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Medved is a Christianity-based moralizer of the highest order, and thus not even remotely an unbiased source of commentary. The problem is that not many in the media are standing up and facing off against the moralists lately, getting in the faces of the Dennis Pragers and the Bill O'Reillys and the Donald Wildmons and telling them that their base rationale ("because it's wrong for ME, it's wrong for EVERYONE") has more gaping holes than a colander.

Stern's been doing the same schtick for decades. The timing of his latest uproar is entertaining -- he sounds off against Bush, and almost instantly he's dropped by Clear Channel and under FCC investigation for "indecency." Clear Channel's decision is their own lookout, sleazy as it was, but are we to believe that the FCC felt that Stern's anal-sex-and-N-words rhetoric was acceptable for the last decade and only NOW, in the wake of Janet Jackson's breast (dirty, FILTHY breast!) is it worthy of reinvestigation?

What conservative Christian groups know is that few (if any) politicians will take a vigorous stand on the side of free speech. Imagine Arlen Specter standing up and saying "Yes, I believe that Americans SHOULD be able to use certain words or talk about Paris Hilton's anal virginity on public radio, and those offended should change the station." BANG -- every religious conservative group in America is now sending money to his primary opponent, every right-wing talk show host is ranting about his anti-American and pro-obscenity stance, and the outcry makes the moralists scream even louder that "SEE? America DOESN'T want filth on the radio or TV."

No, asshole, SOME Americans don't want what THEY consider to be "filth" on the radio or TV. But nobody of importance drills that point home!

This doesn't mean that the religious conservatives always win -- far from it. But in the current climate, in an election year, with a religious conservative in the White House, with the gay marriage (another "Our God says it's wrong, so the law should ban it for everyone" bell-ringer) issue stirring up the religious right, with the Dirty, Filthy Jackson Titty still fresh in America's minds, they have momentum and will press it for all they're worth.

And for partisanship's sake, this is not a Democratic/Republican divide. Four years ago, the Democrats ran Al Gore (whose wife Tipper was the primary mover behind the Christian-themed "clean up the airwaves to SAVE THE CHILDREN" PMRC crusade), coupled with Joe Lieberman, who picked up the Gores' sanitize-America-to-a-church-going-six-year-old's-level banner and waved it even harder. THAT veep choice cost them my vote.