For whatever it's worth, I'm on ABC Radio News tonight!

[calimary]

A pal I used to work with called me up to do a phone interview with a "retired journalist and media analyst" on the whole Howard Stern Goes To The Woodshed Again flap with Clear Channel.

What a hoot!

They'll be using cuts of me in various newscasts, I guess, for the next 12 hours or so...

I started out by saying that my first impression was to start laughing hysterically by Clear Channel suddenly "getting religion" when their stations were helping to push all the anger and discord against people at the peace rallies last year, AND the Dixie Chicks. My other initial reaction, I said, was - "Howard, for heaven's sakes, WHERE'S your delay button?!?!?!?"

Cool 'eh?

[barbaraann]

1. Congratulations!

I hope it goes well and you have fun. :toast:

[calimary]

3. I had a great time! They rolled tape for about 4 minutes.

I'm pretty sure they got several cuts out of it. Then, they called me back a few minutes later and said they were all discussing in the newsroom how to refer to me. (!) And we had another good laugh!

It was the usual trolling for react. This time I'm the one who came around on the guitar.

[jbm]

2. cool!

I'll listen for you!

[calimary]

4. Thanks! Got a little bit of the liberal perspective.

Basically everybody's got their knickers in a knot right now because of the big stories in the news - the gay marriage amendment and the uproar over Mel Gibson's "Passion" movie. So it's all-morality-all-the-time. This time, brought to you by Clear Channel. But it's not the first time Howard's been given a good spanking.

[TacticalPeek]

5. suddenly "getting religion"

With the endless amount of refuse that floats down the media river, it's usually perplexing to me when something is suddenly focused on for the "no-no" reaction.

Congrats on the time.
:toast:

[calimary]

6. What REALLY happened, I think, is pretty much all sidebar stuff.

You have this Prissy crap starting in the media now, what with the same-sex marriage debate and the hoo-hah over the Mel Gibson movie, close on the heels of the Janet-and-Justin show at the Super Bowl, and now, Howard Stern. Plus, the FCC's still got ants in its pants left over from the huge public outcry over its further media deregulation. So everybody's self-conscious about it, just on general principles.

So, rather than keep beating a dead horse (the gay marriage stuff is So Yesterday) and looking for react, fifteen generations down, they can keep the general media issues on the front burner thanks to Howard. He's this day's flavor. And, by default, so was I.

Besides, they called from NYC where it was about 11pm, and they were probably hurting for fresh sound for the overnight shift, and my friend who's a fill-in anchor there happened to be on duty, and evidently suggested calling me on the West Coast where it's still relatively early. Just another way to work the story, with some fresh soundbites. Probably with all the shelf-life of your average thread here in the GD forum...

Oh yeah, and the Clear Channel guy, John Hogan I think is his name, is scheduled to testify tomorrow. Probably wanted to march in there looking like a guy in charge, who's "done something" about all the smut out there.