Opie & Anthony and the First Amendment

The government should stay out of the Opie & Anthony controversy, according to Bill O’Shaughnessy, president of Whitney Radio and editorial director of two radio stations in Westchester, N.Y. He speaks frequently about First Amendment issues. “I think Melvin Karmazin and Sumner Redstone should jump in their car and go right over to the Cardinal’s residence on Madison Avenue with the most profound, graceful, heartfelt, sincere apology they can summon up,” he wrote in a commentary distributed to reporters, “and I think they also should (bring) a check – $250,000 is a nice, round number.” O’Shaughnessy called the sex-in-the-church incident an insult directly against the Archbishop of New York. But he said he expects FCC Chairman Michael Powell “is not going to trample on the First Amendment.”