A-hole Radio
And the Imus racist-sexist insult story goes on and on and on, the media turning it into something far more significant than it really is — for example, the headline on Anderson Cooper last night: IMUS OUTRAGE.
Honestly, big deal.
I don’t care for Don Imus — I never have — and what he said about the Rutgers women’s basketball team was quite clearly racist and sexist. And I understand that the players were hurt by it.
But is anyone truly surprised by this? Is anyone sincerely outraged? This is Imus we’re talking about. And talk radio. Imus is hardly the only radio host who has used racist and sexist language (although he has a long history of it). And he is hardly the worst. Indeed, popular right-wing blowhards like Limbaugh and Hannity (not to mention Coulter) are, in my view, far more offensive far more frequently than Imus ever has been. (And I’m sure those of you more to the right of me can happily point out some offensive left-wing blowhards, too.)
Imus has been suspended for two weeks, and perhaps that was the right punishment for CBS and MSNBC to mete out — it’s up to them (they could fire him for all I care; he hardly deserves to have such a prominent soapbox from which to spew his inanity and ignorance). But calls for further censorship concern me for the very same reasons they concern Capt. Fogg, who wrote about this whole nonsense yesterday. Racist and sexist speech of this kind is certainly offensive, but freedom, including the freedom to be offensive, should take priority, given its foundational place in liberal democracy, over attempts, mostly ill-founded, to limit it for the sake of trying to protect people’s feelings or otherwise to sanitize society to the point where there is no genuine diversity of thought and speech at all.
This is not to defend Imus, of course, nor to suggest that the Rutgers players are in the wrong to be upset by what he said. He offended them, and they have every right to speak out against him. On that, I’m with them. But let’s not take this too far. Unlike media outlets — pretty much all the major ones — desperate to fill the 24/7 “news” cycle with fabricated sensationalism, let’s not make it out to be more than it is. A stupid man said a stupid thing, and he has continued to say stupid things in his defence, in his lame efforts at contrition. That’s pretty much it.
Indeed, all that we have learned from this episode — as if we needed the reminder — is that Don Imus is a bigoted ignoramus with a foul mouth.
9 Responses to “A-hole Radio”
My thoughts exactly. However I believe that the girls on the team have suffered far more from the media frenzy than they ever did from Imus’s statements. Its as if the competition has contrieved to knock Imus out of the morning slot and thus steal his ratings.
I swear I will not watch or listen to another second of this story.
Imus is generally not someone that I take note of, and even with this controversy, I’m not sure what all sanctions are being called for against him. I just wanted to say that there are two things that are causing his latest remarks to make such a stir.
For one thing, he has been considered a respectable part of our public discourse. Most major candidates and media figures, of both parties, make an effort to be on his show. The call for sanctions against him are in part a reaction against that (and are therefore perhaps misdirected).
The other issue, IMO, is that the airwaves are a public resource. It is possible to have radio and television broadcasts only because the Feds regulate the use of the relevant electromagnetic frequencies so that one, and only one, station is transmitting in a given place. Otherwise, the signals would conflict and nothing could be picked up. Given that, should we be allocating some of this very valuable resource to people like Imus. Of course, you’re right that the question applies equally well to a lot of others, so Imus is kind of a fall guy for this issue, but still the issue is relevant.
Just my $0.02.
Very good comments. I agree with both of you. This media frenzy isn’t doing the players any good at all, it seems to me, and Imus has managed to blend his bigotry in with mainstream political commentary. The fact that politicians like Kerry and McCain and leading media types like Rich, Dowd, and Russert have been regulars is, quite simply, an embarrassment.
I agree with this post. I think what he said was absolutely deplorable, but report it, let MSNBC deal with it as an employer, and move on.
(And I’m sure those of you more to the right of me can happily point out some offensive left-wing blowhards, too.)
Actually I can’t. I dont even listen to them or for that matter know who they are.
Nobody- Thats because left wing blowhards don’t exist. What….some right wing blowhard send you on a snipe hunt again?
Offensive is offensive -whether or not its right or left wing or middle-of-the road. I’m in favor of free speech, but its a shame that shock jocks like Howard Stern and Imus make the big bucks by appealing to the lowest common denominator. It wouldn’t work unless the audience was there for it.
Thanks for the thoughtful post. But there is a lot of really crude stuff in the entertainment world, and RAP music is not known for lyrics that would get the Good Housekeeping seal of approval. A lot of it is pretty raw, and yet there doesn’t seem to be a lot of demand for the radio stations to not play it. So why should we pick on Imus and not the rappers? The outrage seems selective.
Actually, Don Imus has shown more class than a lot of folks, like 88 or so professors at Duke University, and various other academics like the historian who blogs as Tenured Radical. Imus was wrong, and he apologized for saying crude things that hurt the feelings of the Rugers basketball players. It is very possible that his apology was somehat insincere, and motivated by concern that his radio gig might get cancelled, but he did make a very public apology. Now, contrast that to the folks who rushed to judge the Duke lacrosse players as rapists, even as evidence rapidly mounted that there was no case. Tenured Radical weighed in less than a week ago, and still misses the point – there was no case against the three young men; but many of the Duke faculty rushed to convict them in the court of public opinion, refuse to admit that these men were wronged. I doubt Marcotte or the rest of that crowd will show even a fraction of the responsibility for their actions that Imus has.
Nobody says: “Actually I can’t. I dont even listen to them or for that matter know who they are.” For starters, how about Amanda Marcotte and Al Sharpton? Look, there are plenty of nasty commentators out there, and Mr. Imus and the right are scarecely alone. But I think that your remarks illustrate a part of the problem. I suspect many of us are willing to give a pass to people who we otherwise agree with.
I don’t care for Imus any more than for Al Sharpton or amanda Marcotte, but no one should be censored. However, if the sponsors decide to spend their money supporting other radio programs, I won’t lose a minute of sleep over any of these unpleasant mouthpieces having to stand on a soapbox in Central Park to be heard.
Hearing things we dislike hearing, is part of the price of democracy. Freedom of speech guarantees that you will not like everything you hear. That is not a reason to destroy,limit or “reign in” free speech. Toughen up, get used to the idea that not everybody sees the world the way you do. People will say stupid things, the will say mean things, they will even lie. This applies from the worst of us to the best, from the bottom to the top across the racial and ethnic spectrum. We should not chastise and destroy what we claim to cherish, we should discuss, enlighten and understand the dialogues we are presented with. If we stifle speech we disagree with, we don’t prevent it, we merely drive it underground like the illicit drug business which seems to be thriving as nicely as ever. Lets apply a little more critical thinking and a lot less emotion to the world we all co-exist in, perhaps together we can enlighten and educate those among us who lash out in fear and hatred of people they don’t know and don’t understand, its certainly better than holding our fingers in our ears and pretending we can’t hear that which we don’t like. Don Imus is stupid, if we make stupidity illegal we will have most of the planet in prison. Taint enough room, let’s think with our hearts AND our minds.