"Marc Phillips" wrote in message
...
ScottW said:

"Marc Phillips" wrote in message
...
I think it's pretty apparent that the reason why RAO has become mostly
about
politics these days is because of the very strange things that are
happening in
our country, not to mention the rest of the world. This really hit
home
this
morning when I was listening to Howard Stern on the radio. No one's
really
brought up what he's going through this week because I don't think
there
are a
lot of his listeners posting regularly on RAO, but basically about
one-tenth of
his audience weren't allowed to listen to his show today because of
FCC-imposed
suspensions. The funny thing is, Infinty Broadcasting has been
scrambling to
find out what they did wrong, and they can't get an answer.

Infinity is Stern's home. It was the Clear Channel affiliates that
pulled
Stern
(a whopping 6 channels)and it was Clear Channel that punched out
Sponge Bob (or whatever his name was). Stern is just pitching a hissy
fit in a typical Stern publicity stunt.
Clear Channel was gonna drop Stern anyway, why promote a major
competitors guy?

That may be a premature conclusion. Trust me, this is just the
beginning. You
have to realize that this is all the result of one exposed breast on TV.
Our
Puritan roots are once again revealed. And you wonder why the rest of
the
world laughs at us?

You know, once in a while I feel like we're going to far, constantly
pushing
the envelope of good taste, pushing vulgarity for vulgarity's sake.
Nowhere is
this more evident than on Stern's show...during the commercials, which
advertisers design to appeal to what they think is Stern's core audience.
They're offensive because they're shallow and crude. But Yustabe is
right when
he says that Stern's show has become mild, even boring over the years.

This is not about what Howard says or does on his show. This is an
attempt at
a clean sweep. This is the return of the Moral Majority type of wrongful
thinking.

You should hear the Mexican based stations making fun of the FCC.
One is running a curse word of the day contest.
It's pretty funny. One has commercial that flat says
"**** the FCC".
But I don't think 6 channels less of Howie is any big deal.
The SD channel is FM and normally has a music format.
I'm all for dumping Howie in favor of music.

(snip)

At the same time, "The Passion of the Christ" is breaking opening day
box
office records. For anyone who is unfamiliar with the actual content
of
this
movie, it is basically two solid hours of a man being tortured to
death.
Roger
Ebert made the very interesting observation that if that man was
anyone
other
than Jesus Christ, the film would have been rated NC-17...he calls it
the
most
violent movie he has ever seen. Other critics have gone on to say
that
sitting
through this film is tantamount to being punished for our sins, it's
that
unendurable. One woman in Wichita actually had a heart attack and
died
while
watching it, a relatively healthy woman in her fiftied who was
actually a
local
broadcaster. And yet we Americans are seeing this in droves...why?

Tell me again how this country is headed in the right direction.

Explain to me why we should judge the direction of the country
on box office returns?

This film has earned $50 million in its first two days. It will go down
probably as one of the biggest box-office hits of all time.

A marketing coup.
But even if it does. Big deal. What movie is it gonna displace?
LotRs? Star Wars? or Sound of Music?

I found it. Titanic. Kind of surprising.
http://movieweb.com/movies/box_office/alltime.php

What was the message then? I see 2 Star Wars
in the top 4 and 2 LotR's moving up in the top ten.

And it's little
more than a snuff film, with Jesus as the victim. You don't think that's
a
reflection of our society?

Only in how gullible people are for a controversy and
slick marketing.



If we judge the direction of America
based on anything Hollywood does, I think we would be sadly
mistaken. 3 Months ago we were lining up for Return of the King.
What direction were we headed then?

We wanted to be entertained. Now we want to be punished.

Maybe this weekend. Next weekend it will be
a horror flick on top of the charts. The pendulum always swings.

ScottW