Imus and the Hyprocrites

This post appeared in a slightly different form in the April 20, 2007 of The San Diego Union-Tribune under the title "Free Speech Takes a Beating." Here's the link: http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20070420/news_lz1e20tenuto.html

I have not come to praise Imus, nor to bury him.

Last week, Don Imus, agent provocateur of the radio waves, uttered an ill-timed comment regarding the Rutgers women’s basketball team. Ill-timed because this is the same Imus whose program parodied the Catholic cardinal of New York City by having “him” read the winning lottery numbers, who always ended mock interviews with the senior senator from Massachusetts with “him” speaking underwater, and who played the “Black Beatles” songs, one that included the lyric, “We all live in a yellow Cadillac.” And only now we are outraged?

There are issues more important that what Don Imus said, and said only once. The horde that clamored to crush Imus and succeeded in securing his ouster from both CBS Radio and MSNBC acted not with righteous indignation but mendacious posturing, leavened by a staggering hypocrisy.

CBS President and Chief Executive Office Leslie Moonves said, “There has been much discussion of the effect language like this has on young people, particularly young people of color trying to make their way in society.” The same CBS that aired the Grammy Awards, where rap-star Ludacris’ song “Money Maker” was named the Rap Song of the Year. As for the “effect language like this has on young people”, Imus said it once; since that time print, radio, television and electronic media have repeated it tens of thousands of times, publicizing the comment far beyond Imus’ listeners. A Google search of the three words reveals nearly two million results!

Adding to the list of usual suspects are the Reverends. Jesse Jackson crowed that Imus’ dismissal was “a victory for public decency”, this from a man who fathered a child out of wedlock and has been gorging himself at the public trough for the better part of four decades.

One should hold particular distaste for the pandering Reverend Al Sharpton. Here’s what New York’s most opportunistic religious figure had to say: “He says he wants to be forgiven...But we cannot afford a precedent established that the airways can commercialize and mainstream sexism and racism.” This presupposes that Sharpton’s television is caught in a time warp that features a continuous loop of Lassie and Ozzie & Harriet. I can only hope he watched that paragon of good taste, Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show…on CBS.

At one point, Sharpton suggested that Imus would come through this trial unscathed, perhaps in the same fashion that Sharpton did in the aftermath of the Tawana Brawley affray.

The NAACP, not wishing to be an afterthought, also piled on. The same NAACP that sponsored the 38th Annual Image Awards. The show was hosted by LL Cool J. Read the lyrics of “Fudgidabowdit” and try to argue that they have a shred of dignity or redeeming value. I challenge the NAACP to contrast them with Imus’ unfortunate utterance and explain its unusual silence on the entire issue of rap music. (A search of the NAACP website uncovers exactly three references to hip-hop music, none for rap.)

The voices of CBS, the Reverends, and the NAACP are strangely silent when it comes to the misogynistic, demeaning lyrics of hip-hop and rap music, persistent hate speech that goes far beyond Imus’ quaint, dated reference. Their voices are also strangely silent when Bill Cosby makes one of his pungent observations about African American culture.

And don’t trot out the canard that “we” can say anything about ourselves but that “you” can’t say it. If words are hurtful and demeaning than whoever utters them is hateful and helps perpetuate negative stereotypes.

Another issue is free speech. Where are the stalwarts of free speech? They have muzzled themselves in the face of this onslaught from the “right thinking” mob. Here is another example of someone else, with the arrogance of their position, dictating what we can or can’t listen to, watch on television, or see in theaters. They become arbiters no different from demagogues and dictators. Who is next?

Don Imus now has a choice. He can slither over to satellite radio and join the detestable Howard Stern, or he can go quietly into the night. Imus is a money machine, a means of production that buoyed not only CBS radio but also MSNBC TV. In an entertainment version of Atlas Shrugged he can leave the field of battle to the mediocre and the antiseptic.