Friday, May 16, 2008

I'm With Dolly (and Jim Carnegie)


Howard, is your satellite audience so small these days that you've gotten desperate?

Free speech is a powerful element of what makes our society as productive and dynamic as it is, but stupid uses of it like this one by Howard Stern make all broadcasters vulnerable to calls for a return to the Fairness Doctrine. Character assassination of a wonderful person is a terrible abuse of free speech. If we want to preserve our rights, we need to use them responsibly, I'd say.
Country icon Dolly Parton is said to be weighing lawsuit to former radio icon and current Sirius yakmeister Howard Stern. Stern and his crew broadcast edited audio of Parton in such a way as to make her sound like a foul-mouthed racist. According to the Associated Press, a 1990 audio autobiography was used to come up with the doctored rant, which played while Stern and cast laughed and made comments as if it was a genuine audio clip.

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