Good points. as far as Imus goes, I pretty much agree with you. He has apologized and he should shut up now. On the other hand, I've never listened to the guy, but if he is as described he's part of something that really bugs me -- the degeneration of public discourse into name-calling.
I am thinking that this is or at least *should* no longer be about Imus. If it's offensive and people don't understand why perhaps the offended parties should explain why instead of calling racist, which is just another name? All I know is that I personally am pretty tired of the bitch/ho thing. In the same way, I think the Attorney Generals firing brouhaha is less about the guys who got fired than it is about Gonzales. I think people want him to resign because of everything, not just because of the jobs of some political appointees. ?? >> -----Original Message----- > >That goes to my point: this guy (and literally hundreds more like him) are >paid (highly paid) to be, essentially, professional assholes. They're >pushed to the line (that's where the money is) and will definitely cross it >sometimes (actually often). They talk publically for hours on end everyday >and most of it is off-the-cuff diarrhea of the mouth. There should be no >punishment - this is his job: if CBS doesn't want a shock-jock, fine - fire >him for that. But don't punish him for riding the wave that his employers >and listeners have made. > >So here's the issue: we've got a guy that spews mountains of crap everyday. >He's paid highly for it and has hordes of fans that eat it up like candy. >Now we're focusing our national attention on one statement that he's already >apologized for? Nothing he said was illegal or subject to FCC fines. He's >admitted he was wrong, there's no evidence that the remark was racially >motivated or that he himself is a racist... he's definitely an asshole >(again, that's why he has the job) but from what I've heard (I'm not a fan) >he's at least an equal opportunity asshole. > >Still - we could have made our various cases against him. Could have waited >to see if his ratings fell - if they fell far enough then he would have been >fired. It would seen clearly that he no longer spoke to the people as he >once had. The market would have spoken. Problem solved. On the other hand >perhaps he apologizes. Although his ratings dip his fans eventually forgive >him and he grows a bit wiser as a result. > >But no - we couldn't have THAT! We have to make it a social issue. We have >to endlessly dissect it. We have to have punishment! We have to MAKE HIM >SQUIRM! > >This does not help stop racism in America: it just adds yet another word to >the list that people are afraid to say, another issue to divide us. It >installs another racial barrier to open discussion. Another filter to race >relations. When everybody is scared that they'll get crucified if they slip >up then nobody says anything of value. > >Jim Davis ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Upgrade to Adobe ColdFusion MX7 Experience Flex 2 & MX7 integration & create powerful cross-platform RIAs http://www.adobe.com/products/coldfusion/flex2/?sdid=RVJQ Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:232314 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
