So they're going to ban the Playboy Channel, Howard Stern, and probably the Comedy Network
As promised in the previous post, today's blog will discuss the issue of Censorship in Media, with specific reference to Howard Stern. And no no, the title of this post is not true, none of those will be censored out. But it got you reading about censorship which is an important issue these days.
As many of you know, or don't know, Howard Stern is the self proclaimed "King of all Media". If you've ever listened to his show, in about an hour's listening you've heard about 3 phone sex conversations, frequent discussions about orgies, beer and maybe if you're lucky 1 song. Well that's Howard for ya. Recently Howard turned off terrestrial radio because the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) in the US and the CRTC (Canadian Radio Telecommunications Commission) in Canada kept slapping him with fines for the well "non-appropriate" radio talk. He then took a 500 million dollar, 5 year deal with Sirius Satellite Radio, free from the FCC he can talk all he wants. Well apparently that's true in the US.
In Canada, where Satellite Radio just launched, and I'm very excited about as you can tell by my last post, Howard was not picked up by Sirius when his Channel launched in the United States on January 23. Leaving Canadians asking why? Well apparently the CRTC isn't too fond of Howard and since they just granted the licenses to Sirius and XM, well the Satellite Radio Companies are trying to stay on their good side. So Howard was turned off. That is until two weeks later, when on Feb. 6, for some apparent change of view, Howard was turned back on, and can now be heard on Howard 100. As well, if you go to Sirius Canada's website you won't find any reference to Howard being added to the lineup. In fact he's not even listed on the Channel lineup. The only place I can find a reference to Howard 100 is on the page instructing parents how to block certain channels from their children. That's funny. This guy is a big shot, he's added to the lineup and now they won't even promote him in Canada. This smells like censorship.
What bothers me about this whole situation is Howard is no longer on regular radio. No longer on a radio station that everyone can listen to. Now if you don't like him, you don't have to listen to him. He's on pay-satellite radio. Pay being the key word. You are paying for the service. Paying to listen to certain channels. It's no longer free and therefore shouldn't be regulated. If the Playboy channel is allowed in Canada, then why is the damn CRTC trying to regulate Howard. Sirius also needs to step up to the plate and stand up to the CRTC. This is about free speech, freedom of expression and they have no right to step into a pay service and tell them what their listeners can and cannot listen to on their channels. Because censorship is the one of the most dangerous things that can happen in a free society and we as Canadians cannot let that happen.
As many of you know, or don't know, Howard Stern is the self proclaimed "King of all Media". If you've ever listened to his show, in about an hour's listening you've heard about 3 phone sex conversations, frequent discussions about orgies, beer and maybe if you're lucky 1 song. Well that's Howard for ya. Recently Howard turned off terrestrial radio because the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) in the US and the CRTC (Canadian Radio Telecommunications Commission) in Canada kept slapping him with fines for the well "non-appropriate" radio talk. He then took a 500 million dollar, 5 year deal with Sirius Satellite Radio, free from the FCC he can talk all he wants. Well apparently that's true in the US.
In Canada, where Satellite Radio just launched, and I'm very excited about as you can tell by my last post, Howard was not picked up by Sirius when his Channel launched in the United States on January 23. Leaving Canadians asking why? Well apparently the CRTC isn't too fond of Howard and since they just granted the licenses to Sirius and XM, well the Satellite Radio Companies are trying to stay on their good side. So Howard was turned off. That is until two weeks later, when on Feb. 6, for some apparent change of view, Howard was turned back on, and can now be heard on Howard 100. As well, if you go to Sirius Canada's website you won't find any reference to Howard being added to the lineup. In fact he's not even listed on the Channel lineup. The only place I can find a reference to Howard 100 is on the page instructing parents how to block certain channels from their children. That's funny. This guy is a big shot, he's added to the lineup and now they won't even promote him in Canada. This smells like censorship.
What bothers me about this whole situation is Howard is no longer on regular radio. No longer on a radio station that everyone can listen to. Now if you don't like him, you don't have to listen to him. He's on pay-satellite radio. Pay being the key word. You are paying for the service. Paying to listen to certain channels. It's no longer free and therefore shouldn't be regulated. If the Playboy channel is allowed in Canada, then why is the damn CRTC trying to regulate Howard. Sirius also needs to step up to the plate and stand up to the CRTC. This is about free speech, freedom of expression and they have no right to step into a pay service and tell them what their listeners can and cannot listen to on their channels. Because censorship is the one of the most dangerous things that can happen in a free society and we as Canadians cannot let that happen.