Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Intellectual Laziness in Imus Analysis


As has been noted, every several months, someone in this country is raked over the coals for racial remarks that range from distasteful to outright hateful. Rencent entrants in this contest have included Michael Richards and Mel Gibson.


Part of the script usually involves a public mea culpa to the likes of Dr. Phil, Baba Wawas or Al Sharpton, all of whom are eminently qualified to act as the moral compass for America.


Oddly, I'm not joking above, but anyway...


I get pretty tired of citing the first amendment in defense of these bozos. No one is seriously talking about sending the I-man to the pokey for what he's saying. If they were, a first amendment arugment would be justified.


This is all about people like Sharpton capitalizing on a situation to make a political point and burn the fear of god into anyone who dares express unpopular thoughts. While I may disagree with the Reverend, he has as much right to call for Imus' firing as I do to call for the month of April to be named after me.


If Sharpton and the rest of the self-annointed morality police were really serious about media companies spewing out offensive material then they would make a bigger case about the movies and music that implicitly condone violence, sex and racism.


It's no more honest to say that Don Imus the individual espouses racism because of his show than it is to say that Bruce Willis the individual condones blowing up buildings and shooting people up because he portrays such characters in movies.

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