I usually don't weigh in on stuff like this, but I wanted to take a moment to talk about what he said and all of the hoopla surrounding his remarks.

Radio seems to be a medium perfectly suited for extremes, whether they be extreme attitudes on social and political issues, extreme attitudes about sports teams...extreme tax law. I don't know if radio's extremity has more to do with the radio personality being relatively closed off in their booth and sitting behind a lone microphone, or if it has more to do with the tens of millions of unemployed people and truck drivers who keep talk radio alive. It’s probably a little of both.

All I know is that anytime you place an egotistical and hyper political person in a situation where they have basically unlimited power of speech, they will eventually take their remarks over the line that they keep pushing further and further past the edge of reason.

For those of you who don’t know what Don Imus said, he called the women on the Rutgers Women’s basketball team a bunch of “nappy-headed hos,” “rough girls,” and remarked that they resembled men. Bernard McGuirk, Don Imus’ producer remarked that watching the University of Tennessee Volunteers vs. Rutgers Scarlet Knights was like watching “the jigaboos vs. the wannabes.” Imus later went on to add that the Tennessee players were “cute” by way of comparison to the Rutgers team. Much laughter ensued.

Needless to say, MSNBC, which broadcasts his radio show over television, and CBS, which broadcasts his radio show, have placed Don Imus on a two-week suspension, over which he plans to personally apologize to the Rutgers Women’s basketball team, as well as make his rounds on the apology circuit. I’m not sure if this suspension carries any kind of monetary fine, so I’m not sure if Don Imus basically just got a couple of weeks off to spend some time at his multi-acre ranch or at one of his mansions.

If this had been an isolated incident, I may view this with the same eyes I view Michael Richards’ remarks, but this is just yet another incident of Imus being the homophobic, racist, and sexist person that he is.

Yet, I don’t quite feel comfortable asking for his dismissal. I don’t know if it’s my lack of confrontation skills or what, but I have never been one to ask for people’s employment head when they say sexist, racist, or homophobic remarks. His employment (or lack thereof) should be a matter between him, his employers, his sponsors, and his audience. I don’t listen to his show, so I’m already doing my part.

Because at the end of the day, whether or not he’s on the air, the attitudes he holds and gives voice to are going to exist. And personally, I want to know exactly what those a-holes are thinking.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot recently. It seems that even though we’re getting more politically correct as a society, the attitudes that the political correctness were meant to change have grown more cemented, or in some cases, have grown more bitter and outspoken.

Social conservatives who fight tooth and nail to preserve the right to be as homophobic, sexist, and racist as they want to be are not going to change, period. And if they’re not going to change, I want to know what the hell is on their minds.

Maybe political correctness is something that needs to be followed through with, even though I may not always agree with the way its been implemented. Maybe people like Don Imus and Bill O’Reilly need to be smacked down by their employers. Maybe everyone who listens to them needs to have this bullshit broken out of them the way 3 year olds have to be told that they can’t throw a temper tantrum every time something is asked of them.

Maybe asking these bozos to behave better than a 3-year old is asking too much.


my two cents for this Tuesday