Politics a la Stern

For four weeks Howard Stern has been sounding like Lenny Bruce crossed with James Carville.

The sexually obsessed talk-show host, who reaches between 8 million and 9 million people a week, has been regularly interrupting the off-color juvenility of his show to rail against President Bush and urge listeners to vote for -- and send money to -- rival candidate Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.). Stern, who supported Bush effusively for his response to Sept. 11, including the invasion of Iraq, now dismisses the president as a tool of the religious right.

Sterns’ fans have listened to his marriage crumble. They’ve listened to his tales about visiting a psychiatrist. They’ve listened to him fall in love again. They’ve listened to him savor last night’s lap dances and paddle the naked bottoms of beautiful women to the beat of rock songs. And now they’re listening to him mock Bush as a draft dodger and a president of low intelligence. These daily diatribes fly seamlessly in and out of wacky, tasteless contests or interviews. Friday, Stern put as much energy into condemning Vice President Dick Cheney’s congressional voting record and youthful drunk-driving arrests as he did into belittling Courtney Love’s bizarre on-stage disrobing.

Bush, a onetime problem drinker who gave up alcohol, and Cheney are “out-of-control men who need Jesus to keep them in line,” Stern said pugnaciously. “You know what, man? The Republicans are owned by the right. It’s time to reject them summarily. Let’s start with Bush. We’re taking the biggest guy out first. Him and Cheney.”

Stern has always been an angry man on the air, but his war -- despite frequent Federal Communications Commission sanctions -- was often an unfocused rant against hypocrisy. Ever since Clear Channel, which ran his show on six of its stations, canceled Stern on Feb. 23, contending he did not meet corporate standards, he has channeled his anger into hardball politics. His show is still heard on three dozen stations, including KLSX-FM (97.1) in L.A. Stern says he had begun blasting Bush days before and that Clear Channel was acting in the name of pro-Republican politics, not decency. (Clear Channel says Stern allowed a guest to utter a racial slur and will resume broadcasting his show when “we are assured that his show will conform to acceptable standards of responsible broadcasting.”)

Stern also has long reveled in his ability to move his listeners. He endorsed two Republican gubernatorial candidates (Christine Todd Whitman in New Jersey, who reciprocated by naming a highway rest stop after him, and George Pataki in New York) and two presidential candidates (Democrats Bill Clinton, twice, and Al Gore.) He once gave some on-air thought to running for governor of New York as a Libertarian. On Friday morning he boasted: “My fans are energizing, 18-to-25[-year-old] white males who sometimes vote, sometimes don’t. They just need a cause and their cause is me.... They’re the only people that you can swing.... We, the Million Moron March, we will vote against Bush.”

Just how much difference Stern can make is questionable. Of 10 states with close races between Bush and Al Gore in 2000, Stern is not on the air in five: Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, New Hampshire and New Mexico. He has a strong presence in only two of the 10 states, Ohio and Nevada; in one of the most crucial states -- Florida -- he is now heard only in Fort Meyers. Clear Channel removed him from its Miami and Orlando stations, which means that angry Stern fans may rise politically in those cities or -- no longer able to hear the show and his call to arms -- make little difference.

Stern has vowed to quit radio if a bill to raise FCC fines for indecency is approved. (The House earlier this month passed the Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act; a similar bill is moving through the Senate.) Skeptics note that Stern has made the same kind of threat dozens of times in past, often in response to the way his flagship station, WXRK-FM in New York, bleeps out extreme sexual content.

“My head wants to explode with everything I’m angry about,” Stern said about an hour into Friday’s 6-to-11 a.m. broadcast. “Then I get nervous I’m talking too much politics. I know what you guys want....”

And with that he introduced a snippet of sound by a champion gas-emitter, set to a sports anthem.

Then it was back to politics.

“Jimmy Kimmel made the best point of all,” Stern said. “I’ll be interested if this gets on [the air]. It’s from the Oprah show.”

