Issues@Hand
AFA initiatives, Christian activism, news briefs
June 1999 – Radio shock jock Howard Stern outraged people in Colorado and across the nation when he joked about the massacre at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, a Denver suburb. In that tragedy, 12 students and one teacher were shot to death when two classmates went on a violent rampage with guns and explosives. The two killers then committed suicide.
On the air the day after the killings, Stern jested about why the killers didn’t sexually assault a few girls before committing suicide, and said that if it had been him, he would have done so. Stern’s daily radio show is carried in Denver on KXPK-FM.
Stern was immediately condemned in Denver. In the Denver Rocky Mountain News, editors said, “Either we are serious about showing respect for the dead and their families or we aren’t. Either we care about the quality of our culture or we don’t. Let Howard Stern make his millions in other broadcast markets. He does not belong in Denver.” The editorial called for KXPK to cancel Stern’s show.
The Denver Post, in a similar editorial, also called on KXPK to drop Stern, as did the Colorado legislature. Both houses in that state passed a measure which formally censured Stern and demanded that he publicly apologize to Columbine High School.
Elsewhere KTWB-TV in Seattle, an affiliate of the WB network, pulled Stern’s TV show off the air because of his comments. Wade Brewer, vice president and general manager of KTWB, said, “Personally, I was shocked and offended by his remarks. Our sensitivities lie with our viewers and the families and friends of the victims.”
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As the outrage against Stern spread, some advertisers began to flee Stern’s sinking ship. Even some of the most stubborn sponsors of Stern’s radio program seemed to have reached their limit.
Geico Direct Insurance was the first major advertiser to abandon Stern, followed by online bookseller Amazon.com and then beverage company Snapple. All pulled off the show because of Stern’s comments.
Other national sponsors, however, appeared to be content to ride out the storm. Mitsubishi, Priceline.com, Dial-A-Mattress, and Bumble Bee Tuna made no public move to disassociate their products from Howard Stern.
Meanwhile, the attention of some critics was focused on the company that bears the most responsibility for Howard Stern – the CBS Corporation. In a column for the Boston Globe, for example, John Ellis laid the blame at the company’s feet, calling Stern “a de facto employee of CBS.”
That assessment is true for both television and radio versions of Stern’s show. Eyemark Entertainment, the syndication arm of CBS, brought Stern to Saturday late-night television. And the shock jock’s daily five-hour radio broadcast is produced by Infinity Broadcasting, of which CBS owns 82%; and Stern is syndicated by CBS Radio.
Ellis complained that no one from CBS seemed to have a public statement about Stern’s comments – not CBS President and CEO Mel Karmazin, not CBS Entertainment Group President Leslie Moonves, not a single member of the CBS board of directors. The answer for that silence, in Ellis’ mind, was that Stern is “a money machine for the network.” 
Action numbers
• Mitsubishi 714-372-6000
• Priceline.com 203-595-0101
• Dial-A-Mattress 800-628-8737
• Bumble Bee Tuna 619-715-4000
• CBS Corporation 212-975-4616
