Fleeing to the satellite waves, radio jocks Opie and Anthony reach even lower
This Week’s Top Scrooge(s) - May 11, 2007
Greg ‘Opie’ Hughes, left, and Anthony Cumia (AP)
By ALEXANDER
TheScroogeReport.com
Freedom is a wonderful thing. Even the freedom to make mistakes can sometimes serve as an opportunity to learn. It’s something not to be taken for granted.
Apparently shock jocks Opie and Anthony took their freedom to make a live on-air mistake, and their company’s freedom to fire them, and pulled another bonehead move in their new jobs on satellite radio.
On Wednesday they “joked” about raping Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice — over the satellite aire waves.
Not funny. I used to think “shock jocks” was kind of a cute tag. No more. To me, shock jocks, will forever be code for radio characters “reaching for the lowest common denominator…and then going lower.”
Fox News reports that during Wednesday’s show, a guest named “Homeless Charlie” told the deejays he wanted to have sex with Rice.
Anthony Cumia interrupted to say he “could just imagine the horror on Condoleezza Rice’s face when she realized that you were holding her down and [having sex with her."]
A laughing Charlie added that he would also like to be punching her in the face and telling her to shut up, and that he also wanted to force himself on first lady Laura Bush.
XM has since apologized for the remarks, but there’s been no action against my pick for “This Week’s Top Scrooge(s)”.
A portion of Opie & Anthony’s show is also heard in New York on CBS-owned 92.3 “Free FM,” though the Rice-rape jokes were not made during that segment.
CBS said it had no plans to take “Opie & Anthony” off Free FM.
Here’s how they used their freedom the first time: Opie and Anthony were fired by Infinity Broadcasting in 2002 for urging a Virginia couple visiting Manhattan to have sex in a vestibule at St. Patrick’s Cathedral.
Infinity was fined $357,000 by the FCC — the maximum amount allowed by law, and the second-largest indecency fine in American radio history. Opie and Anthony returned to the air on Oct. 4, 2004, exclusively for XM after two years of being off the air, Fox News reports.
I don’t get it. Opie and Anthony, you had fun with bathroom, perverted sex, and fart “jokes” (in quotes as in “not funny”) on the air for quite a run and maybe it was time to cash in. But no, your apparent addiction to negative attention had you grasping for an even lower bar.
I’d suggest therapy, but instead, I’ve searched the Bible and found something that shows the importance of words…something that radio personalities should seemingly understand better than most.
But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned. - Matthew, Chapter 12, verses 36,37.
Sounds a bit frightening, doesn’t it? I tell you what, I will not laugh at the next perverted joke I hear. How about you?
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Related:
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This Week’s Top Scrooge - April 27, 2007
This Week’s Top Scrooge - April 20, 2007
This Week’s Top Scrooge - April 13, 2007
This Week’s Top Scrooge - April 6, 2007
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“Shock Jocks: Uniting the Lowest Common Denominator.”
I think you’re absoluely right on about that.
[...] Fleeing to the satellite waves, radio jocks Opie and Anthony reach even lower - This Week’s Top Scrooge(s), May 11, 2007 [...]
These are harmless words said by a couple guys who have done what they are set out to do and that it to be over the top and to make people laugh. Its a pay service so why you complain and refer to bible verses is beyond me. Maybe you should worry about real issues and not what a couple of comedians are saying on a “pay service”. You seem very offended which makes me happy and your the type of person they want to get a reaction out of. Thanks for the support and maybe you should look into a new career rather than to gossip and sit behind your computer whining about a program that makes millions laugh on a daily basis. Why are you so concerned about something that you have to pay to hear? your quoting the bible over it, doesnt that seem ridiculous to you? How about the show “weeds” on showetime for instance, you dont see a mother selling weed to support her family as crime against humanity and worthy of quoting the bible. the thought that people are out there who defend censorship enrages me. your a communist and a sinner, get a real life and a real job you boob.
Phil,
I’m not offended. I’ve been there, done that. And I mean giving out the vulgarity as well as being right in the middle of it. Fortunately, later in life, I found there are better ways to spend your time than groveling in the pig pen…and if you can not see the dirt…I pray for your hardened heart…and I don’t mean that as an offense to you, just calling it like it is!