In Defense of Imus

George Orwell's timing may have been off, but his sentiments may have finally caught-up with us after 23 years.
We've just endured another American travesty. Don Imus has been fired.

We don't even have to revisit his comments regarding the Rutgers women's basketball team. The odds are you already know. If you haven't heard, or you don't know, congratulations on completing Betty Ford.

Apparently, Imus's two week suspension by CBS Radio and dismissal by MSNBC's morning simulcast wasn't enough for a non-silent minority and a gutless group of advertisers.

Yes, it's true.

MSNBC is still a cable televison network. (And YOU may be that one person who appears in Keith Olbermann's ratings.)

And they fired Imus less than 12 hours before he returned to the airchair for his annual radiothon, which has raised millions of dollars for nearly two decades for SIDS and sick children. Now, CBS Radio has joined the bandwagon parade, caving to pressure while a radiothon in the talk show host's name tries to help sick children find hope.

Hope you're happy, Al Sharpton.

If the suits at GE (who owns NBC) want to end the simulcast, fine. The timing however, is absurd. Seems like another typical bonehead move by a network who tried to boost ratings with a failed ressurrection of Phil Donahue, flopped with Maury and Connie, and thought an ancient and burned-out John McEnroe would bring people to CNBC.

Based on that programming history, it wouldn't be surprising to see Ricki Lake take Imus's old TV slot.

Unfortunately in broadcasting, when one wall caves, it's easier to bring in the bulldozers instead of finding carpenters and giving them time to rebuild.

Here's a few things one should know about radio before you ask the lowly elevator operator to punch the buttons to the next floor in your ivory tower:

* A two week suspension in radio is bad enough, let alone during the spring ratings period--one of the two most important numbers periods in radio. For a broadcaster, ten days away from the airwaves is like baseball player getting sidelined 50 days for using steroids, or telling a farmer he can't harvest his crop for a month after the fruit is ripe. Apparently, CBS and MSNBC don't want any support for Imus to be spun into accusations of racism.

* What Imus said, albeit in poor taste, is supposedly protected by the First Amendment. The FCC doesn't a say in his punishment unless what Imus said was obscene, indecent, or came with malicious intent. However, unwritten rules governed by double-standards in race relations have allowed a firestorm led by incredulous black "leaders" that has sentenced Imus's career with the death penalty.

One of these supposed leaders, Sharpton, has made a name and a living shirking the character that supposedly comes with being an ordained reverend and exploiting the title to grandstand on issues while neglecting the Christian principles that come with that annointed position. For more information on this idea, google the name Tawana Brawley.

And if you've lived in America long enough, wherever Al Sharpton is found, Jesse Jackson is guaranteed to be within a furlong. To save time, just cut-and-paste "Jesse Jackson" into the previous paragraph, and then re-read it for the same effect. And if you choose not to believe that, then google his name with "Duke Rape Case".

The pair predictably appear--ironically, often separately--at the forefront of the same issues. Sadly, many of these problems are legitimate and need attention, yet, their lack of credibility undermines their causes. Just their appearances alone trivialize these causes, like Pee Wee Herman would if he spoke on behalf of the
NRA.

What Imus said wasn't in the same vein as Michael Richards' vicious attacks on two black patrons who heckled him, or Mel Gibson's vile anti-semetic comments toward a Jewish police officer, but rather a passing comment based solely (yet poorly) in humor and not a shot at the black community. Based on the overflow of media coverage, you may not have realized that yet. Few will ever defend or agree with what Imus said, but if he can't say whatever he wants, his freedom--our freedom--is compromised.

Welcome to America. Here's your revised copy of the Bill of Rights. Notice how it's now written in pencil.

The fact is, that if a black talk show host had said what Imus said, the odds are very little attention would have been brought to the subject. Sadly, there's a double-standard in this country based solely on race. It's perpetuated by blacks who feel injured, usually justifiably so, and white people who feel the need to prove to black America, and each other, that they're not racists.

GE and CBS Radio fall into this category.

Call it "white guilt" or whatever. A white person accused of being a racist will run for cover and eschew decades of loyalty like a suspected (but unproven) communist in the McCarthyist-fifties.

White people won't even defend freedom of speech even in a remotely racial context for fear of being considered slightly prejudice. For whites who fall into this category, please know that many black college professors, authors, opinion leaders and their white sympathists claim ALL white people are racists. They believe racism is a systemic way of life that blacks and non-whites suffer from, while it conversely benefits whites.

According to them, all white people are racists. In that regard, if you're white, you no longer have a choice. You're born a racist. You'll die a racist. No matter how many civil rights protests or parades you'll partake in defending the rights of all Americans, if you're caucassian, you're still a racist. Grab a Snickers.

Don Imus's situation and body of work cannot be compared to that of the average local talk show host with a fraction of the radio legend's body of work, columnists who benefit from getting scanned or saved by editors, television hosts trying to lure ratings, and PR-coached politicians whose true opinions we may never uncover.

What Don Imus has done for radio, media and for sick children should not be lost by an off-the-cuff remark on a comedy-based radio show.

Unfortunately, the surrender of CBS and GE has chiseled another crack in the Liberty Bell. Les Moonves can hold the nail while Al Sharpton bangs the mallot. Afteward, he and Jesse Jackson will pose for pictures and sign autographs.

Radio is entertainment. Plain and simple. No radio show host has ever put on a cape after he or shes leaves the air and flew-in to stop a nuclear weapon from detonating. No shock-jock's bits have ever sent a listener to ICU without the consent of their own stupidity.

And unfortunately, no sports talk show host has ever been asked to run the New York Knicks.

Contrary to popular politician and government-fed blatherskite, listeners don't own the airwaves. They own a dial, an antenna and some speakers. And if you don't like what you're hearing, hopefully you're smart enough to know what to do.

Based on the outcry from those who have called for Don Imus's head, they think otherwise. If you disagree with what Imus said, and it offends you that badly, your options are embarrassingly simple and have never changed.

Opportunistic grandstanding has cost the nation the platform of another great entertainer. Cowardice has cost many sick children the care they may have receieved had Imus been able to retain his job as an entertainer.

You don't have to agree with what he said. But understand that everything you say can and will be used against you, thanks to whistleblowers who feel the best way to add to or create an empire is to destroy someone else's.

The most overlooked aspect of this situation is the concept of forgiveness. Ministers, no matter how angry or outspoken, are supposed to support their messages with forgiveness, regardless of the sensitivity of the issue. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson seem to overlook the cornerstones of Christianity, much like they've conveniently failed to disclose their own racial comments (Jackson's "hymie-town") or failed support of victims who turned out to be liars (Tawana Brawley, and the Duke Lacrosse stripper). Even the controversial minister Jerry Falwell says he forgave Hustler founder Larry Flint after the publisher posted a parody suggesting the reverend's first sexual encounter was in an outhouse with his own mother.

It doesn't get much more personal than that.

Imus has apologized and the women he offended from the Rutgers University basketball team have accepted his efforts to speak to them. It could have ended there and the real victims would have had their day.

Instead, you can add Imus's listeners, all radio show hosts, topical radio, freedom of speech and the lives of thousands of children who would have benefitted from his charitable contributions to the sacrificial altar of a few selfish Americans, intoxicated with the idea of entitlement to something that wasn't even theirs.

Once again, freedom has been compromised and equality is still a myth masked by double-standards.

Congratulations. Welcome back to 1984.