years and nothing has happened to him. Only his anti-Bush speech is new.
The FCC has been used before to squelch unpopular speech by sailing under the false flag of decency. During the Vietnam War Pacifica was harassed.
The Poet's Eye sees this administration continuing to turn a regulatory blind eye as one media company eats another and soon the monolith of information will be like a single eye atop a pyramid.
Wise is the King
Wise is the King
Wise is the King
That listens to his clown
lrod 03-05-04
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