1) Michael Powell is a puritanical imp who has no business legislating to America what it can show on it's airwaves and what it can't. The FCC's policy of what is allowed on TV is hypocritical and morally backwards. We can see people get shot and die on a TV show that runs at 8pm yet a breast that was barely visible on screen for a SPLIT second requires fines for the network that broadcasted the footage. "Fowl" language is bleeped out on TV all the time, however, I challenge you to point out an instance where you couldn't tell what they were saying anyway. It's fine to show death and destruction, but now loving sex acts can be shown. No--because that's just wrong. Killing? Now that's good TV!
2) I don't care what administration hired him, he had the name "Powell" on his driver's license. "Huh, Powell--hey, is Colin your dad?"
"Why, yes, yes he is." Any child who thinks that the government is staffed by unbiased, fair-minded individuals needs to return from the fantasy planet they're living on.
OF COURSE, the fact that Powell's dad is Colin had something to do with it! GROW UP.
3) This does not mean that Powell is not qualified to run the FCC in theory. (See point 1.)
Read more about this absurd, stupid story in an AP article posted at Salon.com.
From the AP and Salon.com:
Now it's Colin Powell vs. Howard Stern
Oct. 27, 2004 | WASHINGTON -- Foul-mouthed radio personality Howard Stern has another Powell to reckon with: Secretary of State Colin Powell. The nation's top diplomat came to the defense of his son, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Powell, after Stern said the younger Powell only got the job because of his family name.
Colin Powell labeled the accusation "just so much nonsense." "My son is an enormously qualified individual, and I think he has served -- if I may so as a father and as a not so distant observer -- with great distinction," Powell said Wednesday in an interview with CNBC.
Stern's raunchy radio show has brought repeated fines by the FCC and the shock jock routinely rails against what he says is the Bush administration's desire to use the FCC to stifle free speech on radio and TV.
Stern made a surprise call to KGO-AM radio in San Francisco while Michael Powell was a studio guest Tuesday.
"How did you get your job?" Stern asked. "It is apparent to most of us in broadcasting that your father got you your job, and you kind of sit there and you're the judge, you're the arbiter, you're the one who tells us what we can and can't say on the air."
Stern added, "I really don't even think you're qualified to be the head of the commission."
Powell responded, "I think it's a cheap shot to say just because my father is famous, I don't belong in my position."
Powell, a Republican, was appointed to the commission by President Clinton in 1997 and became chairman when President Bush took office in 2001. Powell denied Stern's charge and listed his qualifications, saying he is an attorney and was chief of staff of the Justice Department's Antitrust Division.
Colin Powell noted his son became a commissioner of the FCC "long before I became Secretary of State. For all I know, he might have had some influence in getting me to become secretary of state."
Stern, who battled for years with the FCC and conservative critics over his salacious show's content, is moving his show to Sirius satellite radio when his contract with Infinity Broadcasting Corp. expires in 2006. The FCC does not enforce indecency rules for satellite radio because it's a subscription service.
Though Stern's show has produced more FCC fines than any other, Powell told Stern, "I don't think that, you know, we have made any particular crusade of the Howard Stern show or you."
© 2004 The Associated Press
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