{"id":22035,"date":"2004-06-17T01:01:01","date_gmt":"2011-05-19T07:05:40","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2021-03-11T12:21:13","modified_gmt":"2021-03-11T17:21:13","slug":"political_speech_not_indecency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2004\/06\/17\/political_speech_not_indecency\/","title":{"rendered":"Political Speech, Not Indecency"},"content":{"rendered":"

RUSH: Teddy in Brooklyn. Hello, sir. Welcome to the program.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Hey, Rush, how you doing?<\/p>\n

RUSH: Fine.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Reagan National dittos.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Thank you, sir.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Hey, I wanted to talk a little bit about the situation with Howard and with you and how I think there is somewhat of a similarity there. I hope you bear with me for a second. The fact of the matter is that what\u2019s happening is the bigger picture is the government is sticking its nose into something they shouldn\u2019t be sticking its nose into. With Howard they\u2019re saying hey, he\u2019s indecent, you know, we don\u2019t want indecency on the air, let\u2019s get rid of him or let\u2019s fine him. With you it\u2019s fairness, you see the little buzz terms they use with that? They use that to get people on their side, “He\u2019s got to be more fair. If he\u2019s not more fair, then, you know, we should sanction him.” And while, you know, with this administration it\u2019s not that bad for you, but God forbid Kerry gets elected. God forbid we lose control of the Congress or Senate. I could just see senators getting up there and saying, “Rush Limbaugh has to be more fair. If he\u2019s not more fair, then we\u2019re going to have to sanction him. He\u2019s got to have a liberal cohost.” You know? And I think the similarity there is somewhat relative, because of the situation —<\/p>\n

RUSH: Maybe. Look, I understand the way you\u2019re thinking about this because you think government is involved in this thing to get Stern, and I want to try to explain the difference to you. You\u2019re going to think it\u2019s a technicality, but I want to try to explain the difference to you.<\/p>\n

The difference is in the First Amendment and what you\u2019re going to define as censorship versus decency. I think the first thing I want to try to explain to you is the purpose of indecency. I want to draw for you an analogy. Everybody talks about the public airwaves and the public airwaves is said to mean that, [doing liberal impression] “Well, the reason why we\u2019re concerned of what\u2019s on the public airwaves, as opposed to cable, or satellite, is that the public owns them.” Well, that\u2019s poppycock. I don\u2019t know about you, but I\u2019ve never gotten paid for my investment in the public airwaves. I don\u2019t know what the hell I own. I don\u2019t know how you own something you can\u2019t see and touch.<\/p>\n

\"\"That\u2019s not what it means. Let\u2019s take the public airwaves of the public broadcast spectrum, radio and television, over-the-air broadcasts and let\u2019s pretend for a moment that it\u2019s, say, a shopping mall, and let\u2019s say, Teddy, that you have your two little kids, five and six years old, walking through a shopping mall. And all of a sudden over the loudspeakers of the shopping mall as they try to urge you to go into one store or another, some guy starts talking about some things that you don\u2019t want your kids to here, sexual things that you don\u2019t want them to hear. You would have the right, and you would be found and upheld, your complaint would be upheld to whatever action you took to get that stopped, because this is a public place, and you do not have to hear that in a public place.<\/p>\n

Or if some individual went walking through with a megaphone or just with his voice and started shouting at people offensive things, it\u2019s not in the mall\u2019s best interests to let this happen because it\u2019s going to drive people out but you don\u2019t have to listen to it. That\u2019s the analogy to draw to what the purpose, the original purpose of the decency standards on over-the-air public spectrum broadcasting were about. Because at the time that\u2019s all there was. And I know there\u2019s an on-off switch and I know that there\u2019s a tuning dial, but back then there wasn\u2019t all that much choice. I mean you get the radio stations in your hometown and at night you get distant programs and signals but that was about it. There wasn\u2019t any cable or satellite. And so maybe they need to be updated, and maybe they need to be revised. But the point still exists, and the rules are there, and what\u2019s happened is you\u2019ve got an FCC now that simply is deciding they\u2019re going to enforce them. They\u2019ve not written new ones they\u2019re just going to enforce them. And they\u2019re acting on public complaints, they are acting on public complaints just as you would be complaining if what I described happened to you in the mall. And, now, you may say to the people complaining, well, hey, grow up and stop being fuddy-duddies, don\u2019t have the radio on to that station when your kids are in the car.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s enough foreknowledge now about what goes on in various radio programs, and if you don\u2019t want your kids to hear it, don\u2019t listen to it yourself when they\u2019re with you. But until such maturity hits or whatever, those standards are there, and they are there for that reason, and if there are complaints about this from enough people then the commission is going to act on it. The commission was not unanimous in this. Clear Channel only carried Stern on six markets and they decided we didn\u2019t want this anymore, and so they broomed him. And they still got fined! It\u2019s not as though they\u2019ve preempted the fine. They got fined near $2 million.<\/p>\n

