[IMC-Editorial] FAN/LAWYER INTERVENES AT FCC TO KEEP HOWARD STERN ON THE AIR

[Carl E. Person]

FAN/LAWYER INTERVENES AT FCC TO KEEP HOWARD STERN ON THE AIR

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

For Further Information Please Contact 
Attorney Carl E. Person, Tel: 212-307-4444; carlpers at ix.netcom.com 

New York, NY.  "If Howard Stern is taken off the air, I feel that my first amendment rights are being violated too," lamented New York civil rights attorney Carl E. Person, as he filed papers before the Federal Communications Commission to intervene on behalf of himself and the other 18,000,000 listeners who are threatened to lose the laughmeister who has brightened their mornings for the last twenty years. 

The intervention is in two FCC fine/penalty proceedings against Clear Channel Communications and Infinity Broadcasting, which are unable to appeal from adverse FCC rulings because of the FCC's threat to take away all of their radio licenses if they contest the fines.

To Person, Howard Stern and his sidekick Robin Quivers are national treasures, and when Stern explained the FCC policy of not permitting any broadcast licensees to appeal their FCC fines under penalty of having their broadcast licenses taken away, Person decided to do something about it.  

"Clearly, this is a violation of the First Amendment and Due Process rights of Infinity Broadcasting, Clear Channel Communications, Howard Stern, myself and Stern's other 18,000,000 listeners," Person asserted, "a policy which imposes a prior restraint on the broadcasters and prevents them from having access to the courts to obtain any relief, and also appears to be a highly selective, discriminatory and arbitrary enforcement of newly-created FCC obscenity and indecency standards, for use against Stern or other targeted radio personality, to curry favor with the "religious right".

The papers Person filed with the FCC to intervene as an "interested party" claim that he as a listener has standing to assert First Amendment rights to have shows such as the Howard Stern Show available for him and the other 18,000,000 listeners, unless the federal courts hear and determine that the Howard Stern Show and all other shows meeting a properly-adopted, specified obscenity or indecency standard are barred from radio broadcasting.

Person said he finds the possibility of the Stern Show and its broadcasters, through Person's intervention, having their day in court against the FCC an intriguing one, since through discovery we might actually find out what qualifies Michael Powell to be the head of that bloated bureaucracy, how he obtained his position as head of an "independent" regulatory agency (as son of the Secretary of State, who is 4th in line to succeed President Bush) and what the 1,297 people (a number Person says he finds more objectionable than anything he has ever heard Stern say on his radio show) employed at the FCC do all day long, other than drum up reelection votes for President Bush!

"It seems we have the right to know," Person concluded, "since we taxpayers pay all of their salaries and benefits. and suffer when control of the nation's airwaves are turned over to a overzealous minority!"

A copy of Person's FCC papers are available for downloading at Person's website: www.lawmall.com/hs 

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