In a message dated 2/26/2004 8:02:03 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
audities-owner@smoe.org writes:

<<And why is this a government issue?  Stripped from the underlying
agendas themselves, what is essentially the difference between asking
Congress to "stop these assholes" when the assholes are private
companies making decisions about their own corporate lives, and asking
Congress to "stop these assholes" when the assholes are gays and
lesbians who want to make decisions about their own private lives? >>

Bravo on your entire post Barry. I was becoming a little uncomfortable with 
those who were calling this a "censorship" issue--it isn't, because, like Barry 
said, a private company can do whatever it likes with its holdings. It's 
similar to the brouhaha from about 4 years ago when Dr. Laura (remember her?) got 
a syndicated television show and there was such a loud outcry that her 
defenders were claiming that some were trying to impose censorship. Not so--they were 
merely attacking the ADVERTISERS who would choose to support such a divisive 
program. It worked, and most of them pulled out (barring some ads running an 
"available only on TV!" Anne Murray comp--weird). Was it censorship? Nah, it 
was merely people saying that they were willing to put their money where their 
mouth was when they objected so strongly to a particular type of programming. 
It's money, not messages, that reigns supreme--the government has very little 
to do with this, too. In Howard Stern's case, maybe Clear Channel wants to 
avoid headaches? Maybe he's a dying brand? Stern's own bizarrely off-base argument 
that the powers that be are "afraid of what he has to say" might support that 
theory...

And likewise, is it dangerous that a few companies wield such power to 
silence the voice of a particular DJ/artist/whover that they don't like? Do you feel 
that the FCC should be focusing on the effects of media consolidation instead 
of fairly tame indecency? Uh, yeah, and THAT--not some Howard Stern 
cancellations--is what you should contact your representatives about.

<< But an awful lot of great music has come about because something struck 
some folk's innards and caused 'em to write, pick up their machines and thrash 
away *like* their heros, and friends/colleagues. >>

Total topic switch here, but this is something I've been thinking about quite 
a bit lately. I think that, for me, my favorite time/place in music was 
Britain about ten years ago, 1994/1995. Blur's "Parklife" is to this day my 
favorite album (tied with the second FOW, which I always saw as an American take on 
the same themes), and it spawned a sea of imitators who are now long forgotten. 
But going back and digging through those albums, from the likes of bands like 
Menswear and Space, I realize just how much I loved all that stuff. It's 
funny how the combined effect of lots of "minor" acts can wind up feeling sort of 
"major", at least on a personal level. --Jason