VA: Now That XM Radio is Being Censored, It is Not Worth Paying For
May 16th, 2007
(14 votes, average: 4.14 out of 5)
Loading ...I have been a XM subscriber for close to 3 years now.
I canceled my subscription today.
The suspension/termination of radio shock jocks Opie and Anthony sealed the deal for me. I […]
Original post: Now That XM Radio is Being Censored, It is Not Worth Paying For
“Also, who doesn’t fantasize about raping Condoleeza Rice?”
I love how she said that twice. I know I have.
Hmmm.
I’m an Asian and I find jokes about Asian accents really irritating.
Especially when they have some dude on TV offering someone ‘flied lice’.
If anyone said that to my face, I’d probably deck them. With lots of pleasure.
It’s easy to see the joke when you’re not the minority in question, but trust me, when it’s your culture being trivialised and belittled, it ain’t so funny and “what’s the big deal?” anymore.
You know, when you walk into a store and the saleslady is a condescending bitch to you? And you can walk out and think “I am so above that” and have a laugh with your friends but there’s still a part of you that was unnerved by the experience?
That’s what it’s like when you have see people on TV or hear people on radio making ‘funny’, disparaging remarks about your culture.
But I suppose that’s a hard thing to understand unless you’re there.
“Racist and Sexist programming? What the fuck does that even mean? ”
I don’t think it means what you think it means. I don’t think it means “programming people to be racist”
instead it just means, tv and radio programming. Aka “we interrupt this program to bring you the following announcement…” So, racist and sexist programming would simply be, shows and entertainment with racist or sexist content.
Give me a break. Whining about private individuals not paying someone anymore because they said something that upset other people, who cares. The 1st amendment protects people from the gov’t, not from the consequences of pissing our employers, the people that place the ads, or anyone else off…
“It’s easy to see the joke when you’re not the minority in question, but trust me, when it’s your culture being trivialised and belittled, it ain’t so funny and “what’s the big deal?” anymore.”
It still continues to be funny and be no big deal. Dave Chappelle’s portrayal of the white stereotype is hilarious. It’s no big deal to me, and I’m white. Imagine that!
But maybe it helps that most “white folk” jokes are jokes in themselves. “KHAKIS BASEBALL HOTDOG LOL” will never get old.
I don’t think it’s so much of censorship as it is XM trying to look like a good member of the corporate community while the fate of the XM-Sirius merger is in the hands of the government.
I’ve had XM for about 4 years now so I gave the whole situation a little thought on my way to work this morning.
XM is a publicly traded company, which means when the board for XM makes a decision, they make that decision to make the shareholders money. XM had to know they were going to piss off customers by pulling O&A, they had to know they were going to lose customers over it.
Their rationale probably centered around the fact that the shareholders would make more money if the merger goes through and it would be worth losing those few customers that cancel their subscription, as opposed to keeping those customers but blowing the merger.
I agree that it sucks, but it has nothing to do with our First Amendment right to free speech, but everything to do with how XM perceives the decision makers in the government.
“I don’t think it’s so much of censorship as it is XM trying to look like a good member of the corporate community while the fate of the XM-Sirius merger is in the hands of the government.”
I’m sure that’s a part of it, but telling someone they can’t say something is censorship, no matter what their internal motivations are. And frankly, as a consumer, I don’t particularly care WHY they did it. It all affects me the same.
I canceled as well and I really wasn’t a huge fan. I don’t want to pay for censored radio. I can get that for free. Talk (or sports) was the only reason to subscribe to XM in the first place. I have an Ipod for music.
Leela, the point isn’t whether you are offended or not by something said to you, it’s who gets to decide what is offensive. If you get offended by a comedian making a joke at your expense you can simply not attend his show or buy his CDs. If you manage to get what he said banned then where does it stop? NYC has banned a word, eventually another word will be deemed offensive and banned. Everytime it happens it will set a precedent for another word.
The scary part is, it will happen so slowly that no one will notice. It’s not just speech either; where I live there have been numerous bans put in place. Smoking in a public places, idling your car for more than 3 minutes, lawn pesticides, lawn darts, etc… Each ban normally has the support of the public but it sets a pattern for further bans, each one taking away a bit of your freedom.
