Opie, Jim Norton, and Anthony
Let me get this straight: They speak offensively... on a channel listed as being "offensive." Furthermore, if you, as a parent or otherwise, have a problem with "offensive" subjects, you can call XM Radio yourself and block all channels that may contain it. Heck, you can't even do that with the competitor's product, so I'd think that XM would be getting a huge pat on the back for doing their part to protect "the children" (a term which seems to include a majority of adults in this country now, based on how easily people seem to be getting "offended" as of late)—yet some of my fellow bloggers are still not satisfied.
If it's okay for HBO—a cable service which you must elect to receive—to be "offensive," why is it not okay for an "offensive" satellite radio channel to be, when you're electing to pay and receive it?
Why the double standard, guys? If you don't subscribe to XM, you aren't contributing to O&A's "vile filth."
And about Condoleeza Rice—she's under fire from every possible direction. SNL, The Daily Show, political cartoonists, Hezbullah, Hamas—you get the point, right? Every day, she gets the ol' "hateorade" from someone, yet she still manages to continue perfroming her official duties admirably. She certainly seems to be big enough to handle all of the criticism she's gotten to date, right?
So why does this rise to the level of suspending Opie and Anthony—something which the radio personalities did not actually say? And even if they did sass back at management after their apology, it's not like it would be the first time that a bunch of "shock" jocks did that, would it?
XM's management is showing a remarkable lack of backbone here, and I, as a paying customer, definitely don't appreciate it.
Check out a sampling of "Ye Olde Condi Love" following the break, if you're interested.
Ye Olde Condi Love
She definitely makes friends and influences people...
Condoleeza in Lebanon, August 2006.
Lebanese boys hang a large caricature poster mocking U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, as two Lebanese soldiers look on in the background, on the Lebanese-Israeli border fence at Fatima Gate near the border village of Kfar Kila, southern Lebanon, Wednesday Oct. 4, 2006. (AP Photo/Lutfallah Daher)
Hamas supporters carry an effigy of U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, later to be set on fire, during a demonstration in support of the Palestinian government in the West Bank city of Nablus, Friday Oct. 6, 2006. Sign in Arabic reads 'All the conspiracies will turn back on the conspirators'. (AP Photo/Nasser Ishtayeh)
