Howard Stern Reads My Words (1/27/06)
Below are my words, read on-the-air by Howard Stern this morning at 9:25...followed by the backstory:
"Here’s where Jann Wenner is REALLY a hypocrite: He has Rolling Stone publish obituary after obituary for people from the music world dying of lung cancer while he fills his magazine with cigarette ads! If he’s so sad about the deaths of these music industry people, why is he pushing the thing that killed them on his readers?
George Harrison and Warren Zevon are only 2 of many lesser known names who have been memorialized….plus as Eddie Van Halen lost half his tongue and John Cougar Mellencamp had his heart attack, Jann has continued to push smokes on his readers. If he really cared about the music community, the same community that made him rich, he would stop whoring out his magazine.
As for FOJ, I always laugh with my friends about the reviews RS gives to any project Mick Jagger is affiliated with. It seems as if every Stones album is the next Exile On Main Street…the next masterpiece. What's up with that?!"
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As a Howard Stern fan of 17 years and a Rolling Stone subscriber for 21 years, today was a big day for me. First, I should mention that this Monday marked 4 years since my mother's death from lung cancer (despite her not smoking past the age of 35). It still feels like fresh news...so attending an evening minyan service on Monday to read the Kaddish was a pretty depressing way to start the week. There were some funny aspects to the service, but nothing like 2004 (see Update 20: Two Years Ago Today). I mention my mom both because her death inspired my tiff with Jann Wenner and because it was great to end the week on a high note in her memory.
About a year ago I wrote Jann Wenner a letter. I explained that he is one of my lifelong heroes, that I'm a RS subscriber of 2 decades and that the inspiration from his magazine led me to a decade of fun in the music business. (In fact, I almost started my music career with a RS summer internship during college that was on the verge of being locked up when I was told that I was being bumped at the last minute because Bono's niece wanted the job and Jann was too close with Bono to not give the internship to her...so I wound up at SPIN.) In my letter to Jann I questioned why, now that we know what we know about cigarettes and their addictive nature, he continues to publish so many tobacco ads. Now that we're seeing the rock stars of the 60s and 70s drop dead from cigarettes, it's very clear what the long term use of that legal product does (and it's every bit as ugly as the illegal heroin that has killed so many glorified rock stars). So now that we know how truly dangerous it is, why would he push that product on his readers and the music scene? Sure, it looked cool for rockers to always be smoking. Sure, it's always been rebellious...and rock and roll is a rebellious art form. But now we know from seeing firsthand what we didn't really know throughout the previous decades of RS issues. I also pointed out to Jann that for a magazine that has historically exposed the hypocrisy in government and politicians, it sure seemed odd that he could pull such a blatantly hypocritical move on his readers and the music scene. Well, Jann never wrote me back. For the past year, I wanted to find a way to be sure my message got through to Jann. The second I heard Howard Stern ranting on Sirius this week over Jann's hypocrisy, I had to act. Howard was pissed because Jann gives Friends of Jann (FOJ) like Mick Jagger and Yoko Ono glowing reviews regardless of the quality of their work, yet treats Howard like a friend to his face but just allowed a negative article to be published about his first week on Sirius. I decided to email Howard the main points of my letter to Jann and see if by any chance he agreed with my argument. To my surprise and excitement, the next day Howard read my email on the air word for word with conviction! Thanks Howard! Now if we could just get Jann to respond the way the CEO and President of MTV responded to my Live 8 rant....
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