After Imus: End the Executions

Wall Street Journal ^ | 3 May 2007 | DANIEL HENNINGER

[shrinkermd]

Don Imus, Bernard McGuirk, Trent Lott, Larry Summers, the Duke lacrosse team, Jimmy the Greek, the kid who yelled "water buffalo" at Penn, Howard Cosell, Jon Stewart, Chief Illiniwek, Jackie Mason and "South Park" all have in common only one thing: They have not been Politically Correct.

...Despite the ironic mockery, political correctness still packs a punch. Say the wrong thing today and you can be gone tomorrow, your status as a top broadcaster, university president or politician obliterated. It happens in the small space of a sentence -- defrocked, banished, gonzo. Outside a courtroom, I'm not aware of many other forces in American life that can do that.

Don Imus thought he had banked enough social capital to call black women "hos" for a laugh. Weirdly unplugged from the two-second tape delay in the back of his brain ("Don't do it"), he blurted something only black hip-hop singers get to say about black women.

In what for our time is the equivalent of burning witches, the broadcasting careers of Mr. Imus and of his producer Bernard McGuirk were then put to the torch. It took them about a week to die, but with Al Sharpton stoking the flames and the parsons of the press pouring on gasoline, they finally expired, allowing most of us to disperse back to jobs and careers whose abrupt termination generally requires a statutory felony rather than merely hurting someone's feelings.

[shrinkermd]

Henninger also points out the recent Duke case was a function of political correctness.

[the invisib1e hand]

I think Mr. Henninger reads my blog.

[the invisib1e hand]

which would be an honor because I think he’s one of the greatest writers living. He and Peggy Noonan.

[Paleo Conservative]

I want to see Robspierre get it.

[The Ghost of FReepers Past]

Don’t forget that baseball player. What was his name? Was it John Rocker? Don’t forget him.

[Clemenza]

I have spent most of my life in the New York area. I used to ride the 7 train on a regular basis to visit my girlfriend in Jackson Heights. EVERYTHING Rocker said about the 7 train WAS CORRECT!

A little walk down memory lane:

""It's the most hectic, nerve-racking city. Imagine having to take the 7 Train to the ballpark, looking like you're riding through Beirut next to some kid with purple hair, next to some queer with AIDS, right next to some dude who just got out of jail for the fourth time, right next to some 20-year-old mom with four kids. It's depressing."

[Jorge]

In what for our time is the equivalent of burning witches, the broadcasting careers of Mr. Imus and of his producer Bernard McGuirk were then put to the torch.

It was a long time coming for Imus. The broadcast equivalent of a witch.

Good riddance.

[Maceman]

It's long past time to make political correctness politically correct.

DOH!

[The Ghost of FReepers Past]

Poor Rocker really got beat up for that perfectly reasonable statement.

[Revolting cat!]

I’d luv to smoke some of that stuff Henninger is smoking if he thinks the lynchings will stop (He’s mah favrit riter too!) Imus stepped on the third rail, and if he had been smart enough he’d have mocked it in his broadcasts. I be talking about the third rail of pathological American obsession with race and “oppressed” females. Only mocking, ridiculing these obsessions will get us anywhere, I believe (while I smoke my own secret stash!)

[BluH2o]

Imus appearing on the Al Sharpton radio show was a huge error. First off it validated Sharpton ... 99% of Americans were unaware that he had a radio show ... and for Imus to suck up to this race baiter (of Twana Brawley fame) is incomphrensible.

[StACase]

[Migraine]

Don’t forget that baseball player. What was his name? Was it John Rocker? Don’t forget him.

And then there was Al Campanis...

[Popocatapetl]

Actually, I am glad Imus was fired, but not for the reason given—he should have been fired for being a “crude *sshole.”

You see, that is why they *hired* Imus in the first place, because he *was* a “crude *sshole”; and *that* is the problem, *not* that he made a racist remark.

By firing him for being “politically incorrect”, it creates a false choice between freedom of speech and whatever is politically incorrect. This divides the country.

Instead it should be a choice between freedom of speech and being a “crude *sshole”. Most people don’t feel that freedom of speech on the airwaves means that you can be a foul-mouthed “crude *sshole”.

And this is important. Why? Because right now, the democrats in Congress want to shut down popular conservatives on radio and television. And such speakers, with few exceptions, are NOT “crude *ssholes”. They are the closest possible example of speech protected by the 1st Amendment, the very definition of the freedom of political speech.

So Don Imus should be off the air, if he cannot control his being a “crude *sshole”. And Rush Limbaugh should never, ever have his airplay threatened by the law.

It is the difference between political speech and obscenity.

Obscenity is not just obscenity. It incorporates hate speech, threats of violence, fraud, slander, and creating a public disturbance. If Don Imus could contain himself to not being obscene, then he should still be on the air.

[Coleus]

After Imus

[Cyber Liberty]

Don Imus thought he had banked enough social capital to call black women "hos" for a laugh.

The author is pretty good, but falls frustratingly short of getting it. It wasn't the "hos" that got him burned, it was the "nappy-haired."

A test: If he'd have said just "hos" he'd have been OK, he'd been saying that for years, I guess. But if he'd have said "nappy-haired fools" or somesuch, he'd still be out on his ear.