The news that XM Satellite Radio suspended Opie and Anthony for 30 days following their gleeful fantasies about raping Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has many subscribers cancelling. I guess some people can't get enough filth during the 19 hours Opie and Anthony aren't on.
This is a story with two sides. There's the free speech side, which argues that anyone offended by Opie and Anthony shouldn't listen. Plus, XM Satellite Radio is a pay service and isn't subject to the same indecency rules as broadcast.
There's a lot of substance to this argument. Free speech isn't supposed to stop because it offends people (although pornography and profanity are exceptions to the rule). In fact, it is the "free flow of ideas," a concept firmly grounded in Enlightenment thinking, that allows us to discuss things we otherwise might not want to.
But as the story makes clear, there is a second issue and that is that XM Satellite Radio is a business. While XM isn't regulated by the FCC, it's obvious that they don't want to do anything that might stop the company's proposed merger with its competitor, Sirius.
Many subscribers cancelled their subscriptions in anger at XM. They feel "cheated" because they expect content unavailable on broadcast.
But part of the second issue is that Opie and Anthony are employees of XM and subject to their rules. Now, I don't know if they have a contract like Don Imus, where being offensive is part of the territory. But it seems to me that suspending your shock jocks because they are a bit too shocking is still within XM's right.
For me, it is hard to understand why XM would be shocked! Shocked! That O & A would be so vulgar and crude. It's not like this is a first. They got, in fact, the entertainment they paid for.
XM is between a rock and a hard place on this one: people will cancel subscriptions in anger because they don't like what was said, and people will cancel subscriptions in anger because they disapprove of the punishment.
ReplyDeleteIt's XM's decision what to broadcast on their service, so there's no real free speech issue involved in punishing the speakers, as long as government isn't inducing the punishment in some fashion.
But the politics of the event are bad for XM either way.
I think the free speech angle comes in the article about how XM might be suspending O & A to appease the FCC (which still has to approve XM's merger with Sirius, I believe). But you are right. XM can't win this fight. They would lose subscribers no matter what they did.
ReplyDeleteI tend to look at this as simply XM punishing employees for bad behavior, something that could happen in any business.