[republicofdavis]

"His foes wanted him off the air and siezed this opportunity to reach that end. It is a double standard that has not been applied to liberals though and certainly seems to be an overreaction."

I guess this is really where the rubber meets the road so to speak with the people I've been disagreeing with. I don't think his opponents got him fired. I think he was fired before the last word escaped his lips. He'll say "they" got him, and ride that for a good long time but anyone with any objective observation of media and politics would know this was going to happen as soon as he said it.

Is there a double standard? Of course. But the answer is that we need to do a better job of raising our anger at the Malveuxs and Totenbergs so that they suffer consequences for their remarks. Of course that's tough with the media mostly aligned against us, but the situation is improving (see Dixie Chicks).

[weegee]

I think he was fired before the last word escaped his lips.

This wasn't the case. They would have pulled the plug on his immediately if they thought he went that far over the line. A "breaking news item" could have run, a rerun could have been run, they could have cut to a commercial, etc.

Consider if an on air personality suddenly started voicing holocaust denial talking points. There is no reason to leave someone on the air (even till the end of their own show) in some circumstances.

It's not government's job to determine this, it is the job of standards and practices. This was a decision that was held until the heads could be brought into it (and possibly an email campaign started).

It is a double standard though because other "offensive" hosts have remained on the air until their ratings fell and viewers notified advertisers of a boycott.

I don't think that NBC needed to wait for that to happen (and I don't know that it would have happened) but certainly there is more patience shown with leftist hosts and little if any lastig outrage.

A Florida liberal talk show host announed "news" that Katherine Harris died in a plane crash (and he followed this with "Yes!!!"). The story didn't even go national.

Katherine Harris alive despite Miami radio host's announcement (hate radio)

As to your Dixie Chicks comment, McCain had them come to Congress to speak out against their blacklist today. The Republicans do not work towards improving the double standard.