He played a short bit of audio from Kimmel’s Thursday night ABC network talk show, in which Kimmel showed an explicit sexual conversation on Oprah Winfrey’s TV show. A guest used a euphemism for an oral sex act that was quickly translated for a titillated audience.

Kimmel noted that earlier Thursday, the FCC had proposed fining Infinity Broadcasting, which syndicates Stern, the maximum $27,500 for a Stern show broadcast on WKRK-FM in Detroit three years ago. (The FCC received a complaint from a Detroit listener about a show that featured discussions about sexual techniques.)

Will the FCC go after Winfrey, “the filthiest broadcaster on American television?” Kimmel asked jokingly.

But, as Stern had predicted, his own audience didn’t hear the definition of the euphemism; the censor at WXRK bleeped it as too graphic.

Stern began hectoring station general manager Tom Chiusano: “You bleeped it? But it was on Oprah!”

There’s a double standard that is prejudiced against you, Chiusano responded.

Stern begged Chiusano to let him play the snippet again, uncensored. His reasoning was that the FCC would never risk the backlash of fining Winfrey’s show. (“Let them fine Oprah, the most successful black woman in this country.”) So it would either have to lay off him in this case or risk appearing hypocritical. “Let me play it now.”

Chiusano left to consult with a station attorney, saying he’d be back in 10 minutes. Stern took phone calls. A guy name Mike, from Pittsburgh, one of the cities where Clear Channel booted Stern’s show, called to say he was a registered Republican who would vote for Kerry. Stern began a litany of sins allegedly committed by Cheney -- his votes on the environment, abortion. “He hides his gay daughter!

The talk turned to whether Stern would actually campaign for Kerry. Would he give a speech? “If we do it at [fabled New York strip club] Scores, I’ll do it,” Stern said. That led to him and his producer, Gary Dell’Abate, discussing when to throw a party at Scores’ new club on the West Side of Manhattan. Gradually they returned to censorship. Stern told his listeners he was going to post a transcript of the Winfrey discussion on his website, saying they should copy it and send it as a letter of protest to the FCC.

Chiusano reentered the studio. The lawyer says don’t play it uncensored, he said.

“Let’s make a stand!” Stern protested. “Tom, I’m a soldier.” (Stern’s sound effects engineer began playing the “Star-Spangled Banner.”) “I’m on the front line. This is our last chance.... This is our Battle of the Bulge.”

No, Chiusano repeated.

“Mel [Karmazin, president of Viacom Inc., which owns Infinity Broadcasting] agrees with me!” Stern said. “He wants to jump off a cliff with us.”

But Stern lost. And there was nothing left to do but continue to assail the president. (“You think Courtney Love is nuts? The president’s 50 times crazier!”) and to bring in the next guest: a man who believed he could answer more trivia questions than the sound effects engineer, Fred Norris, and had brought along an 18-year-old stripper who promised to take all her clothes off if the guy lost. He lost. She walked out from behind a curtain nude. For a few moments, it was just like the old days.

“More fun and games on Monday,” Stern said as the show ended, but he was talking about the upcoming action in Washington to raise FCC fines, not about strippers.

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

The targets of FCC fines

Howard Stern has vowed to quit radio if Congress approves a bill to drastically raise FCC fines for indecency -- and Stern is no stranger to the concept of fines. The FCC has proposed almost

$4 million in fines for indecency since 1990. According to statistics compiled by the Center for Public Integrity, five radio shows were responsible for $3.47 million, or 87% of that total. Look who’s at the top of the list

*--* Show Employer Proposed fines 1. “Howard Stern” Infinity Broadcasting Corp. $1,991,750 2. “Bubba the Love Clear Channel $753,000 Sponge” Communications Corp. 3. “Opie and Anthony Infinity Broadcasting Corp. $378,500 Show” 4. “Elliott in the Clear Channel $302,500 Morning Show” Communications Corp. 5. “Mancow’s Morning Emmis Communications Corp. $42,000 Madhouse”

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Source: The Center for Public Integrity

Los Angeles Times