DON'T FORGET TO "LIKE" BEE-OTCH OF THE DAY ON FACEBOOK!
Name: American Decency Association
Age: 27
Occupation: right-winged bigots
Last Seen: Fremont, MI
Bee-otched For: proving their hypocrisy---
Many years ago, a former elementary school gym teacher named Bill Johnson had a dream: to rid this world of smut.
In 1985, he formed a small, grassroots group called Citizens Against Pornography, which joined other members of the Religious Right to convince retailers that porn hurts children. Soon, major supermarkets and convenience stores were yanking even the least-smuttiest magazines like Playboy off the shelves and video stores like Blockbuster banned porn altogether. Eventually, Johnson's little group became part of the American Family Association and was Michigan's chapter of the group for many years.
But in 1996, Johnson had another mission: to rid the airwaves of Howard Stern.
Even with a scratchy signal in Fremont - 60 miles or so from their transmitter - the old 94.5 WKLQ became a target for Bill's clan when they added the King of All Media to their airwaves. Quickly, Howard Stern became one of the top jocks in conservative Dutch west Michigan. And Bill wanted him off.
So, he created the infamous Howard Stern Information and Action Page, which monitored the Stern show itself and its advertisers. His goal was to get people to write practically the same letter to advertisers using a template and doing so, he paid senior citizens on fixed incomes to do so. His evil plan did work with some advertisers; many companies did pull their ads from the show, and Grand Rapids was one of the biggest victims. During Howard's long, 15-minute breaks, the show did have a few sponsors that didn't heed the AFA call such as Purple East, Shakedown Street and lawyer Jason Barrix. However, the station was forced to air everything from sports reports from local producer Bill Watson to yes, even music.
However, despite Johnson - who seceded from the AFA in 1999 to reform it as the American Decency Association - and his group's attacks, KLQ soldiered on. The station made up for its losses with Stern by airing more commercials than any other station in the market after the show ended, and the listeners didn't seem to mind. Former GM Bart Brandmiller even stood by the show since its listeners were dedicated to it and its advertisers.
Of course, Johnson claimed victory when new GM Matt Hanlon moved Stern from 50,000-watt WKLQ to tiny 1,000-watt AM station WBBL - then at 1340 - during the holidays in 2002. Eventually, WKLQ and WBBL's parent Citadel Broadcasting finally canned the show on all their stations the same time two years later because of their unhappiness regarding his move to Sirius.
Now that Howard's on Sirius, the ADA rarely if ever talks about him. As a matter of fact, the Information and Action Page is still up, but it hasn't been updated in years. Oddly enough, the ADA has talked nary a peep regarding Stern now being one of the judges of America's Got Talent. If you go to the ADA's website, however, they're currently pissing and moaning about a new Star Wars video game that has gay themes and the new ABC TV series GCB, which stands for Good Christian Bitches.
But, here's the reason why I'm giving Johnson and the ADA my Bee-otch of the Day: they haven't attacked Rush Limbaugh for calling Sandra Fluke a "slut".
For years, Johnson and his minions regularly attacked Stern for his so-called negative treatment of women on his show. They threw a pissy fit every time Howard had a naked chick in his studio, or if Howard made off-color comments on women overall. Yet, when Rush called the Georgetown law student those nasty names, Johnson played the fiddle while Rome burned.
Then again, the ADA didn't trash Michael Savage when he blasted gay people or even those with Autism. Same with Glenn Beck and gay folks. Heck, there's a ton of people who have been ripping off Howard for years and doing worse things than he does, like making people die from drinking too much water (ie the infamous "Wee For a Wii" incident). The sad thing is, Johnson was hell-bent on ridding this world of Stern and nobody else.
Heck, even Johnson's old buddies at the AFA seem to be standing for Rush, too. Rush's brother, David, wrote a piece on their website defending his actions and claimed that there's a lot of liberal bias on the media's part. Since Rush's tirade on Ms. Fluke last week, dozens of advertisers - local and national - have dropped their sponsorship of the show, two radio stations have canceled the program and both Peter Gabriel and (surprise) the Canadian rock legends known also known as Rush have ordered him to stop playing their songs during his program (while scouring for advertisers for the program the other day, I did hear Laura Branigan's "Gloria" as the show was getting off the break; I'll betcha she's spinning rapidly in her grave).
And yes, no word from Chrissie Hynde and the Pretenders regarding the fact that Limbaugh has been using their anti-capitalist anthem "My City Was Gone" as his theme music for nearly 30 years. Then again, she reportedly gets paid $100,000 per year from Limbaugh to use that song, which she donates to People For the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
But let's remember something about Bill Johnson and the ADA: I've looked at his tax statements - which he once posted on his website but has long since taken them down - and his group makes some $300,000 per year. $60,000 of that is Bill's salary and another $45,000 went to Lisa Van Houten, his secretary. A huge chunk of the ADA's funding comes from the Edgar and Elza Prince Foundation, which also funds other groups such as the Family Research Council and Focus on the Family. The Princes were based in Holland - WKLQ's former city of license - and made a fortune in automotive manufacturing. Edgar was one of the founders of both aforementioned organizations and was the father of Amway heir Betsy DeVos - the wife of Dick DeVos, the son of Amway founder Richard DeVos - and controversial Blackwater/Xe founder Erik Prince. Edgar died in 1995 at age 63, while Elza is now 80 and married to a minister.
Oh, and unlike WKLQ, Johnson's closest Rush affiliate is a 50,000-watt FM station, WOOD-FM 106.9, which is closer to him in Muskegon.
You see, if I had a kid, and I had to choose between Howard Stern talking to a naked chick in the studio or Rush Limbaugh brainwashing his typical low-IQ'd listeners, I'd pick Howard in a heartbeat. I don't want my kid to like a man who calls himself as a man sent by God who's also a druggie and can't stay married for long. Rush Limbaugh is a disgraceful jerk who is a worse human being than Howard, and it's sad that another man who calls himself a Christian will attack Howard only because his opinions are stronger than his. Yeah, Howard's had his bumps and bruises with the FCC, Selina and Columbine, but we're only human and both liberals and conservatives make mistakes. I only wish that more conservatives would find the error of Rush's ways, but they're too blind to see it. In the end, it's all about living their pathetic lifestyle of hating Obama, hating people they view as sinners and anybody else who has an IQ over room temperature.
But in the end, the Bill Johnsons of the world keep forgetting this: Jesus himself hung out with sluts and prostitutes, too.
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