We read:
"The big radio news this week was XM Satellite Radio's decision to suspend shock jocks Anthony Cumia and Gregg "Opie" Hughes for offering crass sexual commentary on First Lady Laura Bush, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Queen Elizabeth II. But this sort of stuff isn't polluting the public sphere: XM listeners pay $12.95 a month, and they do so because it's crass, edgy and unfiltered. Since it's a pay service, XM isn't subject to Federal Communications Commission (FCC) decency standards. Neither suppliers nor consumers are under any illusions about what this means.
So why is XM punishing its own hosts? Because the FCC still has indirect power over satellite radio content: it can block mergers, and XM has proposed exactly that with its only real competitor, Sirius. No one wants to offend federal regulators with billions of dollars at stake. That's bad. It's also, incidentally, the logic of modern censorship. The pressure isn't overt. Decency isn't in the statute books, and storm troopers aren't going to blast through the radio station doors. The pressure is internal.
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