A rather lively debate erupted in the newsroom earlier this week over the Federal Communication Commission's fine against Clear Channel Communications.

The FCC proposed a $755,000 fine against Clear Channel for a radio show that was deemed a little too obscene for the public airwaves.

The material aired as part of shock jock "Bubba the Love Sponge's" show on a Tampa, Fla., radio station.

Bubba has been in hot water before over his antics on the radio, which, it's only fair to say, made him No. 1 in pretty much every market he's worked.

That says a lot about our culture right there.

(On a side note, Bubba, 39, is a Warsaw Community High School graduate. In his WCHS days, he was known as Todd Clem.)

We won't get into the content of the show. Suffice to say that if it triggered the largest fine in the history of the FCC, it was probably a little raunchy.

In response, Clear Channel apologized. The head of the company said he was ashamed of the content and that his company would do better.

Clear Channel also pulled Howard Stern's show from a half dozen stations it operates because of its raunchy content.

This, of course, is of deep concern to some of my liberal friends because it seems to be some sort of infringement on freedom of speech.

The heavy hand of government trampling the rights of the individual to freely express himself.

I suppose that is true to a certain degree, but I suggested there must be some standards or guidelines with regard to content on the public airwaves.

Then my liberal friends reminded me that I was a conservative and should be in favor of less government, not more.

Then one of them said, "I don't every want to hear you say 'less government' again."

Boy, they really got me on that one, eh?

Well, not really.

Conservatives, in theory, favor less government and liberals favor more, but it's really a lot more complex than that.

I think it mostly depends on issues.

When it comes to social issues, conservatives generally seem to actually want more government intervention.

When it comes to fiscal, economic or environmental issues, conservatives want less government intervention.

Most conservatives think abortion is wrong. They want the government to step in and prohibit it. More government.

Liberals want the government to stay out of it. Let women choose. Less government.

Kind of backwards, isn't it? On abortion, conservatives take the liberal view and vice versa.

It's fun to think about because while my liberal friends were concerned about my desire for the government to set standards for the likes of Bubba and Howard Stern, they had no problem desiring the government to set standards for the likes of Clear Channel Entertainment.

They were concerned that Clear Channel has become too large a media conglomerate and will stifle the creativity of the market.

The government needs to keep an eye on that, you see.

And how about the environment?

Would it be OK with the liberals to punch a few oil holes in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge?

Nope, need the government to hold the line there.

How about that Ten Commandments monument on the courthouse lawn?

Government's gotta step in and make sure that doesn't happen.

So whether you're a conservative or liberal really depends on how you feel about issues, not necessarily how you feel about how government deals with issues.

During our FCC discussion, one of my liberal friends suggested that if the FCC kept pushing, soon government would be trampling free speech everywhere.

Big Brother would be knocking on the doors of newspapers who dared to criticize W.

Ah, yes, the slippery slope. But conservative or liberal, one must take care when arguing the slippery slope.

That's because hills always have a slope on each side and you can slide down either one.

If you argue that an out-of-control FCC could censor newspaper opinion pages, you must concede that if the FCC were eliminated, NBC could start streaming XXX movies into our homes during prime time.

Frankly, I think both scenarios are about equally as likely - as likely as Chinese paratroopers invading the newsroom as I write this.

But still, generally, I do believe that conservatives believe in smaller, less expansive government.

But those are true conservatives, not today's unreasonable facsimiles in Washington.

I mean, really. We've got a Republican president, Republicans in the majority in both the House and Senate, and they're expanding government spending at a rate hitherto unknown to the people of America.

And that's fairly unusual and highly unsettling. [[In-content Ad]]