Two Cents

"Howard Stern, stop your whining and shut up. It hurts to say it, but after days of listening to you rail about how bad you have it, it's time for you to stop."

Richard Huff, New York Daily News.

"I'm relying on people in the business to have a better understanding of this issue than the general public. I thought by talking about this for two weeks and making my case known, guys like Richard Huff would rise up and say all of our rights are being challenged, but he totally missed the friggin' point."

Howard Stern on Richard Huff's Daily News column.

"By an 'overwhelming margin' of intolerance, ignorance, and idiocy, the self-appointed arbiters of taste in our Congress have passed a bill that will chill free speech on the airwaves and usher in a new era of prudishness and fear in America, even as we claim to bring 'freedom' to Iraq."

Michael Fremer, musicangle.com.

"For years, I have heard from parents around the country who hate the fact they need to cover their children's eyes and ears because of something that comes network television or on the radio. For years, Congress could never muster the political will to address the situation."

Rep. Joe Pitts (R-Pa.), in a commentary featured on his Web site.

"The parents that Pitts is talking about are the ones who refuse to take responsibility for monitoring what their children watch on television or listen to on the radio. I don't want my government telling me what is indecent or offensive. Where do you draw the line? Why don't we remove every book in every library that has a sexual reference or a 'bad' word in it? Surely children use libraries."

From a letter to the editor in the Los Angeles Times.

"Life and people being what they are, the idea that anyone can get through any day without being offended by something—offense, like beauty, in the eye of the beholder—is a fantasy. And by guaranteeing free expression, the First Amendment also guarantees offense. Short of obscenity, the subject really shouldn't be any of the government's business."

Eric Mink, St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

"This, you may be concerned, might slow things down. Maybe a column dealing with Monday's media might get posted by Thursday morning. But wouldn't it be worth the wait to ensure that it has been drained of any prurient material that lacks redeeming social value?"

Howard Kurtz, The Washington Post, on adding a "20-second delay" to his column.

"There is enough cleavage to drive a truck through in this scene."

Mark Samels, executive producer of PBS's American Experience, on the footage remaining after being forced to cut two seconds out of a show on free-speech advocate Emma Goldman (left).