Another American Freedom is Smothered & Lemmings Among Us Find Cause to Celebrate Once Again
By: J. Peter Yakel
Howard Stern is off of broadcast radio as of Friday. After more than 20 years of telling America what he thinks (gathering a listener base in the tens of millions along the way, from coast to coast, and being ranked number one across his market area), the ranking man on the FM dial is off of terrestrial radio. There’s been a buzz of media attention in recent weeks related to his departure, and pending move to satellite radio – a paid subscription service offering him an unrestricted platform to voice his opinions and shtick - unencumbered by government oversight and censure.
I imagine that there’s a good bit of celebration, back slapping, handshaking and smiling going on by those who exhausted so many resources to reach this moment in time. And of course, there are the lemmings among us who have followed these misguided people, ignorantly playing into their hands, also celebrating Stern’s impending broadcast demise.
There are some among us however, myself included, who are wringing our hands in disbelief, disappointment and shock. Not so much for the loss of Stern, the disc jockey, but for the bigger loss that he represents: The loss of a citizen’s ability to express himself without fear of censure, retribution or retaliatory consequence. My disbelief and shock is due to the almost deafening silence of so many Americans – both common stock and celebrities – who have failed to speak out against this catastrophic truncation of individual freedom.
And don’t think for a minute that my defense of self expression means that I believe an individual’s words and actions have no bounds whatsoever. That’s not the case. As far as I’m concerned, there are reasonable limits for self-expession. And, no, stating this does not make me a hypocrite. We can have it both ways, and in fact, we have had it both ways since we’ve been a nation.
I’m a thoughtful, responsible adult, and have the ability to make my own reasonable choices and express my opinions for the vast majority of things that occur in my daily life. With very, very few exceptions, do I need any kind of governmental intervention to tell me what is right and wrong, what is proper or inappropriate, what is good or bad. That’s really what coexisting in society is all about - people living amongst one another, making choices about their own lives - it is not about a minority in government, or special interest groups, attempting to corral our liberties because they thinks they can better decide what is best for us than we ourselves are capable of deciding.
I see ‘the big picture’ of what is happening and I don’t like it. Neither my dad, nor millions of other Americans, fought in WWII for this kind of ideology; I didn’t serve in the military for 22 years for this outlandish ideology either.
I have friends in Iraq today, in harm’s way, doing what they can to ensure that the people of Iraq can only now begin to experience and understand the joy that is to be had with freedom of choice and freedom of expression. While our service members sacrifice to allow such freedom to take root and flourish overseas, here at home, wayward individuals and misguided followers are leading a charge to strip Americans of the basic rights to express ourselves. This is not what I teach my children.
The fact that I can express my own outrage at this abuse is the very reason why it must be protected. Unfortunately, there are those who would rather censor my opinion, simply because they don’t personally like it, condone it, find it in keeping with their own personal standards, or just believe theirs is the ‘right’ opinion, and all others must fall in line.
Fair enough that you don’t like what I, or the Howard Stern’s of the world, have to say. Express your disagreement in any number of ways that may be personally satisfying to you: change the channel, turn off the station, write a letter to the editor, tell a friend, walk away, close your eyes, close your ears. But don’t try to chisel the mortar from the foundation of our country’s greatness by irresponsibly working to censure, squelch, restrict, cut-off, or eliminate one of its citizens’ finest attributes.
Just today, I read a small Reuter’s article that detailed how Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad professed that the Holocaust was a myth, stating, “They have fabricated a legend under the name ‘Massacre of the Jews’”. The speech was broadcast live on state television.
Of course, our country condemned the comments as outrageous while Israel said this kind of inflammatory speech showed Iran’s “rogue regime” was acting outside acceptable international norms.
Why do I mention it here? Because even though I find these comments the rhetoric of a disturbed individual, this fanatical, demented expression of opinion will mostly be forgotten by tomorrow. This newsworthy article will have been unread by far too many; a buried newspaper snippet if it even makes it that far, though it was afforded every opportunity to be available, internationally, on all forms of media. And this lunatic was not censured for his wacky opinion, even if millions of people world-wide disagree with him. He was able to speak his piece.
Now, consider the vast amount of energy, attention, wasted resources and political maneuvering that has been waged against a disc jockey for years, in some twisted effort to keep him from expressing his own thoughts in ‘the land of the free’.
I am very secure in my own values and opinions, and I am unwilling to relinquish them, especially my freedom of speech and expression, for the sake of satisfying a few disillusioned individuals who have been hell-bent on targeting a top-rated disc jockey in America simply because they don’t happen to like him or what he says. The fact that something like this is occurring in America scares me considerably.
How bad has it gotten? Well, word has it that the House Judiciary Committee wants to move indecency enforcement out of the hands of the FCC and begin arresting broadcasters on criminal charges for indecency infractions. And if we consider that some radio stations, including Stern’s employer, Infinity Broadcasting, have charged that the FCC has withheld license renewals, and delayed acquisition transactions via strong-arm tactics or other coercive measures, until the broadcaster paid fines for indecency infractions that it never admitted to violating in the first place, I’d say things have gotten pretty bad.
The chill we feel is not just running through the broadcast radio industry. Many of you will recall that about one year ago, a large number of broadcast television affiliates nationwide refused to air the award-winning movie, “Saving Private Ryan” because they were afraid the film’s scenes of extreme violence and intense adult language would lead to sanctions and indecency fines from the FCC. The movie depicted historical events, complete with real life dialogue, blood, sweat and tears. I remember trying to explain to my own children about what the horror of war is like, and why it is so important that history and films of this nature need to be made, and viewed by people. What a shame that a chosen few prevented me, and countless other Americans, from making our own informed decisions as to what is best for us, and our families.
If you really believe that eroding our country’s freedom of expression is a fair trade for getting rid of Howard Stern and others like him, I truly feel anguish for what you are willing to relinquish, because what you’re giving up has more value to you, and our children, than you are willing or able to recognize.
Slowly, but surely, Liberty’s Torch is being smothered at home by the lunatic fringe, while so many others work very hard to preserve it abroad. Still, I am hopeful that more people will recognize the overarching consequence that Stern-type censure means to all of us, and speak out against it.
If none of this concerns you, I fear that you have been duped by a handful of disingenuous political architects, intent on redesigning your rights; or, like the lemmings of lore, you just don’t know any better, and are on a senseless celebratory march into the dangerous waters of censorship from which you might not return.
J. Peter Yakel is a freelance writer and author. In print since 1998, his articles on such varied topics as military science, leadership, electronics technology and genealogy have appeared in numerous print publications and websites. For more infomration, visit http://www.lulu.com/yakel