Howard Stern, Oprah Winfrey, and Indecency

Monday March 22, 2004

I've written before about the problems Howard Stern has had with the FCC - problems which all started after he began to criticized President Bush on the air. Now it turns out that arguably "indecent" material has been broadcast on the Oprah Winfrey show - material which Stern himself wasn't allowed to rebroadcast because the lawyers feared that it would lead to more fines.

The New York Post reports:

"If they fine me for this, then they got to fine Oprah - the darling of the world," Stern told listeners after trying to play a shocking excerpt of an Oprah show on teen sex. "And if they fine Oprah, all hell is gonna break loose." ... "This is Oprah Winfrey at 4 in the afternoon saying this - Oprah graphically discusses it," Stern told his K-Rock boss, Tom Chiusano. ... "Under the standards as they now exist, our answer is, do we believe that that's indecent? No, we don't," Chiusano said. "Do we believe that they [the FCC] believe it is? Yes."

There is discussion of sexual matters on just about all the afternoon talk shows - Oprah isn't any better or worse in that matter, although the context of her show may be a bit "classier" than, say, the Jerry Springer Show. Still, explicit sexual descriptions are explicit sexual descriptions, and if the FCC is gong to go after one person, they really should go after them all. Unless, of course, the other hosts aren't actively campaigning against George W. Bush, right?

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