It started (lately) with the suspension and subsequent firing of Don Imus for jokingly snarking that the players on a women's basketball team were "nappy headed hoes". Now, this isn't something you'd go ahead a say a normal situation, but on a comedy show this type of comment shouldn't be any surprise. (Unless, of course, you’re Al Sharpton and you need to get your face in the news again. I don’t want to get started on how funny it is that people look at him as a leader.) I find it frustrating that CBS radio paid Imus to do an off-the-cuff comedy show, and then doesn't even have the balls to stand up for him against a hypocritical, vocal minority. Since then, other radio talk show hosts have befallen the same fate from spineless management that won’t stand up for the talent that they hire.
A couple years ago I subscribed to XM Satellite radio because they hired a radio duo from New York that I used to listen to before they got fired for a dumb radio stunt. Opie and Anthony are horrible people. Their show is at times racist, offensive, and disgusting. And it makes me laugh; it's my own guilty pleasure. XM was a great platform from them because they were free from the increasingly oppressive FCC rules and oversensitive program directors.
A couple weeks ago Opie and Anthony had a homeless guy on their radio show (there's a story behind that, but it's not worth getting into). While on the show, the homeless guy said some offensive things about having sex with Laura Bush and Condoleeza Rice. The following day at the start of their show, the radio hosts read an apology for comments made on their show.
Last week, the duo was suspended from the XM satellite radio show for 30 days. This is shocking on a number of levels for me. For one thing, they didn't say anything. Ultimately, they're responsible for what's broadcast on their show, but this was tame compared to any number of other things that are said on their show on a daily basis. This kind of censorship was exactly what fans of the show were hoping would be missing on XM. It's why a lot of us put up the money for XM (and even used to pay extra for their show when it was on a "premium" channel).
Did I miss something about the freedom of speech that we enjoy in this country? Do we also have the right to not be offended? I thought sticks and stones could break my bones, but words wouldn’t hurt me. I've got an idea: If you find a show offensive, how about you turn the channel and not listen?
My 2 XM accounts have been cancelled for at least the next month and a lot of other fans are doing the same. XM is offering people 30/60/90 day credits so that they'll keep their subscriptions active. (XM's yearly investor's meeting is coming up and they'd rather not have thousands of lost subscriptions to explain.)
IMHO free speech doesn't mean a lack of consumer censorship and sometimes that censorship takes place at the level of CEO's pulling programming that loses them advertising dollars from advertisers who are reacting (or overreacting) to consumer irritation. You are engaging in the same tactics by pulling your dollars and ultimately whomever has the most dollars to yank or throw will win. That's free market not censorship to me. If there are enough dollars wanting those two, they will get back on the air (or the podcast or whatever). I happen to disagree with what mainstream america freaks out about but ultimately it is there right to freak out and use their spending clout to bully companies. Once legislation steps in (see MPAA and FCC) this is where I think the line has been crossed into censorship.
ReplyDeleteWhether the people who hire two offensive guys to do a show are showing a lack of balls or are flip-flopping when they make the offensive guys apologize is completely another manner.
I agree that the free market can decide. Money talks. However, the people who are complaining about this crap are not the market that's listening to the show. Maybe they pay for the service and don't like feeling like their money is in any way going towards something they don't agree with. In the case of Imus (where the listeners aren't paying), I'd be willing to bet that maybe only a handful of actual listeners were emotionally scarred for life by his comments. I would also be willing to bet that the vast majority of people who complained never even heard the segment of the show in context.
ReplyDeleteI'm bothered by the fact that entertainment companies like CBS and XM hire people specifically to do an edgy show, and then back down when someone has a problem with it. Hey, dummies, you're paying them to do exactly what they're doing. They should get a raise if they're doing their job that well or at the very least the management should take responsibility for some of their own actions.
Agreed - they want the edgy show but not the fallout so they cut the show loose when it comes raining down. Wussy.
ReplyDeleteI think this hits it on the head. Whereas CBS and free radio is governed by the FCC and paid for by advertisers, the subscription radio services such as XM and Sirius are run on both ends - advertisers as well as subscribers. In the end, which will provide more income, and which group is complaining?
ReplyDeleteSince there is no such thing as bad publicity, I'd think the advertisers love this "debacle" as it might tune more people into Opie and Anthony - especially those that have never heard of them before and have XM. I highly doubt that there are enough subscribers that complained about those comments that actually listened to the entire broadcast. but then again I'm making an assumption, where I could be wrong.