What an odd article to be posted on hacker news. Stern is the consumate shape shifting media personality, in turns erudite, vulgar, brash, sensitive - all to keep the listeners tuned in and consuming the ads. He's a variant of the Kardashians - famous for being famous having adopted the style of an eighties rock musician.
Two more cents from the peanut gallery:
I really just don't like the guy, and don't like his show.
I think less of people who champion Howard Stern as talented. And worse of those who emulate him.
I've watched lots of Howard Stern, I've watched a lot of pornography too. I've watched beheading videos, and videos of people being humilated and tortured to death across the unholiest realms of the internet.
I watch these things and listen to them, as bald facts of life, and they have been engrossing at times. But I wish hell upon all of it, and Howard Stern's shit falls into the same category.
I'd make so much of all that disappear, if I could, no matter whether it were right or wrong to do so.
I think a whole hell of lot less of people who watch beheading videos and videos of people being humiliated and tortured to death, than you think less of people who champion Howard Stern as talented or emulate him.
You should really take it easy on the beheading, humiliation and torture videos. Just like Howard Stern, it's possible to go through life without going out of your way to expose yourself to those things, or even hanging out in online discussions about them, telling people how much you don't like them even though you "watched lots of" them.
Howard Stern went through a very expensive and drawn out war with the FCC, of which most of the lawsuits were fought around content that is commonplace in mainstream media today. I think the battles he fought in the 90s went a long way to reducing government censorship in the US.
In addition to that, I think he's an incredible interviewer. Maybe one of the best ever.
He also won the nomination for the Libertarian party for governor of New York. He dropped out of the election when they demanded he reveal tax returns.
Last time I checked, the Kardashians got famous because of Kim's sex tape. Before that, I hardly think many people who know Kim, remember her far more famous dad Robert who was an attorney on the OJ case.
I always figured that most people that know of the Kardashians know of them as just some amorphous blob. I know the name, know they are famous for being famous, but couldn't tell you anything in particular about any of them. I don't even know how many there are, and until reading your post, didn't even make the connection to the OJ case.
Anything to stay in the limelight...