Imus Protest

Imus Protest!

The other day Don Imus, a popular talk radio personality, pointed out that a certain women's college basketball team had players with tattoos and that they were tough. Then he laughingly called them "nappy-headed hoes." This was rude and insulting. He should not have said it. I will never listen to his radio show. Of course, honestly, I had rarely listened to him and I had decided that I would not want to listen to him anyway. It amazes me that a guy on the radio can say something negative about somebody and cause such an uproar. Rush Limbaugh does it every day.

I believe that the First Amendment of the Constitution, specifically the freedom of speech, should apply in the broadest possible way to all speech. This guy's speech was distasteful and hateful, but what is there to punish? There might be a case against him about the term "hoe." If you can translate "hoe" as "prostitute" then there might a defamation lawsuit there. And if there is, I hope they sue him. But the bottom line is that if you want to punish this guy, then DON'T LISTEN TO HIS PROGRAM OR ANY STATION THAT EMPLOYS HIM. That is the way to fight back. If his listenership is diminished the sponsors will drop him and eventually his show will disappear.

The thing that really bothers me is that this guy has gotten literally days of free publicity out of this. And at the same time something he said just once, and would never say again, has been played over and over hundreds of times! It reminds me of when I was a kid. One sibling would say a bad word and the other would run to Mother. "Mom, Bobby said 'shit.'" SMACK! "Bobby said it, not me!" Then Mom answered, "Maybe, but you said it too!" The news reports that actually run the uncensored clips may even be worse than Imus. They are using the slurs to sensationalize their own shows and bring in more viewers. Little old ladies sitting around the TV. One of them asks, "What did he say?" The other one says, "Here I'll turn it up for you, they're repeating it every five minutes!"

Unfortunately for all of us, negative publicity will probably help Imus! He'll get a two week vacation and then be right back in his chair behind the microphone. And I will bet you his listenership with be higher than ever. He will have new fans and other people that never even knew him will listen just to hear what he's going to say. It will get more free media coverage. "Don Imus is back and we'll have the complete story after this message from our sponsors."

People that listen to Imus and others like him enjoy that kind of talk. They like hearing the dirt and people getting trashed. Maybe it's because those people have low self esteem and misery loves company. Maybe they are just mean. I don't know. I'm no psychologist but, in my humble opinion, people who like that kind of talk are sick and need help. I find it soo sad. But this is part of the price we pay for freedom.

______________________________________________________

Ric's Blogs All Blogs Ric's Web Site

______________________________________________________

Constructive comments welcome at ric@ricsweb.com