Censorship for fun and profit: Boston talk show host gets bleeped for Sirius / XM mention

There's no telling where in the command chain this came from, but Boston talk show host Howie Carr got censored yesterday afternoon for uttering those nastiest of words: Sirius and XM. He was reading off yesterday's news about the DoJ's approval of the merger when his producer blanked out his mention of the two companies involved. Howie's station, WRKO, is owned by Entercom, a major competitor of Clear Channel -- who of course has its own opinions on censorship.

[Via Orbitcast]

[phanbouy @ Mar 25th 2008 2:12PM]

Die, Clearchannel, Die!

[DSeaver @ Mar 25th 2008 2:15PM]

Die, Clearchannel, Die == The, Clearchannel, The??

[Nathan @ Mar 25th 2008 2:36PM]

Well no one who speaks German can be bad.

[DSeaver @ Mar 25th 2008 2:45PM]

Obviously you all missed the classic Simpsons reference when Sideshow Bob was on trial and said that his tattoo of "Die, Bart, Die" meant "The, Bart, The"

[DSeaver @ Mar 25th 2008 2:45PM]

Everyone but Nathan.

[artifex @ Mar 25th 2008 2:51PM]

We didn't miss it, it was just unfunny.

[Jim @ Mar 25th 2008 3:46PM]

Nathan's comment was also on that episode. It was what one of the parole board members said after Sideshow Bob explained the German meaning of his tattoo.

And, in other news, I watch way too much Simpsons.

[Alex @ Mar 25th 2008 4:58PM]

@ DSeaver:
I don't know the exact German translation, but it's something like this hopefully:
Storbe Clearchannel!, storbe!

I know that 'Mein Springmaus ist gestorben' means 'My gerbil died'.

[PS @ Mar 25th 2008 5:55PM]

@alex

Reverse engineering doesn't really work with languages. ;)

[Chris @ Mar 25th 2008 11:15PM]

@ ErikLindemann: Wow, way to not know what trolling is.

[dsfsdfdsf @ Mar 26th 2008 6:53AM]

@Alex: Stirb Clearchannel, stirb!

[ErikLindemann @ Mar 25th 2008 2:39PM]

@ DSeaver: Wow, way to troll.

[Khris @ Mar 25th 2008 2:15PM]

Now even reporting the news is considered bad! When will people realize that the more they try to censor things, the more rampant it will become!

[Skinz @ Mar 25th 2008 2:23PM]

The more they censor, the more people will move to XM/Sirius..... I did.

[artifex @ Mar 25th 2008 2:53PM]

Me, too, to XM some time ago -- and I block the ClearChannel stations, too :)

[John @ Mar 25th 2008 2:58PM]

ooooh, how do I do that?

[mrhammerstein @ Mar 25th 2008 3:18PM]

this is just one of the many reasons i switched. you may think it's ridiculous to pay for radio, but it's unfiltered and you have many more choices to decide from.

i'm just sick of all the crap radio regulations. Jane Fonda can say the "C" word on tv, but you can't say XM or Sirius on the radio. that makes since.

[GreezyG @ Mar 25th 2008 2:23PM]

This just goes to show how terrified terrestrial radio is of pay radio. For the most part I stopped listening to local radio years ago. I hated all the commercials mainly. Just like the internet has all but killed some newspapers, pay radio will really put the hurt on terrestrial.

[phanbouy @ Mar 25th 2008 2:26PM]

I agree. OTA radio is unbearable. Absolute bottom of the barrel trash. Noise pollution. Mental pollution. 'course the fact that Clearchannel owns most of the airwaves has helped exacerbate this. Status quo sucks.

[Chris @ Mar 25th 2008 5:14PM]

+1 for Kaba Modern/JabbaWockeeZ reference.

[Toadlet @ Mar 25th 2008 2:25PM]

Oh, that's just *-ed up. What the * is this country coming to when someone can't even read the *-ing news without some *-amn company re-interpreting the first amendment for us?? I swear, censorship has gone too *-ing far this time! And where the * did all these stars come from???

But seriously, folks - I disagree with what they did.

[Shane @ Mar 25th 2008 2:28PM]

Two words....Public Radio. Give the low end of the FM dial a try some time.

[John @ Mar 25th 2008 2:31PM]

So true. It's the only thing worth listening to on FM these days.

That said, I canceled my Sirius subscriptions a while back, and haven't really missed it either.

[Jesse S @ Mar 25th 2008 3:59PM]

NPR has three channels on Sirius. :)

[zkam @ Mar 25th 2008 6:03PM]

You won't hear Howie Carr (or anyone like him) on Public Radio

[Shane @ Mar 25th 2008 7:33PM]

Why would you want to?

[Ian @ Mar 25th 2008 2:35PM]

wow thats just going to far.. all this censoring needs to stop.

[NHAnimator @ Mar 25th 2008 2:36PM]

Uh, has anyone actually listened to Howie Carr? If so, you CANNOT be taking this seriously.

[FrankTheCrank @ Mar 25th 2008 4:15PM]

Howie Carr is a douchebag.

Your typical right leaning, windbad old white guy...crying about how the left is killing this country and wahhhh wahhhh wahhhh...The whole time, he's been on the radio making a killing getting syndicated all over.

Life's so unfair, isn't it Howie?

