So I recently started listening to Don & Mike. For those of you from Washington, I know you may be wondering “Where has he BEEN?” Remember, I’m from nor-eastern Maryland and we didn’t get D&M until 105.7 started carrying them out of Baltimore. If you’ve been listening to talk radio at all, then you’ll probably know that the FCC cracked down on Viacom/Infinity radio stations after the Janet Jackson incident. D&M/Stern/The Junkies all were affected. No bad language, no sexual humor, pretty much back to the 60s.
Not that this is bad, but I’m kinda torn. Don & Mike were hilarious, but I couldn’t listen to them with my kid in the car. Now my kid can listen (kinda), but they aren’t as funny anymore.
My question is this: do we want (and need) the FCC (or government) to be the cops here? It seems that every generation has pushed the limit a little further than the one before. Now Bush wants to be the one who “restores” the morals to society?
Regardless of whether you condone same-sex marriages, that’s a religous choice. What possibly does it have to do with givernment? Bush is playing to his conservation base by pushing this amendment. Who is he (or the government) to say if that’s right or wrong. Murder, theft, rape, these all have clearly defined victims. Gay marriage & Janet Jackson’s breast, who’s the victim here? I can raise my kid to have the morals I believe in, I don’t need George Bush to tell me what they should be.
My $.02 Weed
UPDATE by matthew: There’s a sequel to this by Justin, and yet another update on the topic in October 2004 by Sammy G.
Breasts
My opinion on breasts:
I like them. They are important. They’re the first thing nearly every human being on the planet sees. I mean, within a few scant hours after you’re born, and all you’ve seen up until then is this fuzzy white blur all around you with occasional facing popping in and out, when you get hungry, you’re introduced. “Hello, there, newborn, this is an aereola, and this is a nipple.” And you learn to like it, because it’s your source of food and comfort.
I just don’t see why that’s such a big deal.
Now, when it comes to denigrating material on the airwaves, I’m of a slightly different mind. I didn’t even know “Don & Mike” were still around… they were yakking it up on WAVA back before that station went away. I haven’t really formed an opinion yet. That said, though, I think any medium that tolerated the rhetoric of Rush Limbaugh and Dr. Laura should be fairly tolerant of other extremes.
I guess it’s kind of like the Internet. I think parents should be the ones filtering the ‘net for their kids — not the government. I think parents should teach them where to go, and lead by example. And when kids inevitably stumble across something we’d rather they not see, we sit down and calmly explain to them what they just saw, and why we’d prefer they avoid it.
I guess, if the FCC is doing this “for the children”, the cat’s already out of the bag. If there actually is some kind of crackdown happening in the wake of a single nipple showing up on national television, well, that’s just stupid.
—
Matthew P. Barnson
the thing is…
The thing is this. Unlike many other government agencies, the FCC is actually serving as a proxy for the general public. The airwaves are owned by the public, they belong to us. The FCC has been placed in trust of maintaining those airwaves. So it follows that their job is also to maintain them in a way that offends as little of the public as possible. Free speech is not encroached per se because the public owned airwaves are not the only medium available for speech, just the only publicly owned one. I’m not for censorship but I’m totally convinced the FCC is within their charter to do what they do. It’s a far cry better than government owned airwaves where the public interest is ignored for the sake of spreading government propoganda.
Lost part of my last comment…
I, unfortunately, clicked “submit” when I intended to click “preview”, and then when I went back and edited my comment, my edits were lost.
What I had been saying is that I think it’s one of those fuzzy gray areas. I mean, there are obvious extremes that everybody knows are “wrong”: if all that is on the radio is government-funded feel-good propaganda, well, that’s wrong. On the flip side, if our kids turn on channel 2 and see hard-core pornography or extreme violence, well, that’s wrong, too. It takes a lot less intelligence and dexterity for my kids to turn on the television than for them to accidentally navigate to a questionable Internet site.
So I basically agree with Paul: it is a public trust, that must serve the interests and needs of the widest possible audience, without offending the majority of Americans. There’s a point at which you can’t prevent offense (witness talk radio — every time I hear Michael Reagan my skin just crawls with anger), but there are some basic standards we should expect.
On the other hand, I don’t think nudity per se is a big deal. Or, on talk radio, discussing nudity. My attitude makes sense, if you understand that my dad was a nudist for years 🙂
However, kids before the age of puberty naturally have little interest in sexual matters, and premature exposure to sex, as far as I’m concerned, is unhealthy. No prepubescent child should even think of associating the mouth with anything but food or perhaps kisses. Any association of a mouth with sexual organs, prior to puberty, is almost always indicative of sexual abuse. There’s more than enough time for kids to get obsessed with sex when they are teenagers that I don’t want my 3-year-old who just flipped on the tube to get an early start in that direction.
I think an overreaction to put the kibosh on all provocative speech on the air is excessive, and yet keeping the “seven words you can’t say on the radio” off the air is fine by me.
I guess the real question is, is it censorship to prevent someone from saying something in a public-trust medium (airwaves, basically)? If it is, does this abrogate freedom of speech? If not, why not? If it does abrogate free speech, what alternative format would someone use to reach an equivalent audience with their speech?
These kinds of questions make my head hurt.
—
Matthew P. Barnson
Dad…
Matt, a LOT more things make sense about you if one understands that your dad was a nudist. It’s all begining to make sense now.
DOn and Mike
I am also a listener.. and I am mad for them. I haven’t listened this week, but I wonder what they must be going through. I wouldn’t be surprised if they (or those like them) will be moving to XM, and then I might get it.. and XM becomes like the new Cable.. where you can finally get stuff on the radio you couldn’t before.
Don & Mike…
I listen to them and alot of other talk radio that has “Shock Jocks”. Elliot in the morning is on DC101 in this area, and they have been funny since the whole crack down has happened. I am curious to see how temporary the crack down is, meaning how quickly they start to look the other way.
On another note, WAVA is still around, it is a christian rock station now.
There Are Breasts In Europe
I remember the first time I turned on the public TV airwaves in Europe. Middle of the afternoon. Naked lady in the shower doing a soap commercial.
Personally, I was appalled. I immediately called the Office of the President of the Eurpoean Union and demanded that they ban all naked people from appearing on TV in the event that us more-cultured and civilized people visiting from the U.S. would run the risk of exposing our children to such irresponsible shots of blatant nudity. Then, on the streets of Denmark, later that evening, we saw a poster claiming “Free Drugs”. Another disgusting display of public broadcasting, especially considering that the U.S. has a much higher life expectancy and literacy rate and per capita GPD, and…oh wait, no we don’t. Finally, I saw a newspaper ad where promoters were using sexual allure as the primary ad tool. I thought we might boycott the entire continent because it’s obvious that such decadence, for the past 2,000 years, has reduced Europe to a barbarian society.
How come we’re the most uptight super-power in the world?
— Sammy G
About D&M
FYI — this isn’t the first time D&M have been in trouble with the FCC. Right after Ben won their national theme-song contest, I think D&M got pulled from several stations and had contract renegotiation troubles because of their on-air antics. It’s been an ongoing battle between D&M and Infinity.
Also, I’m reading Howard Stern just got yanked in six markets.
— Sammy G
Don and Mike
I agree completly the FCC should Leave radio alone however i do believe don and mike are still funny as hell