Was Stern suspended due to politics or taste?

Suburban Guerrilla - I don't know if you're aware of this, but it's much more likely the real reason Howard Stern was suspended by Clear Channel was because he'd ripped into Bush that morning, quoting extensively from Al Franken's "Lying Liars."

"I might be taken off all the stations very soon, and my last words to you are 'G.W.B.,' " Stern told listeners yesterday.

"Get him out of office. I'm tellin' you, man, he's in dangerous territory [with] a religious agenda and you gotta vote him out - anyone but Bush," Stern railed.

Stern, whose raunchy wake-up show was yanked from six Clear Channel stations until, according to the company, they are "assured [it] will conform to acceptable standards of responsible broadcasting," said he fears he's history.

"It doesn't sound like I'm going to be asked back," Stern said, after playing an ominous quote from Clear Channel's CEO's testimony to a congressional indecency panel Thursday.

Remember, censorship spreads like a disease. I don't care if you don't like Howard Stern - he shouldn't be silenced. And we shouldn't be silent about it.