XM Satellite Radio Backlash

mrchubbs writes "Sponsors and subscribers to XM Radio are protesting the decision by XM management to suspend the Opie and Anthony show for comments made on an uncensored channel. Subscribers are canceling subscriptions — some estimate that between 20,000 and 40,000 have cancelled. Some are even smashing their radios in protest. Sponsors are pulling ads. Also, there is some evidence of XM not honoring cancellation requests, forcing multiple calls to finally get accounts canceled." Of course this dispute isn't a free-speech issue. "Free speech" refers to a prohibition on censorship by the government; XM is free to do as it wishes with the content it broadcasts, within the law.

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XM not canceling account

[fontkick]

This happened to me... XM is definitely messing with people's accounts. I canceled my service about a year ago, but a few months after canceling they started charging my card again. I can't think of a worse way to treat a customer. If someone charges your card out of the blue just because they have your account info, they are committing credit card fraud.

So what exactly did they say?

[Vellmont]

I'm really tired that every time there's some kind of "person Y said thing X" on radio/TV people always talk about what was said in vague terms rather than actual quotes. If you're going to have some judgement about if it was right/wrong to suspend them, it's important to know what was actually said by who, not talking around what they said. Even the wikipedia article about the "incident" only goes so far as to refer to it as ""love to f--- that b----."

So what did they actually say? Here's the transscript I've been able to dig up. Charlie is some character called "homeless charlie".

Charlie: I tell you what, what's that George Bush bitch? Rice? Condoleeza Rice.

Anthony: Condoleeza Rice.

Charlie: I'd love to fuck that bitch dead, man. She needs a fucking man. I'll fuck that bitch --

Anthony: I just imagine the horror in Condoleeza Rice's face ...

Opie: [laughter] ... when she realizes what's going on ...

Anthony: ... as you were just like holding her down and fucking her.

Charlie: Punch her all in the fucking face. Shut up, bitch.

Anthony: That's exactly what I meant.

Charlie: You know, fuck, and George Bush wife? I'll fuck that bitch to death. She needs a man.

Anthony: You diggin' her?

Charlie: I love that.

Anthony: Hey woman, hey woman. I show you a real man. Why don't you come by my box I'll show you a real man.

Opie: Hey, what about the queen? Current events: The queen just finally went back to her dumb castle or whatever. Oh boy, we lost his mike. We lost Charlie's mike. We lost Charlie's mike.

Anthony: Oh no.

Opie: I can paraphrase.

Anthony: ... and he was just saying something nice about the royal family.

Charlie: Fuck the queen. She lost -- you're lost, bitch. Why you coming over here for, you horse-faced lookin bitch?

Anthony: [whinny] You lost!

Charlie: Fuck that bitch.

I've never listened to Opie and Anthony, nor do I subscribe to sat radio, but I have to say it's a lot less offensive than I imagined from the little "raping Condi Rice, Laura Bush, and the Queen" summary I've read. It's really not any worse talk than you'd hear a few guys in a bar saying.

I guess I have to agree with the comment that the suspension was really more about trying to appease any government contacts that Sirius/XM has to grease the wheels on the (IMO really bad for the public) merger between the two.