Wonkette's Warped Wired Words

Ana Marie Cox, perhaps better known as the "Wonkette", wrote an article for Wired Magazine's March edition in which I found a glaring error; the sort of twisted logic commonly employed in Wired's agitprop... er, articles.

Cox writes:
"For all [Howard] Stern's complaints about the FCC, the truth is that government policies made him what he is today. When the government lifted regulations on radio station ownership in the mid-'90s, communications giants like Clear Channel muscled their way into local markets - so no more Dave in the Morning or Billy the Wonder Weasel. Larger-than-life national personalities like Stern and Rush Limbaugh replaced quirky local hosts. Stern can now be heard on 40 stations nationwide. He may be pissed at the FCC for telling him what not to say, but he should send them a thank-you note for allowing him to spray himself across such a big audience."

While I'm not set out to correct every Wired article which gets my goat, I fired of a letter to the editor (AKA "Rant + Rave Department) stating:
"Ana Marie Cox's "Howard Stern and the Satellite Wars" (03.05) asserts that Stern's widespread success belongs to the FCC, due to deregulation in the mid-90's which allowed the industry to consolidate around the most popular hosts. Saying that Stern owes his popularity to the government refraining from controlling the [free] market is akin to attributing the health of any pedestrian, to the vehicles on the road which don't run over them; statements which are both equally ridiculous and false.

I maintain that despite the indecency laws which violate first amendment freedoms, the free market is ultimately the only capable judge for the allocation of the broadcasting spectrum to the needs which serve the individuals and the public. Stern's success may have only been jumpstarted by the derring-do of his verbal-jaywalking, but from now on he will be judged solely by the non FCC-meddled entertainment he provides."