Ok, this is my first diary ever. I'm probably late on the topic, but what the heck. . .every radio and TV station is still talking about it.
So Don Imus comes back calling some of his public critics (spelled o-l-d b-u-d-d-i-e-s) "bastards" for being so hard on him. Now that he's persona non grata de jour on the cablewaves, his ribs must be lonely for the lack of other media pundits and entertainers poking him there while winking to affirm their collective superiority over their plebian audiences. Poor Imus. In fact, he's getting more attention now than he ever has in all his years of shock jockeyness, going all the way back to when New Yorkers like me listened to 'Imus In The Morning' on WOR Radio. He was just a local schmuck then, instead of a national one.
But it's just a matter of time until he and his handlers figure out how to parlay this notoriety into some other financially successful endeavor. That's a foregone conclusion. Don't grieve for Don Imus; he'll be just fine no matter what happens. Just remember, it's not what they're saying about you as long as they're talking about you. (I didn't make that up - wish I could remember who did.)
What's far more important than Imus ever was, speaking as just one of those dumb plebes, is the question of how in the world we will ever rid ourselves of the ignorant racist expression that masks as entertainment in the media. If we condemn all these dopes (Imus, Limbaugh, O'Reilly, Hannity, Carlos Mencia, etc etc) then it sounds like we're against Frist, er, First Amendment rights, right? But if one poor guy like Imus gets singled out and picked on, then we're stuck with Howard Feinman on the Olbermann show snickering and trying to tell us that Don's really a good guy and shouldn't be singled out, since he's not the only one that talks that way. He's not the only one, so that makes it ok. What the *&^%???
When did social responsibility stop being a component of freedom of speech? Isn't any kind of freedom supposed to come with the responsibility of ownership? Insensitivity isn't a right, it's a shortcoming, and beyond the fact that it sells tickets, it's ignorant. The fact that Imus gets support from his colleagues in the media has nothing to do with the real meat of his character. But sorry, I'm digressing here, I'm new at this.
We can start with the big picture and demand that media curb it's brand of racism-for-entertainment. Not that that's worked yet. Or we can start with the example of one loudmouth who became so cocksure that it was okay to say just anything at all, and use it as an example to show his buddies that normal people just don't want to hear it. Staples, Proctor and Gamble, General Motors, Sprint, Glaxo Smith-Kline, Bigelow Tea. . . sure don't want to hear it. Good on them!! And of course the American people know better - they're just numb from being beaten over the head with cheap pundits for so long.