Sleeping with Don Imus - The Morning After

Unless you live under a rock, and you’d have to in order to escape the 24-hour news cycle these days, you by now have seen that Don Imus was fired by CBS, just on the heals of his firing from MSNBC and subsequent to his insensitive comment about the Rutgers basketball team. That makes the third firing of a major syndicated morning radio host for indecency when you consider the previous firings of Howard Stern and Opie & Anthony.

First of all, let me go third person and say that Red Renee does not in any way agree with the comment made by Don Imus. I also don’t believe he should have been fired for what he said. If I were listening to his program at the time he made that comment (and I wasn’t), I would have simply turned the channel, just like I have in the past when both Howard Stern and Opie & Anthony have gone into schticks that I didn’t care to listen to. My personal opinion is that Don Imus’ comment was based out of a misplaced attempt at hipness and a certain level of ignorance. And he’s on the radio for four hours a day five days a week for eternity. I’d bet a large sum of someone else’s money that nearly every person in America would say something stupid, insensitive, or ignorant if on the air for that much time. I also don’t believe that most of his audience was offended by the comment. It is when comments like that meander out of the stream it’s flowing in and wash upon the shore of public opinion that context and emotion take over.

Unfortunately, lost in all of this are several points which Americans must acknowledge. First point is the choice we all have in a free society to change the channel. If we were living in a Communistic society and there was only one radio station and Don Imus was on it, then yes he should have been fired. Maybe it’s my fervent belief in a free market capitalistic society but I believe the free market would decide the appropriateness of a comment (and maybe that partially happened here too; see: advertisers). The freedom of speech banner is hoisted by both “sides” in matters of race and sex but I believe ignorant speech and expression is protected by the Constitution. Speech motivated by hate or with the intent to incite violence is not protected. I don’t believe hate or violence were at work here.

Then there’s the topic of “the free air waves” and the notion that Imus should have been held to a higher standard because he’s on those free air waves. The FCC has clearly shown its’ jurisdiction and fervor for weighing in on these matters and to the best of my knowledge, the FCC did not threaten to take away any broadcast licenses here.

Also, let’s not even for a second pretend that everyone has taken the moral high road here. First of all, Don Imus did not express contrition for his comment until well after the firestorm began. It’s an awfully hollow apology when Imus or celebrities or politicians or athletes apologize for offending someone or getting caught but not at the immediate moment the word or phrase left their lips.

Second, it’s utterly shameful how the news media has exploited this story and concurrently invaded the lives of the Rutgers basketball players who are just caught in the middle of all of this.

Third, there’s the honorable reverend Al Sharpton himself. He and his rent-a-mob, which I believe truly only represent a very small minority of African-Americans, show up like a personal injury attorney at the scene of an automobile accident. There’s nothing civil or rational about how Mr. Sharpton whips his caucus into a frenzy in the name of advancing his own personal significance and no doubt financial gain. And with Mr. Sharpton’s national spotlight, no mention yesterday or today about how wrong he was in condemning the Duke lacrosse players accused of rape. I actually listened to his radio show for quite some time yesterday and heard not a word mentioned about Duke.

Fourth, there’s MSNBC and CBS proper. The timing of the firing is disgusting on both parts- first MSNBC firing on the eve of Imus’ annual radiothon for sick children and then CBS’ firing on the heels of a meeting with the aforementioned Sharpton where boycotts were threatened. If both MSNBC and CBS were in fact trying to do the “right thing” by firing Imus, they would have done so last weekend. No- they waited until the full weight of disappearing advertising dollars came to bear before they acted. It’s absolutely disgusting how both of these networks are hiding behind morality now.

Finally, there’s the rap community which use language Don Imus used and far worse, often with anger and hate as a motivation and yet still get a free pass during the dialogue from Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson. Both shuffle the rap lyrics under the rug under the guise that there’s a “performers or artistic freedom” at work. Pardon my German, but that’s complete bullshit. Speech is speech. Language is language. Expression is expression. It doesn’t matter if you’re running ripped off sample tracks underneath what you’re saying or wearing a ridiculous cowboy hat while you say it.

Let us be a nation of tolerant people, that challenge each other’s views but champion the right for that person to have those views. That rationally disagree and attempt to make meaningful change based on belief, not money. Let us all think for ourselves and not wait for a drum beater or news anchor to tell us what we should think. Let’s examine all points in contextual dialogue before coming to any conclusions. Let’s all chill out. And most importantly, let’s all just get along.

You’re welcome.