OK, so people have tolerated Don Imus for a long time. He is racist, anti-semitic, generally gruff and unforgiving of all people. And somehow it was funny until now.
It was funny until he made his insulting remarks against some innocent female basketball players. Language that is used every day. Suddenly it is intolerable. It is intolerable not because his loyal listeners care, but because Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson want to get their hands in it and they have influence over the advertisers. Because some journalist decided this was newsworthy.
I want to know if this journalist ever listened to Howard Stern. Or how many hours of Don Imus did he listen to before he decided this incident was worth destroying the man's career.
And why was he tolerable up until this point. Why was Imus's history OK?
I think people tolerate things until it is personally offending or shocking. When the jokes are about other people it's OK. But when things hit home the joker is suddenly the Devil.
Now I personally despise Howard Stern and never understood that phenomenon. I haven't heard Imus but imagine that he is similarly vulgar and unnecessary.
The power that Sharpton has over industry is surprising actually. And if he, his friends and followers have so much pull how is it possible that they haven't been able to successfully protest economically against rappers who use similarly demeaning language against women?
It's hard to distinguish the true victim here--the basketball players, the audience of Imus, Imus himself . . .
2 comments:
Eh, you live by the sword, you die by the sword. Replace "sword" with "advertisers money" in this case. Imus knew this of course, and probably knew he would push it too far one day. He's no victim. For a long time, most people who found Imus's blather repelant didn't pay any attention to him or his show, so advertisers could reach Imus's audience without the rest of us associating them with ranting vitrol. But since this comment became so notorious, they lost that ability to have it both ways, and pulled. That's all it is.
great editorial. miss talking to you about current events.
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