On Imus Again. (Everyone Else is Talking About It.)

Fox25 reported that Barack Obama is now calling for Imus's dismissal.  I can't find support for that online, so Fox25 might be wrong.  Obama should certainly know better.  Public officials should not call for anyone to be punished because of speech.  I would expect a Harvard Law man to have more respect for the Bill of Rights, so I sort of doubt Obama said that.  Deval Patrick got it right - "That's up to the station."

Both men certainly waited to see which way the wind was blowing before setting sail, though.  Nothing like strongly-held principles.  For my part, I've been angry about his Jew-bashing and misogyny for years.  I still listened.  One accepts it as comedy.  Or, one used to, apparently, before the mainstream media decided to get even with Don Imus.

By the way, the double standard on Imus is astounding.  Robert Johnson, BET founder, and as establishment a black man as you'll find in America, said yesterday -essentially- that  blacks can have a discussion about the language they use about each other, but whites cannot.  I find the hypocrisy galling.

Make no mistake: Imus is done.  He won't come back from this.  And it couldn't happen to a nicer guy; he's a prick who deserves everything he gets.  But it's still a loss.

It is dangerous to silence offensive speech.

Comments

[carpundit]

"Senator Barack Obama of Illinois told ABC News yesterday that Mr. Imus should be fired." It's from the New York Times, so it must be true.

Shame on Obama if it is.

[Angela]

Like my boyfriend and I were talking about this morning, one single Ludacris song is far more offensive than anything Imus could say. Right or wrong, offensive or not, isn't the point.