Radio: Big Mouths

Populist and popular, radio's right-wing pundit and gross-out wild man have new mega-best sellers

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For now, both Limbaugh and Stern make the circus-cum-marketplace of ideas quirkier, livelier, more bracing, more free, more American. Limbaugh, Greenfield rightly says, "highlights how overwhelmingly banal the normal public discourse is. You get ingots of predigested mush that pass for political debate, and here's Rush with some sparkle to him." One could argue that the Rialto is already plenty gross and strange enough without any help from Stern, but he does manage sometimes to turn the vulgar sublime. One could also argue that the ascendance of such meretricious infotainers suggests something less than flattering about America in the late 20th century.

"Stern and Limbaugh make it a more interactive, more personal experience," says Everette Dennis of Columbia University."They make it a better, more vibrant medium. It's the triumph of the individual." Limbaugh regularly calls himself "the most dangerous man in America." Stern uses the very phrase to describe himself. The truth is, neither is very dangerous. Rather, the fact that either is seriously considered a threat, that 34% of Americans (and 48% of Democrats) think the government should not allow Rush to make fun of the Clintons on the air, according to the TIME/CNN poll, is more worrisome than Stern or Limbaugh will ever be.

CHART: NOT AVAILABLE

CREDIT: From a telephone poll of 413 adult Americans who heard or heard about Limbaugh at least a few times each year taken for TIME/CNN on Oct. 21 by Yankelovich Partners Inc. Sampling error is plus or minus 5%.

CAPTION: Which of these descriptions do you think apply to Rush Limbaugh?

CHART: NOT AVAILABLE

CREDIT: From a telephone poll of 268 adult Americans who heard or heard about Stern at least a few times each year taken for TIME/CNN on Oct. 21 by Yankelovich Partners Inc. Sampling error is plus or minus 6%.

CAPTION: Which of these descriptions do you think apply to Howard Stern?

CHART: NOT AVAILABLE

CREDIT: From a telephone poll of 600 adult Americans who heard or heard about Stern at least a few times each year taken for TIME/CNN on Oct. 21 by Yankelovich Partners Inc. Sampling error is plus or minus 4%.

CAPTION: Do you think the government should allow radio stations to air a program in which the host has a politically conservative doctrine and makes fun of the President, the First Lady, female activists and liberals in general, as Rush Limbaugh does?

What about one in which the host makes humorous references to sexuality, bodily functions and body parts, as Howard Stern does?

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