They made the move to get rid of Howard before that but they still got fined because that\u2019s the law, and three fines and you lose your license. You get fined three times and you lose your license, three times in a single period. The license lasts ten or 15 years. You get fined three times in that period of time, you are subject to having the FCC take your license to operate away from you. Stern\u2019s syndicates don\u2019t have licenses. They own stations that carry a show that do, but the syndicate doesn\u2019t have a license. There\u2019s nothing they can do to take, you know, the ability of Stern to operate away. All they can do is fine the people that choose to carry the programming that the syndicate or Stern offered. Same thing with me.<\/p>\n

Now, in my case, you talk about fairness. There is such thing as a Fairness Doctrine and that\u2019s really, I think, in part what is in a back door way being attempted — they\u2019re attempting to revive with this idiocy here with Tom Harkin amending a defense bill to get me off of Armed Forces Radio. But the difference here, the difference here is that nobody is saying to Howard Stern, “You can\u2019t say that and we\u2019re going to take you off the air.” What they\u2019re saying is, “If you\u2019re going to carry that we\u2019re going to fine you because you\u2019re violating decency standards.” In my case we\u2019re not violating any decency standards, and I am exhibiting what this country was founded on, enumerated in the First Amendment, freedom of speech, and it was particularly about political speech. And Congress shall make no law abridging freedom of speech.<\/p>\n

Now, what\u2019s free speech? Well, you open up another door there. Then you have to go profanity, free speech, is that what was meant? We\u2019ve had Supreme Court decisions and arguments about this all over the place. You go back to the mall analogy and find out what\u2019s free speech or not. The problem is in many cases that a lot of people have created a business now of being offended, and being offended gives them power to stop people saying things that offends them. And I\u2019ve told you my theory about being offended. If you\u2019re offended, it\u2019s your problem, do something about it.<\/p>\n

\"\"You don\u2019t have the right to shut up whoever is offending you, just because they\u2019re offending you, unless it violates these decency standards and so forth. But political speech was specifically protected for the health and survival of the country because it was politics and political ideas that formed the foundation and maintained the foundation with which we manage our affairs in this country. And to compare controversial political speech or ideas with indecency doesn\u2019t wash. The two are in no way similar, never will be, and won\u2019t be.<\/p>\n

Now, the idea that a United States senator can amend a piece of legislation as large as the defense appropriations bill aimed at effectively seeing to it that people cannot hear this radio program is censorship, as defined by the word. It is pure censorship because only the government can do it. Now, whether I\u2019m in the same boat with other people, you can judge that as you will. But the difference is, let\u2019s just mention Stern. If Stern wanted to deal with his problem, he could. He could clean up his act. There\u2019s nothing I can do. I am who I am. I talk about political issues here, and I have my commitments and my principles and my core beliefs. And it is those commitments and principles and core beliefs that are being challenged because people fear them. Because people disagree with then. Not because they\u2019re in indecent, not because they\u2019re offensive and not because they violate any public code of moral conduct. The same can\u2019t be said of those who are violating the decency standards.<\/p>\n

So I overall reject this comparison and I don\u2019t think that there\u2019s any similarity whatsoever. There\u2019s nothing I can do to fix this other than to fight for my First Amendment right, and I\u2019m going to as I\u2019m doing now, and I\u2019m going to alert people to what is happening. And, again, I want to stress that the reason it\u2019s happening is because not only do they have to take out Bush, for some reason they think they have to take me out, and it means that they don\u2019t think they can beat me in the arena of ideas. It means that they can\u2019t compete with what I say. It means they can\u2019t compete with the opinions I have and the way I express them and the way I persuade people. So since they can\u2019t beat me in the arena of ideas, it\u2019s time to try to silence me. It\u2019s not the first time this has happened by any stretch of the imagination, but it is the first time that the United States government has gotten involved in it, and that violates the First Amendment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RUSH: Teddy in Brooklyn. Hello, sir. Welcome to the program. CALLER: Hey, Rush, how you doing? RUSH: Fine. CALLER: Reagan National dittos. RUSH: Thank you, sir. CALLER: Hey, I wanted to talk a little bit about the situation with Howard and with you and how I think there is somewhat of a similarity there. 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