Dave Eberhart, NewsMax.com
Friday, April 16, 2004

“We are in a war. It’s a cultural war,” Stern declares on HowardStern.com.

“The Republican Party used to stand for – and I supported this – less government in your life, less intervention in your life, less control of your bedroom and your private life. They no longer stand for that. [Attorney General John] Ashcroft is out of control. He’s looking to invade your bedroom. He doesn’t want you watching porno. He doesn’t want you looking at statues. He doesn’t want you watching HBO. He doesn’t want you to hear this show. It’s absolutely out of control."

“Get me off the air,” Stern challenges. “I am ready to be bigger than I’ve ever been. I’m ready to accept the responsibility.”

All this might be seen as a hollow threat, if the site’s new numbers hadn’t gone through the roof since going into attack mode. The site drew 8 million visitors in just two days last week, "huge traffic for the Internet,” according to the New York Post.

In the site’s “Take Action” segment, Stern issues a call to arms to: boycott Clear Channel concerts, kill the indecency bill, and vote President Bush out of office.

'Compare Bush to a Monkey'

In “Bush Facts,” the browser can click to “John Ashcroft Penis Face,” or “Compare Bush to a Monkey,” the latter a gallery that pairs a chimpanzee aping whatever expression is cast on the chief executive’s face.

Bridging the attempts at potty-like humor are stabs at more serious segments such as “George Bush Takes Away Your Rights," “Your Tax Dollars At Work: Ashcroft and Dept. of Justice Declare War on Porn,” “Walter Cronkite on the Lies of the Bush Administration,” “Bush Administration Resorts to Lies About 9/11,” and “Bush’s Environmental Record.”

Most articles, however, are just links to other offbeat Web publications.

'Potent Weapon'

As unimpressive as the Web site’s content is, the Post proclaimed in its recent coverage that the once-sleepy, haphazardly updated site has “been turned into a potent weapon for attacking enemies and a vehicle for saying things he can’t on his top-rated radio show.”

The newspaper noted that given the fact that Stern has an estimated 8 million listeners on 35 stations, some believe the shock jock could help defeat Bush.

“I think Stern will be a huge factor because he has tremendous credibility among millions of people who will vote, but fall into the undecided column," Talkers magazine publisher Michael Harrison told the Post.

“I think he intends to use it as a Paul Revere kind of Minuteman, get-the-message-out service,” said Inside Radio editor Tom Taylor. “Except that in this case, it’s not ‘The British are coming,’ it’s the FCC.”

“Stern can use it as a way to energize his fan base and turn them into activists,” Taylor advised. “It’s almost as if the FCC crackdown has radicalized Stern in the old '60s political sense.”

The Federal Communications Commission has cited Stern in a $495,000 indecency fine against Clear Channel.

“This is not a surprise,” Stern responded after getting the bad news. “This is a follow up to the McCarthy type ‘witch hunt’ of the administration and the activities of this group of presidential appointees in the FCC, led by ‘Colin Powell Jr.’ and his band of players.

“They and others (a senator from Kansas City to a congresswoman from New Mexico) are expressing and imposing their opinions and rights to tell us all who and what we may listen to and watch and how we should think about our lives. So this is not a surprise.”

On April 8, six stations owned by Clear Channel Communications, the nation's largest radio chain, gave Stern his pink slip.

After the announcement of the FCC's heavy fine, John Hogan, Clear Channel's president, said he felt he had no choice but to can Stern, for his show “has created a great liability for us and other broadcasters who air it.”

Hogan said he feared Clear Channel could be de-licensed if it did not get rid of Stern. The shock jock continues to be aired on stations owned by his syndicator, Infinity Broadcasting.

Editor's note: