Stern on XM/Sirius Merger: "I Will Never Vote For A Democrat Again"

[Hugabear]

http://www.businessandmedia.org/articles/2008/20080724152511.aspx

<snip>
Sirius Satellite Radio host Howard Stern supports the merger of his network with XM Satelitte Radio and is fuming at Democratic opposition on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) panel.

After FCC commissioners announced they have reached a deal to approve the merger of Sirius (NASDAQ:SIRI) and XM (NASDAQ:XMSR), Stern ranted about Democrats’ ‘gangsterism’ and ‘communism’ and the obstacles to the merger.

Stern described a phone conversation he had with his agent, who he described as a “liberal Democrat kind of guy.”

“I go, ‘That’s it!’” Stern said. “ go, ‘You know what Don, I’ve voted Republican and I’ve voted Democrat. I have vowed I will never vote for a Democrat again. I don’t give a – no matter who they are. I don’t care if God becomes a Democrat.’ I said, ‘I backed Hillary Clinton, I backed Al Gore, I backed John Kerry. I am done with them.’”
<snip>



Excuse me, Mr. Stern - there's someone knocking at your door. It's your 15 minutes, he says to tell you that it's been a real pleasure, but he has to get going on.

Sorry, but fuck Howard.

[Pale Blue Dot]

1. Wow. That really changes my opinion of Howard Stern.

I thought he was a liberal "man of the people."

:sarcasm:

[NMDemDist2]

2. Stern is know for his hyperbole

he'll get over it

[onehandle]

9. Yep. He's 99% hyperbole. nt

[Renew Deal]

3. Howard is right on the issue

The merger should have been approved ages ago. A big part of the problem is Democrats trying to add all kinds of bullshit binders to the agreement.

[Pale Blue Dot]

10. So the only 2 satallite radio stations SHOULD merge?

Our economy is in deep shit at least partly because a few companies have developed monopoly power. I strongly disagree that this merger should go through at all, let alone unchecked.

[Renew Deal]

11. Yes they should merge.

They are not competing against each other. They are competing the rest of the entertainment world. Right now they are both losing money. They have a chance if they merge. Do you want to lose thousands of jobs and an alternative media? I sure don't.

[Selatius]

12. They are competing against traditional censored radio, not against each other.

The advantage of satellite radio is that you can listen to what you wish. With traditional radio, the stuff you might want to listen to might be banned. A good example is the Dixie Chicks, which have largely been banned by country radio stations across the land for criticizing the president.

[MannyGoldstein]

13. So Should We Only Have One Airline?

Because airlines compete with cars for travel?

[Selatius]

16. Airlines and cars don't compete in trans-national travel. That's absurd.

You OK with Amtrak being only one passenger rail company?

[MannyGoldstein]

18. The Amtrak Question Is Exactly My Point

We should have multiple satellite radio vendors just as we should have multiple passenger rail companies.

[Selatius]

19. Funny, I would think Amtrak would do worse if broken apart.

There are entire sections of this country serviced by Amtrak that wouldn't be if broken apart. Imagine if you broke up Amtrak into five regional conglomerates. I guarantee you the Midwest conglomerate would fail due to low ridership, and then the Midwest would be without any service at all, which would be worse than the current situation.

My point is if you keep both satellite companies separate, they will both continue to lose money, and eventually, I can see people being forced back to old-fashioned censored radio because both companies went out of business, and that would be a loss in terms of encouraging more viewpoints on any radio talkshow.

[Gabi Hayes]

20. those are the only two there ever will be, and without the merger, there

will be none, cause they're both hemorrhaging money, which is the whole point of the NAB-funded delaying tactics

they're hoping both companies bleed out before they can close the deal and link up

[karynnj]

24. Amtrack is highly regulated and in fact subsidized by the government

[karynnj]

23. What stops the ONE company from getting management that bans the Dixie Chicks?

[Selatius]

27. Tell me, did HBO ban the Dixie Chicks/George Carlin/etc because they disagreed with their message?

Satellite radio operates on a similar principle to HBO or any premium cable channel. I don't remember hearing any of them banning Sicko from going on air. You realize that with a pay-for-service business model, they are dependent on keeping their customers happy? With old-fashioned radio, they are not directly dependent on their listeners for revenue, so management had the discretion to ban the Dixie Chicks.

[karynnj]

28. HBO has competition - you could buy Showtime or cinimax

and likely others. The point is that if there is one and only one company they have the potential of abusing that situation.

[Selatius]

29. What if there was strict regulation? The whole merger is likely to go through anyway.

Because there apparently were several regulatory requirements imposed on the merger before it was OKed, which would explain why the merger took so long to negotiate. That would be a better outcome than all satellite radio stations (there are only 2) going out of business. Then you have no service at all.

And in truth, there is only HBO and the Movie Channel. Cinemax is owned by HBO as well, and both are owned by Time Warner.

[karynnj]

22. As they are eliminating competition, regulation makes sense

It worked well for decades for AT&T before divestiture. Interesting fact is that regulation was suggested by Vail the then President of AT&T as a solution to letting them be a natural monopoly.

[readmoreoften]

4. Oh he'll change his mind. He has to, there really isn't much of a choice.

[mucifer]

5. howard stern only cares about howard stern

[HughMoran]

6. "Stern ranted "

blah, blah, fucking blah.

[Monk06]

7. Howard Stern's greatest love and object of devotion is and always has been himself.

His greed and limitless ego has made him very
rich. He should just disappear now and leave
us in peace.

[Name removed]

8. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. 
[link:www.democraticunderground.com/forums/rules.html|Click
here] to review the message board rules.

[MannyGoldstein]

14. Has Been

Used to be very, very funny in the mid 1980s. Now... not so much.

[Joanne98]

15. Whatever!

[donco6]

25. I second that. Never cared what he thought anyway. eom

[LynneSin]

17. Well the guy supported Kerry and Gore and that didn't work out

Perhaps it's a good thing he's supporting McCain

:shrug:

I haven't been interested in the Stern show since he announced he was leaving free radio.

Perhaps Sirius wouldn't be losing money if they hadn't blown so much of it on his contract because clearly Stern has not paid off the way they hoped he would.

And I find no need for Satellite radio. I have an Ipod, does the same thing for me.

[cprompt]

26. are you for real?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sirius_Satellite_Radio

stern has more than paid out for sirius. an ipod requires pre-loading the content and sticking to just that content nothing more. i find no need for an ipod compared to sirius. stern has supported the democratic agenda for YEARS, but this time it's the dems who have it wrong, follow the money from the NAB and watch the voting trends. Educate yourself on the topic before you post something stupid. This has everything to do with lobbyists and nothing to do with the good of the people.

[LynneSin]

31. Sorry - this is Howard Stern. In a nutshell none of us really care

and I'd rather have my Ipod over an Satellite radio because ultimately I can control what I want to listen to intead of have the choice made for me.

[doc03]

21. Who cares? Stern is an asshole. n/t

[Sewsojm]

30. Yep,

I never could understand why anyone listened to him, I'm surprise Faux News hasn't hired his sorry ass.

[Blarch]

32. He is a single issue voter.

His issue is is pocket book ...PERIOD.

He doesn't give a fuck what happens to the rest of us.