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Janet and Justin can try to spin this any way they want to, but I have never seen a bra rip so perfectly before. You are entitled to your opinion, but mine is her little boob shot was premeditated, plain and simple. And now everyone has just gone plain nuts.

It’s bad enough it even happened at all. I mean, it was not shocking to me at all. It was sad. Janet has real talent. She can sing, she can dance. She didn’t need to do it. Now I just feel sorry for her. But, as outraged as everyone supposedly is, we didn’t need our government to step in and go nuts. I honestly believe that a quick scolding from the NFL, MTV, and CBS would have been enough. The industry would have policed itself and the government could deal with more important things. Remember, we are still fighting every day in Iraq. How can Janet’s wardrobe malfunction possibly be more important than that?

So the FCC gets involved and is now determined, under the guidance of our president, to make sure that we only see what we are meant to see from now on. Well, I don’t know about you, but more government in my life is not something I am lying awake at night hoping for.

Which brings me to today’s issue I have: ClearChannel Communications. You see, they pulled Howard Stern off all of their stations because one of his callers used the “N” word. There are a couple things wrong with this picture; Howard’s show is on a 75 second delay I believe, and I know I have heard that word in songs on the radio many, many times. Hey, the word offends me. I don’t like it so I don’t use it. So why didn’t the censor catch it and bleep it out? Maybe because it is OK to use the word according to the existing FCC rules. But, it ends up, that it is not OK according to the new zero tolerance policy at ClearChannel. So they pulled Howard off of their 6 stations that carry his show. I think it is a suspension. Maybe it is temporary, maybe it is permanent.

But here’s the thing – I don’t really care if you love Howard Stern or hate him. Doesn’t phase me one way or the other. But I don’t want the government doing the censoring for me. I am perfectly capable of turning off the radio or the TV when I find something offensive. I bet you know how to do that as well. But wait, you say, the government had nothing to do with this, it was ClearChannel. You can believe that if you want, but I choose to believe that they did this based on pressure from the FCC, which is part of our government.

This is only the beginning folks. Howard getting pulled from my local Pittsburgh station is one thing. Now toss in trying to make abortions illegal. Now add a little ban on gay marriage. Now recommend lowering the pay-out on Social Security. Ban this. Ban that. Trying to force a sterilization of America will have the opposite effect. People will not tolerate it. I know I won’t. And there is only one way to get these people to pay attention to our needs. Vote. If you don’t vote you have no one to blame but yourself.

So I am having my own ban. I have banned all ClearChannel stations and shows from my wallet. And believe me, in Pittsburgh, that is tough to do. They own 6 radio stations here, including my favorite one, WDVE. That will hurt because I really like the guys in the morning and Scott Paulsen at night. I can at least catch a little of Scott’s stuff on his web site. Plus, ClearChannel sponsors just about every show that comes to town, so that means I will miss a lot of live music as well. That’s a real shame. Glad I have an iPod and have been discovering new music via the Internet. It’s actually refreshing. Plus, I already found MP3 files of Howards show that I listen to on the iPod daily on the way to / from work and while walking on the treadmill.

In the end, will my little one-man ban on all things ClearChannel matter? Probably not, because I’m just one guy. And what can one guy do, right? I guess we’ll see how this one plays out.

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