It's guys like Howie who would love to see all the lefty's marched off to some concentration camp and turned into lampshades.

[Doug @ Mar 25th 2008 2:38PM]

Huh... I didn't know we were living in the USSR. For some reason I thought this was the USA.

[phanbouy @ Mar 25th 2008 2:44PM]

iiiiiiiii thought it was the UK!

[Miranda Kali @ Mar 25th 2008 2:38PM]

The litany of tortures that befit these asshats would take days to recite.
Of all the excuses given for censorship, of all the times where people with the best of intentions failed in ethical judgement. Of the times when those with violence and hate in their minds sought to silence ideas other their own...Has there been an example of such abject pettiness, such small minded greed.
The executives at Entercom have forfeit the right to air anything that can be called news. At best, they air nothing more than a lengthly commercial with occasional (and dubious) fact.

[rock99rock @ Mar 25th 2008 2:38PM]

Radio Schmadio. Mobile TV FTW!

[Matt @ Mar 25th 2008 4:11PM]

Please let me know when you're driving so I can stay off the road.

[rock99rock @ Mar 25th 2008 5:06PM]

Im driving right now...

[TVGenius @ Mar 25th 2008 2:38PM]

Don't forget ClearChannel has a financial interest in (I won't say OWNED, because that implies control over) part of XM, but that's expected to end in June.

This stuff isn't new. The owner of Pappas Telecasting once issued an edict that his stations were to block any ads for XM or Sirius, even if they were national spots.

[The Dude @ Mar 25th 2008 2:39PM]

What a stupid decision.

If anything, it'll pique people's interest to find out whose names they bleeped and then people will take note of the event. Most people would probably have just passively heard the news, but if I didn't already know and I heard bleepage...I know damn well I would be hitting up a news site to find out. This may not be true of everybody's nature but one must admit that censorship tends to draw attention to matters that might otherwise go ignored.

MORANS.

[billmao @ Mar 25th 2008 2:42PM]

I live in Boston and I dont think anyone listens to WRKO anyway :P

[Bob S. @ Mar 25th 2008 2:46PM]

It's bad, but geez, it's more funny. It isn't like when CBS affiliate WHNT in Alabama had "technical difficulties" for the exact length of time that "60 Minutes" was broadcasting an expose of how Karl Rove had engineered the imprisonment of the state's former Democratic governor, Don Siegelman, though. *That's* censorship.

[nerrrrrrd @ Mar 25th 2008 2:52PM]

they did the same thing to Stern on regular radio to the point that they would refer to Sirius as "Eh-eh-eh".

Haven't listen to FM for a year cept for traffic reports.

[PGP-Protector @ Mar 25th 2008 2:59PM]

This might get ranked low but.

This wasn't "Censorship" as most people think of it (Being most people will think of Government Censorship ),but a case of Corporate censorship, and this form is Legal.

And the corporations don't own the Government.... Yet.

[phanbouy @ Mar 25th 2008 3:09PM]

by that logic anything transmitted by a corporation that's censored isn't censorship. does not compute. so that leaves us with..what.. PBS? thank baby jeebus for the interwebz

[Chris @ Mar 25th 2008 4:21PM]

phanboy - You missed the point. You wouldn't want me walking into you house if I were to call your mother nasty names, would you? No, you would probably (attempt to) kick my ass, and otherwise censor me.

The radio station has a vested interest in not providing free advertising for their competitors. They don't have to broadcast anything that they believe threatens their business. In that respect I have sympathy for logic behind their decision.

I think what makes this stupid is the idea that running a news story about it would actually drive away listeners. And what makes it even more stupid is what some others have already pointed out. The censorship itself will likely drive people away.

PGP-Protector is exactly right. There is a major difference between censorship imposed by the government and one imposed by a company. I can't run through the halls of my office yelling the f-word without getting fired, but I can run down the street doing it without fear of prosecution.

[happy_penguin @ Mar 25th 2008 10:20PM]

PGP is right. It's their airwaves and they can broadcast what they choose. Although they may reserve the right, actually exercising that right isn't necessarily a good idea.

[John @ Mar 25th 2008 3:01PM]

I switched when i realized my entire commute, 10 minutes, was lawyer ads and car dealers. I'll never go back.

Of course, the first time I hear an advertisement I'm back to my ipod.

[dahood12 @ Mar 25th 2008 3:05PM]

Send all terrestrial stations to satelite, include recievers in all new stereos, cars etc. That way we can have more wireless signal bandwidth. I will then use my enhanced internet connection to watch TV, listen to radio, play WOW, and download any *legal* videos. Don't forget uploading to YouTube and flickr. Hopefully the freed up signals will allow for OTA HD streaming from the interweb! FTW!

[dahood12 @ Mar 25th 2008 3:08PM]

Besides those towers are just itching to have WiMax installed on them...

[Kyle @ Mar 25th 2008 4:18PM]

shame WiMax starts a whole new issue, considering they are saying that WiMax causes interference on satellite communications.

[Josh L @ Mar 25th 2008 3:12PM]

Are you guys sure this was "censorship" and not just a gag / jab at ClearChannel?

[Dude @ Mar 25th 2008 3:46PM]

I think that's what it was. Just a jab a CC and XM/Sirius. Put down the torches.

Man, I'd hate to see Engadget comments on the Kimmel Show's "This Week in Unnecessary Censorship" bit.