The Ombudsgod and James Lileks seem to be arguing past one another, at least as I read it. The Ombudsgod is concerned about government censorship via the FCC in the “Opie and Anthony” situation, in which the two “shock jocks” ran a contest to get a couple to engage in conjugal relations on the air during Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

From Lileks’ bleat today:

By bringing pressure on the FCC to both fine and revoke the broadcast license of WNEW FM, they have succeeded in forcing the radio station to eliminate a popular syndicated afternoon show. Two DJs, Opie and Anthony, have been fired, and the General Manager, Ken Stevens, and Program Director, Jeremy Coleman, have been suspended. This censorship will have a chilling effect on other broadcasters who may wish to broadcast controversial material.

Good.

Good. Maybe the next time some promotions director floats the idea of sponsoring a fellatio contest in a day-care center, he?ll be met with hard looks instead of high-fives. This stuff is ?controversial,? sure – but only by the most banal definition. Sawing off a puppy?s legs on the air is controversial. Stuffing a midget up Anne Sprinkle and having him broadcast from her oft-examined cervix is controversial. It?s also sick. It?s tiresome. It?s the work of people so jaded they think that intellectual bravery is defined not by the traditions you honor, but the ones you debase.

Now, my reading of it is that Lileks is saying “good” to the fact that they got fired–not the fact that it occurred due to FCC pressure. I suspect that the Ombudsgod’s interpretation is that he is cheering the FCC intervention itself.

I’d like to agree with both of them (assuming that my interpretations are correct). I’m glad they were fired–I do think that it’s a good thing. I’m simultaneously troubled that their behavior in itself wasn’t sufficient cause to fire them, and that it had to take the threat from a government agency (that shouldn’t be in charge of granting or revoking licenses in the first place–they should simply enforce the rights of the current owners of the spectrum). I would have greatly preferred that public pressure, and loss of advertisers, were sufficient to see that this kind of mindless audio excrement was taken off the air, or not appearing in the first place.

But despite the troubling First-Amendment issues (which are really caused by the charter of the FCC in general–not this particular case), it may have a salutory effect on the airwaves, at least for a little while. I don’t think that the nation’s intellectual or cultural discourse will be in any way impoverished by these clowns’ absence from them.