Okay, then, so where is a good place to perform a bad act?

If your stock in trade is behaving like a low-life, where’s the preferred stage?

If you’re a social vandal – if your mission is to throw garbage around – what makes one avenue better than another?

The most recent, same old stir-causing noises to come from the same old shock jocks – a detached, pathetic soul on Opie & Anthony’s XM Satellite Radio show, responding to prompts, spewed vulgar about Laura Bush, Condoleeza Rice and Queen Elizabeth – provided more evidence that, try is it might, the entertainment business still doesn’t have a good place for dirt to shine.

No, this isn’t about censorship, or freedom of speech or freedom of expression. Hey, you want to be a creep for a living? Knock yourself out. Just don’t spray paint obscenities on the walls in my home.

This isn’t about censorship or the FCC or taste; it’s about years of entertainment industry rationalizations that always identify a newer form of delivery service as the “perfect place” for low-road acts.

Years ago, when the shock-jock genre began to spread throughout AM radio, FM radio was determined to be the far better forum for such shows. For some reason, cruel name calling, crotch talk and doo-doo jokes were supposed to play better on FM.

But they didn’t play any better or worse on FM; they played the same.

And now satellite radio is widely regarded as the far better home for raunchy radio.

Howard Stern moved from AM to FM and now he’s on satellite Radio – where he can be more vulgar than ever before! Well, good for you, Howard!

Same goes for Opie & Anthony, who are very naughty little middle-aged boys on their FM show, but are even naughtier on their XM show.

But what would have made what was said on Opie & Anthony’s satellite show any better had it been spoken on AM, FM or into a bullhorn?

If there’s a form of entertainment that very intentionally aims low – that seeks to further desensitize an audience that doesn’t need much of a push – where is the “best” place for it?

Would Don Imus’s “nappy-headed ho’s” comment played better on FM – and even better on satellite? Or might it be that wrong is wrong and bad is bad, thus there really is no better place for it?

We’ve seen this in TV, too, when cable became the “better place” for programming deemed too objectionable for over-the-air TV. But what difference does it make?

In MTV, we have a cable network that targets kids and teens through programming that’s excessively rude, crude and lewd. That’s sick, no?

MTV is fully designed to provide inappropriate programming for young audiences. But because MTV’s a cable network we should feel better about it?

Would The Hate Network – “The Nazi Breakfast Club” followed by “The Best of Louis Farakkhan” followed by “The Do-It-Yourself Explosives Show” – be better suited for FM or satellite?

Pit bull fighting doesn’t belong on broadcast TV or cable, but might it work on pay-per-view? Or perhaps it would be best suited for a pay-per-view/satellite radio simulcast. Yeah, that’s the ticket!

And so the search continues for the best place to put bad stuff. And therein lies the hopeful news: Try as they might, they still haven’t found it; they can throw garbage out of any window they choose. But whenever and wherever it lands, it’s still garbage.

* * *

Nice job by Ch. 2 News, landing that “World Exclusive” with David “Son of Sam” Berkowitz. Attached to endless promotion, Ch. 2 stretched it over three nights.

But more than a dozen years ago, Berkowitz began to grant TV interviews. He’s good that way. He may be doing life in prison, but he always takes time out from his busy schedule.