BlogWood: MT Archives

Give Stern a chance

Roger Ebert compares and contrasts Howard Stern and Rush Limbaugh:

It is a belief of mine about the movies, that what makes them good or bad isn't what they're about, but how they're about them. The point is not the subject but the form and purpose of its expression. A listener to Stern will find that he expresses humanistic values, that he opposes hypocrisy, that he talks honestly about what a great many Americans do indeed think and say and do. A Limbaugh listener, on the other hand, might not have guessed from campaigns to throw the book at drug addicts that he was addicted to drugs and required an employee to buy them on the street.

But listen carefully. I support Limbaugh's right to be on the radio. I feel it is fully equal to Stern's. I find it strange that so many Americans describe themselves as patriotic when their values are anti-democratic and totalitarian. We are all familiar with Voltaire's great cry: ''I may disagree with what you say, but I shall defend, to the death, your right to say it.'' Ideas like his helped form the emerging American republic. Today, the Federal Communications Commission operates under an alternative slogan: ''Since a minority that is very important to this administration disagrees with what you say, shut up.''

Lately, Stern ha really turned against W and his cronies. He has pledged to register thousands of his listeners and encourage them to vote Democrat. He is gleefully exposing W’s lies and hypocrisies and he can energize a lot of people who have been apolitical or Republican leaning to get out and vote this November. His fan base is loyal, and if they see him as being under attack, they will turn out en-masse to support him and send our current pResident back to his stage-set ranch.

Of course, even if none of this were true, we would still be obligated to follow Voltaire’s pledge for both Howard and Rush.