NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #31/NN_1992_31.iso/spool/alt/fan/howards/2811

Internet Message Format | 1992-12-22 | 5.5 KB

Path: sparky!uunet!olivea!spool.mu.edu!uwm.edu!psuvax1!rutgers!igor.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!watrous
From: [e-mail] (Don Watrous)
Newsgroups: alt.fan.howard-stern
Subject: Sexist - Howard Stern
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 22 Dec 92 04:27:24 GMT
References: <[e-mail]>  <[e-mail]>  <[e-mail]>  <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]>
Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.
Lines: 111

Found this in soc.college,alt.usage.english.  Why it was there, I
don't know.  Thought it might be more appreciated here.

Don

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FCC to Levy Stiff Fine Over Stern; Agency Seeks $600,000 From
THREE STATIONS<BY PAUL FARHI

 The company that employs radio personality Howard Stern will be
fined $600,000 by the federal government today for allegedly in-
decent comments made by Stern on his radio program, sources said
yesterday.

 The fine against Infinity Broadcasting Corp. of New York would
be by far the largest ever levied by the Federal Communications
Commission for so-called indecent broadcasts, and appears likely
to escalate a growing political battle over government efforts to
control the content of broadcast speech.

 Stern, the brash, shaggy-haired "shock jock" who styles himself
"the King of All Media," has been at the center of the FCC's bat-
tle against indecency on the airwaves. In October, the FCC im-
posed a $105,000 fine on the owner of a Los Angeles radio sta-
tion, KLSX-FM, that aired 12 Stern programs last year that the
commission deemed indecent. That fine, which is still on appeal,
was the largest handed out to that point.

 The penalty to be announced today - which has been the subject
of reports since November - covers those same 12 programs, which
were carried on three Infinity-owned stations, WXRK-FM in New
York, WYSP-FM in Philadelphia and WJFK-FM in Washington.

Infinity is expected to appeal the FCC action.  After several
weeks of intense debate, the FCC decided to set the huge fine
against Infinity because of what a commission source described as
"a repeated pattern" of violations of the indecency rule. The FCC
fined Infinity $6,000 last year for a 1988 Stern broadcast on the
same three stations  about a Christmas party featuring a man
playing the piano with his sex organ. Stern also was warned by
the government in 1987 about one of his programs, but no fines
were levied.

 "You have to ask, at what point are (Infinity and Stern) simply
thumbing their noses at the FCC and the Congress (which ordered
the FCC to enact its indecency rule) with this kind of repeated
pattern of behavior," said one person close to the five-member
commission's deliberations.

 Stern, who has repeatedly attacked the FCC on his program, has
drawn the commission's attention because of humorous sketches
and commentary that make explicit references to genitals,
homosexuals, and masturbation and other sexual activity. Infinity
reportedly issued an apology to FCC Chairman Alfred C.  Sikes
after Stern, angered by the action against KLSX, said recently on
the air that he hoped Sikes's prostate cancer would spread and
that the other FCC commissioners would die in a car accident.

 The Stern case was the subject of such heightened attention -
and internal debate - at the FCC that staff members half-jokingly
suggested prosecuting Stern for threatening a federal official.

 Large as it is, the penalty against Stern could have been worse.
Sikes reportedly favored taking stronger action against Infinity,
including holding up FCC approval of Infinity's pending $100 mil-
lion purchase of three radio stations owned by Cook Inlet Radio
Partners. But the commission ultimately decided that it did not
have sufficient grounds to delay transfer of the stations to In-
finity, which already owns 18 stations.

 Sikes is expected to issue a dissent from today's commission ac-
tion claiming  it does not go far enough.

 In recent weeks, the Stern case has taken on additional politi-
cal baggage. Sen. Jesse Helms, (R-N.C.) who sponsored congres-
sional efforts to impose a decency  standard  on the FCC, had in-
formally objected to Infinity's purchase of the Cook stations be-
cause of Stern, although he withdrew his letter of objection last
month after learning that Stern's program would not be carried on
the three stations.

 Meanwhile, Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) pressed the FCC to ap-
prove the license transfers; Cook Inlet, based in Anchorage, is
owned by Alaskan native people. And last week Sen. Alfonse
D'Amato (R-N.Y.)



went to bat for the New York-based Stern, arguing in a letter to
the FCC that Stern's on-air commentary is protected by the First
Amendment.

 Yesterday, the American Civil Liberties Union weighed in, cal-
ling on the incoming Clinton administration to support Stern's
free-speech rights.

 "Howard Stern's rude social commentary and scatological humor
are well within traditional First Amendment protection ... and
are hardly likely to harm children, who so frequently engage in
similar humor themselves," the ACLU's Southern California office
said.

 The FCC defines indecent material as "language that describes in
terms patently offensive as measured by contemporary community
standards ... sexual or excretory activities or organs." It is
designed to protect children from indecent material. Material de-
fined as indecent is not illegal; it simply may not be aired
BETWEEN THE HOURS OF 6 A.M. AND MIDNIGHT.
--
{backbone}!cs.rutgers.edu!watrous        [e-mail]