It’s hard to imagine two stranger bedfellows: Howard Stern and John Kerry.
And it was Janet Jackson that arranged it.
Only in America ………
Howard Stern is no shrinking violet about any topic. But after Janet Jackson’s “wardrobe malfunction” the FCC started cracking down on what they considered “indecent” media. Of course, Howard Stern, the self-proclaimed “King of All Media” jumped into their gun sights.
Stern has been taken off the air of numerous Clear Channel stations for fear of the enormous fines he could generate in mere minutes. This is probably a good business move but the result has been surprising.
Stern has turned his show usually filled with college frat boy humor into one of the highest rated anti-Bush shows on radio. In fact, Stern’s ratings have gone UP since his censorship by Clear Channel.
By all indications, Stern’s message is getting through. Since the FCC crackdown, his ratings have been going up. For example, Arbitron says he’s now No. 1 in Los Angeles in the 25-to-54 age group, a spot he last occupied in 1995. And among entertainer Web sites, his was rated second (behind Oprah’s) in mid-April.
Wait a minute, if the 25 – 54 age group could be rallied to vote, they could easily push a close election to Kerry.
What’s more, although Stern’s approximately 8.5 million listeners are often dismissed as overgrown frat boys, they might more accurately be called swing voters. They are overwhelmingly white and male, many are well educated and well off, and they vote. And millions of them listen to Stern’s show in battleground states — Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio, Missouri, Tennessee, Florida — where the election will be decided.
Think this is far fetched? Consider this….
Some might dismiss this as bluster, but Stern’s words should send a shiver up Karl Rove’s spine. Stern has a record of successful election-year activism; political observers in New York and New Jersey remember how his on-air endorsements delivered key votes to George Pataki and Christine Todd Whitman in past gubernatorial races.
So there it is, Stern’s track record of energizing a demographic is very real and potentially very dangerous for the incumbent.
And all of this was started by Janet Jackson’s breast…..now if she could actually sing …….
4 responses so far ↓
1 Nat Dawson // May 3, 2004 at 7:16 pm
How pathetic is this. Jean Francois Kerrie is such a stultifying B-O-R-E that he has to hope a a low-rent, tasteless porno jock will give him an endorsement.
Poor Bob. He thinks celebrity endorsements count when poll after poll shows that, when people get in the voting booth, they vote their own preference regardless of what some Hollywood hypocrite tells them to do.
Desparate, Bob?
2 Mark // May 4, 2004 at 6:13 am
It’s no surprise that a neocon such as Nat would mention polls. The Shrub residency is probably the most poll-driven administration in our history. Earlier this year, Shrub announced a mission to the planet Mars. Sounds like a major initiative. When polls showed that most Americans thought this was not a wise course, especially in light of the record deficits caused by Shrub’s give-aways to his friends — he completly leaves it out of his State of the Union address, which came less than one week after the big announcement. The mission to Mars went from being a major initiative to something not worthy of a mention in the span of less than a week — all because of polls.
Polls are also showing Shrub and Kerry neck and neck after a $60 million dollar attack ad barrage that said nothing positive about Shrub and tried to attack Kerry’s patriotism (the complete absence of morality among Shrub’s crew is matched only by their outrageous hypocrisy and their unmitigated gall).
Polls also show Shrub’s approval rating with the American people is at an ALL-TIME LOW!!!
Neocons like polls. No wonder they’re so depressed these days!
3 ToiletStud // May 13, 2004 at 6:39 pm
Howard Stern will not get people to vote for Kerry if he continues to call George Bush an “animal.”
4 Goattail // May 14, 2004 at 4:30 pm
Kerry is a Sagitarrius that’s related to the Ascendant generally gives a “horsey” appearance with a long, thin face and big-toothed smile.
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