--- In [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > > In a message dated 4/12/07 1:39:06 P.M. Central Daylight Time, > [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: > [quoting the Blue Jersey blog:] > But I > think what has so many of us so annoyed by his latest insult > is that it was just so damned mean, so damned nasty, so > incredibly uncalled for even under the standards of the > political/media culture we live in today. The RU basketball > team wasn't asking for it. > > I guess you and I see it entirely different. My take was that > nothing was said out of meanness,with the intent to cause hurt > feelings but rather Imus got a little too comfortable with > Ghetto speak, yet couldn't pull it off right without sticking > his foot in his mouth. Somebody is always waiting to be > offended to claim their status as a victim and all that goes > along with it.
Yeah, I don't think these teenagers were just waiting for him to hurt their feelings. It came out of the blue. Why on earth would they expect a big-time radio and TV host to make fun of their appearance and call them whores? He's a rich, elderly white guy. Why on earth should he have allowed himself to get comfortable with ghetto- speak in the first place? And of course it wasn't just the women. It struck a nerve across the country. You don't toss a guy who's been making you lots and lots of money unless you're getting one heck of a lot of complaints. I don't think he intended to hurt their feelings; he's just so used to letting whatever nasty thought comes into his head go out his mouth without actually processing it through his brain, it never occurred to him there were actual young women who were going to be crushed by it. It doesn't matter that it wasn't his intention. What matters it that it didn't cross his mind that this would be the result. But the bottom line is that *Imus himself* realizes it was an awful thing to say. If he's not trying to rationalize it, why should you? He no longer has a show, but he still has a big potential audience and a lot of reporters eager to give him a platform. He now has a terrific opportunity to make up for what he did by speaking out against the on-air ugliness that's become such a curse in this country, encourage people to protest when Limbaugh and Savage and Beck and O'Reilly and Hannity and their ilk indulge in it. He could become a real force for reform.
