When Shock Jocks Attack!
Okay, we’re going to start today’s blog with a fun little word-association game. I’ll just say something and then, wherever you are, say the first thing that comes to mind. Ready?
Okay, here we go.
Politics…
Okay good answer. Let’s try another.
Paris Hilton…
Wow, that was quite a response.
Janet Jackson…
Yup, I knew it. You all said the exact same thing on that one, I just didn’t think it was going to be “caribou”. Well anyway, a lot of you probably also thought about an infamous wardrobe malfunction that happened nearly a year ago sullying an otherwise pure and wholesome televised sporting event. So enraged was America that the Federal Communications Commission started throwing fines around and tightened their leash on broadcast media throughout the nation.
“Foul,” cried the shock jocks of radio. “Freedom of speech and stuff. Wah!! Wah!!!”
So, persuasive were their arguments that I nearly found myself sympathizing with their cause. But deep down, I rumbled with uncertainty for I knew of the one law that governs mankind: Man is dumb. If you believe in this rule, you must also take precautions to protect certain dumb people from other dumb people.
Take today’s news for example. New York FM radio station WQHT, or HOT 97 ran a controversial segment. Can you guess how they did it? If you said write a musical piece about the recent tsunami which uses racial slurs to describe people swept away in the disaster and makes jokes about child slavery and people watching their mothers die, then you get the prize.
Can you believe this? What at all could be funny about this? WQHT’s program director and deejay Tarsha Nicole Jones, who uses the on-air name Miss Jones, apologized on the program and said the segment should not have been broadcast. Are you kidding me? The broadcast shouldn’t even have been conceived!
So I spend time thinking about how this could happen, and seriously, the only answers I come up with is Man is Dumb. And it’s not just these deejays, it’s everywhere in the news: Survivor winner Richard Hatch (I have to pay taxes on my millions?); Barry Bonds (I didn’t know I took steroids); and Keanu Reeves (I belong in movies)*zing!*. Maybe it’s not that people are just dumb as much as it is people don’t think.
I remember one day when I was at home with my parents. I was in the kitchen and noticed someone had the microwave going. I look inside and see a flame. Most of you would stop the microwave, or perhaps go for a fire extinguisher. Not me. I look at it for a good while, trying to register exactly what is going on. And having no luck, I call to my father down the hall.
“Hey dad,” I yell, “Why is there a candle in the microwave?” (that’s what it looked like in a way)
Naturally my father comes running down the hallway, shuts off the microwave and extinguishes the semi-frozen bag of broccoli. Haven’t we all done this? Anyone? Bueller? Okay, maybe not this specifically, but I’m sure you did something you didn’t think through at least once.
Does that mean I understand what these deejays did? No freakin’ way. How do you joke about something like this? I’m just saying they didn’t think things through and it exposed their true character. In the end, shock jocks make their living off ratings and they make ratings by making off-color remarks. If they get sidetracked enough by this quest for ratings they can lose their heart along the way. Good lesson for us all.
Okay, here we go.
Politics…
Okay good answer. Let’s try another.
Paris Hilton…
Wow, that was quite a response.
Janet Jackson…
Yup, I knew it. You all said the exact same thing on that one, I just didn’t think it was going to be “caribou”. Well anyway, a lot of you probably also thought about an infamous wardrobe malfunction that happened nearly a year ago sullying an otherwise pure and wholesome televised sporting event. So enraged was America that the Federal Communications Commission started throwing fines around and tightened their leash on broadcast media throughout the nation.
“Foul,” cried the shock jocks of radio. “Freedom of speech and stuff. Wah!! Wah!!!”
So, persuasive were their arguments that I nearly found myself sympathizing with their cause. But deep down, I rumbled with uncertainty for I knew of the one law that governs mankind: Man is dumb. If you believe in this rule, you must also take precautions to protect certain dumb people from other dumb people.
Take today’s news for example. New York FM radio station WQHT, or HOT 97 ran a controversial segment. Can you guess how they did it? If you said write a musical piece about the recent tsunami which uses racial slurs to describe people swept away in the disaster and makes jokes about child slavery and people watching their mothers die, then you get the prize.
Can you believe this? What at all could be funny about this? WQHT’s program director and deejay Tarsha Nicole Jones, who uses the on-air name Miss Jones, apologized on the program and said the segment should not have been broadcast. Are you kidding me? The broadcast shouldn’t even have been conceived!
So I spend time thinking about how this could happen, and seriously, the only answers I come up with is Man is Dumb. And it’s not just these deejays, it’s everywhere in the news: Survivor winner Richard Hatch (I have to pay taxes on my millions?); Barry Bonds (I didn’t know I took steroids); and Keanu Reeves (I belong in movies)*zing!*. Maybe it’s not that people are just dumb as much as it is people don’t think.
I remember one day when I was at home with my parents. I was in the kitchen and noticed someone had the microwave going. I look inside and see a flame. Most of you would stop the microwave, or perhaps go for a fire extinguisher. Not me. I look at it for a good while, trying to register exactly what is going on. And having no luck, I call to my father down the hall.
“Hey dad,” I yell, “Why is there a candle in the microwave?” (that’s what it looked like in a way)
Naturally my father comes running down the hallway, shuts off the microwave and extinguishes the semi-frozen bag of broccoli. Haven’t we all done this? Anyone? Bueller? Okay, maybe not this specifically, but I’m sure you did something you didn’t think through at least once.
Does that mean I understand what these deejays did? No freakin’ way. How do you joke about something like this? I’m just saying they didn’t think things through and it exposed their true character. In the end, shock jocks make their living off ratings and they make ratings by making off-color remarks. If they get sidetracked enough by this quest for ratings they can lose their heart along the way. Good lesson for us all.
posted by AaronJLohr | 1:34 PM
4 Comments:
As much as I believe in evolution, I think that some people got left behind. That whole survival of the fittest definitely comes into play here. If you're dumb enough to think that's funny, then you deserve to get thrown to the FCC wolves.
I think it's weird. Apparently seven people worked on this show and not one of them opposed to this. That's hard to imagine. I found out that each of the seven is being punished by the station. They each have to donate a week's pay to the tsunami relief fund. That's something I guess.
I'm impressed. I didn't know that they could garnish your wages for inappropriate work ethics. I would have to agree, though. Something needed to be done, and I supppose losing a week's wages instead of your job is fair enough.
This just in: 1-26-05 NEW YORK (Reuters) -- The entire staff of the New York radio show "Miss Jones in the Morning" was taken off the air on Wednesday after broadcasting a song that ridiculed victims of the tsunami in South Asia, the radio station said.
Yee Haw.
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