BOB GARFIELD: This week, the Wall Street Journal reported that the FCC is poised to slam radio shock jock Howard Stern with a hefty fine for indecency. This follows Clear Channel's dropping Stern from its lineup last week. When that happened, I observed in a commentary that Clear Channel's action was an eloquent argument against media consolidation, because what if this were not the squelching of a class clown but of a political voice. But several listeners wrote to charge that it was in fact political speech that did Stern in with Clear Channel. They said that his show had not become raunchier in recent weeks. The big change was that three days before Clear Channel dropped him, Stern came out hard against President Bush. It's an interesting question, one that we'll now pose to Eric Boehlert who frequently writes about radio, especially Clear Channel, for Salon.com. Eric, welcome back. Listen, I want to play you some tape. [CLIP FROM HOWARD STERN SHOW PLAYS]

HOWARD STERN: What was the name of Mel Gibson's movie?

WOMAN: The Passion of the Christ.

HOWARD STERN: The Passion of the Stern. [LAUGHTER] Special appearance by Yucko the Clown. [LAUGHTER] Something like that. [LAUGHS] Michael Powell as Pontius Pilate.

BOB GARFIELD: Is Howard Stern a Christ figure Eric?

ERIC BOLERT: [LAUGHS] In his mind, I'm sure he is.

BOB GARFIELD: Now as to the assertions of our letter writers, there was this remarkable coincidence of Stern's turn against President Bush with the decision by Clear Channel to kick him off the air. Does that make any sense to you?

ERIC BOLERT: I can understand where the theory comes from, because as we said, he'd been a relatively strong backer of President Bush, very pro-war a year ago. He had just come back from a week's vacation and announced he had read Al Franken's book, and announced it was a masterpiece and that he was not going to vote for Bush, so it was 5, 10, 15, 20 minutes about how awful Bush was, and this week we've heard about how Bush stole the election and the economy's in the toilet. You know, it's been pretty rampant. So he comes out against Bush, and all of a sudden three days later he's off the air. So, yeah, I, I mean I understand why people come up with that theory. When you understand Clear Channel's background, it's known as being very conservative, based in Texas, very close to Bush, Sr. and Bush 43. Very close to the White House. Gave a lot of money to Republicans. So that's where the two theories come together. But I think the overriding concern for Clear Channel was the indecency, was the congressional hearing last week. They had just fired notorious shock jock Bubba the Love Sponge last week in preparations for the hearings and then they sort of went the extra step and kicked Howard Stern off all six of the stations that were carrying it. So I think their main concern was Congress, their main concern was legislative oversight, their main concern was the FCC wanting to increase by tenfold the amount of future indecency fines, so they basically threw Howard under the bus and went up to Congress.

BOB GARFIELD:To play devil's advocate here, Clear Channel had six stations on which the Stern show appeared, but still, Stern appears on three dozen stations around the country, major markets all. So it's not as though he has been squelched.

ERIC BOLERT: You, you can argue both sides of it. You know, people who think this is political speech would say well, gee, where was he dumped? He was dumped in Florida and Pennsylvania and Kentucky, you know, those are swing states for the election. And the flip side would say, as you did, you know, six markets, you know, it's not like he's not on the air. Millions of people are still hearing his criticisms of Bush. Odds are when they figure out the contracts at those six stations, he'll, he'll pop up somewhere else in those markets. So you know, it's an interesting theory. I think Clear Channel does like Republicans. I think they like ratings and revenues more, and I think they fear the FCC more than they, they fear Howard Stern. But again, he had just really come out very strong against Bush and then, you know, poof -he sort of disappears. So, you know, I understand where the theory comes from.

BOB GARFIELD: Well, Eric, as always, thanks very much.

ERIC BOLERT: Sure thing.

BOB GARFIELD: Eric Boehlert is a senior writer for Salon.com. He spoke to us from station WBGO in Newark, New Jersey.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Coming up, pirating movies in Mexico, and making movies about movies right here at home.

BOB GARFIELD: This is On the Media, from NPR.