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 NEWS  News  media  Information  202  /  418-  0500  TTY  202  /  418-  2  Fax-  On-  Demand  202  /  418-  2830  Internet:  http://  www.  fcc.  gov  ftp.  fcc.  gov  Federal  Communications  Commission  445  12  th  Street,  S.  W.  Washington,  D.  C.  20554  This  is  an  unofficial  announcement  of  Commission  action.  Release  of  the  full  text  of  a  Commission  order  constitutes  official  action.  See  MCI  v.  FCC.  515  F  2d  385  (D.  C.  Circ  1974). 
 FOR  IMMEDIATE  RELEASE:  NEWS  MEDIA  CONTACT: 
 September  20,  2001  Susanna  Zwerling  at  (202)  418-  2000 


 STATEMENT  OF  COMMISSIONER  MICHAEL  J.  COPPS  ON 
 COMPLAINTS  RECEIVED  REGARDING  HOWARD  STERN  BROADCAST  ON  NATIONAL  DAY  OF  PRAYER  AND  REMEMBERANCE 


 I  am  saddened  and  dismayed  at  remarks  reportedly  made  on  Howard  Stern’s  nationally 
 syndicated  radio  program  last  week  during  our  National  Day  of  Prayer  and  Remembrance.  Our 
 country  has  been  through  one  of  the  most  difficult  and  trying  weeks  in  its  long  and  sometimes  painful 
 history.  It  was  a  week  of  precious  lives  lost,  endless  hours  of  painful  and  sustained  rescue  and  relief 
 work,  countless  acts  of  individual  and  community  heroism,  and  a  reaffirmation  of  the  ties  that  forge  the 
 unity  of  the  American  people  in  times  of  national  emergency.  It  was  a  week  when  America’s 
 broadcast  media  and  other  communications  companies  performed  with  self-  sacrifice  and  often 
 heroism.  Most  of  Stern’s  programming  last  week  seemed  sensitive  to  this  and  supportive  of 
 encouraging  a  positive  reaction  to  the  disaster  we  had  experienced.  So  it  was  all  the  more  surprising 
 that  remarks  were  made,  from  whatever  motivation,  that  so  crudely  distorted  and  demeaned  the 
 essential  nobility  of  what  our  people  were  coming  together  to  accomplish.  Americans  are  a  tolerant 
 people,  but  hundreds  of  complaints  coming  to  me  in  recent  days  demonstrate  heartfelt  revulsion  over 
 statements  that  were,  to  many,  offensive  and  indecent. 


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