Stern Is Not Only Loser in ‘Indecency’ Battle

It’s easy to write off Howard Stern as just another vulgar guy thrown off the air by the forces of good taste (“Radio Chain Boots Stern Off Stations,” April 9). But he may be an unlikely canary in a coal mine, when it comes to free speech, that even his detractors should be concerned with.

The draconian new fines that Congress has given the Federal Communications Commission to punish those deemed to be indecent are a not-so-clever end run around the 1st Amendment’s admonition that the federal government should make no law abridging the right of free speech. A half-million-dollar hammer is an intimidating one. And threatening to harm individuals economically or otherwise for expressing themselves is no different from taping their mouths shut.

Limits to freedom cut both ways -- sometimes with disastrous results. When it comes to free speech and on-the-air content, conservatives should be true to their supposed principles. Not least of which is: Let the marketplace decide.

Christopher Grove

Eagle Rock