Wow, doesn’t that sound all dark.
“I’m sure that’s a part of it, but telling someone they can’t say something is censorship, no matter what their internal motivations are. And frankly, as a consumer, I don’t particularly care WHY they did it. It all affects me the same.”
The station isn’t telling anyone they can’t say something. The station’s saying they’re not going to pay people to say something, and those people can’t use the station’s resources to say it.
“If you get offended by a comedian making a joke at your expense you can simply not attend his show or buy his CDs. If you manage to get what he said banned then where does it stop?”
So in this case, who’s doing the banning? In the case of Don Imus, and possibly this, people getting “offended by a comedian making a joke … can simply not attend his show or buy his CDs” is exactly what happens. Then the station decides to drop the show because it’s no longer getting enough listeners to support it.
Dan, we haven’t so much enacted a ban here, as reacted (perhaps overreacted) to a statement by acting against (firing) the source, rather than attacking their words.
We haven’t (so far) gone as far as saying we can’t utter the word Rape unless we then say “is bad and no one should ever want to do it to anyone” or some other socially innocuous statement.
That being said, I sure would like to see a whole lot less corporate banning / firing. I’d wager that after these incidents that listenership actually went *up* — and I do not understand decisions to pull advertising from a show that has gotten even more popular.
What this tells me is, it won’t necessarily be the government who takes away our freedoms. it will be corporate monoliths who bow to the pressures applied by small but strident special interest groups who know how to manipulate the media.
So it will be the media?
No, that can’t be it. Please somebody tell me I’m wrong about that.
Big Brother is slowly taking over. Simple as that. Look at history to see the future, people! Like Dan pointed out, one ban sets precedence for another and another. Slowly but surely, the government gains control until we’re all mindless zombies who can’t even decide what kind of underwear to put on in the morning, out of fear that they might be “illegal” or “risque”.
Again, read some history books. Scary.
“The station isn’t telling anyone they can’t say something. The station’s saying they’re not going to pay people to say something, and those people can’t use the station’s resources to say it.”
Saying that “they can’t say it here” is censoring them. Do you know what censoring is?
Is this a first amendment issue? No, of course not. But I bought XM because it was uncensored. It’s not. So I cancelled.
Christ someone just fucking shoot me now, they just passed the statewide smoking ban in Maryland
Leela: Joke about an accent is exactly that - a joke about a funny way of talking. Nobody is making fun of any culture, since I can hardly imagine what connection could an Asian talking bad/funny English possibly have with Asian culture. And people make jokes about all sorts of accents all the time - Russian, Canadian, Indian, you name it. People will always make fun of things that are different from what they’re used to. Don’t tell me Asians never make fun of Americans trying to speak Chinese or Japanese, and doing it badly (with accent).
I’m sorry if it affends you, but that is no basis for a goverment/corporate enforced speech impediment. If we start banning “offensive” (100% subjective term) words, soon we’ll end up with things like music channels having to censor out completely neutral words like “gun” from songs, just because some mother felt it was “dangerous” or “offensive”! …oh, wait. Shit. :(
P.S. I don’t think smoking bans fit into this discussion well, since, unlike words, smoking can (and does) harm those around smoker, they can’t “choose” to ignore the smoke (yes, they can walk away, but one can also run away from a robber, does that mean robbing should be legal?). As far as I understand, the point of the article and most of subsequent debate is about limiting speech by banning single words, which, by definition, cannot be inherently offending without context.
Shadowbird~ I don’t really give two fucks what you “think” fits into this conversation. :) Go fuck your mother.
Jen, that smoking ban really has you lit up, huh?
Very punny, em’.
Cute em, we missed you….sort of.
In Soviet Russia, Condoleeza Rice rapes You!
I hesitate to admit it… but that’s more along the lines of any fantasies I’ve ever had.
BTW, isn’t Condoleeza Rice that ugly black chick in Bush’s office? Why would anyone with any kind of choice want to rape her? O_o