Coming to a courtroom near you: Parton v. Stern?

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Country icon Dolly Parton is said to be weighing lawsuit to former radio icon and current Sirius yakmeister Howard Stern. Stern and his crew broadcast edited audio of Parton in such a way as to make her sound like a foul-mouthed racist.


According to the Associated Press, a 1990 audio autobiography was used to come up with the doctored rant, which played while Stern and cast laughed and made comments as if it was a genuine audio clip.

AP posted Parton’s release, in which she said, "I have never been so shocked, hurt and humiliated in all my life. I cannot believe what Howard Stern has done to me. In a blue million years, I would never have such vulgar things come out of my mouth. They have done editing or some sort of trickery to make this horrible, horrible thing. Please accept my apology for them and certainly know I had nothing to do with this. If there was ever going to be a lawsuit, it’s going to be over this. Just wanted you to know that I am completely devastated by this."

Parton is reportedly considering a lawsuit.

RBR/TVBR observation: We are reliable defenders of the First Amendment, but frankly we are tired of having to do so for this kind of thing. We have never understood what was so great about the self-proclaimed King of All Media. We do not find him funny, or even interesting. However, we follow the advice we always give everybody else with a complaint about an air personality. We change the channel.

Still, it is unbelievably sad what passes for entertainment in some corners of the media these days. Free speech is one thing, and baseless, pointless character assassination is another. We hope Dolly sues, and wins.