April 11, 2007 [LINK / comment]
I hardly ever listen to Don Imus, and it's hard for me to get excited about obnoxious words he and folks like him utter over the air waves. Like Rush Limbaugh, Bill Maher, and others in that line of work, shocking people is their bread and butter, so, once in a while, they are bound to overstep the bounds of propriety. What should we do about it when they do? Engage in yet another drawn-out national ritual of collective guilt mongering over our racist culture, taking up half of the evening news on Tuesday? No! We simply get off our rear ends, walk over to the radio set, and either change the station or just click the dang thing off. The more pompous breast-beating we engage in, the more we undermine the individual responsibility to hold jerks accountable. The good news from this episode is that Imus does seem to have realized that he acted like a jerk, and deserves punishment. Losing advertisers or a brief suspension, sure. Firing him from MS-NBC? I don't think so. Of course, the big irony is that he had to apologize to an even bigger jerk who is on my list of unmentionable wackos.