I disagree with you guys on this Imus “free speech” defense. Just as we don’t have freedom of speech to yell fire in a crowded theatre, we don’t have freedom of speech to use the powerful, publicly owned airwaves to "mainstream racism". I find the sophomoric discussion in the media in defense of freedom of speech and anti political correctness to be ludicrous. The victims of speech like Imus’ generally don’t have the means (the airways and millions of listeners/viewers) to come on every day and fight back with what you guys would call “intelligent conversation.” Besides, the last thing the media want to encourage is intelligent conversation. They are quite satisfied with the hit and run attacks on the black community which over time build a negative impression to be applied negatively to the entire race. But finally, and thankfully, the black community (and thinking white community) has had enough.
What Imus did is not extraordinary and not new in our society. It is what has made right wing talk radio increasingly successful over the last 30 years in this country and brought it to the pinnacle which it now enjoys. It is what helped to build the conservative revolution in this country. There are lots and lots of white people (I can’t imagine that he would make that comment to draw in black people to his program) who feel empowered to make such comments if Imus does it. And you know, although it started by targeting the black leadership and black population in the country, it is the kind of tactic that is being used in the media to marginalize the liberal/progressive/Democra
tic movement today. Fortunately, America is getting tired of it. It is time for the hate mongers to be knocked down. And starting with Imus is fine with me.
One other point, I didn’t hear the “free speech/ anti political correctness” crowd coming out to protect OJ when his publisher withdrew the OJ book from publication. All I heard on the radio and tv at the time was how insensitive and immoral it was to publish his book and allow him to profit off of the murders of his wife and her friend. Were you defending OJ’s freedom of speech at the time? And I can’t imagine that the “free speech/ anti political correctness” crowd would stand still for a moment and allow Minister Farrakhan to fill the airwaves daily with hate speech. In my opinion, the current free speech defense of Imus doesn’t hold water.
posted by aint supposed to die a natural death 
