IMess
Finally we're getting to the heart of the matter. We learn (via Fark) that the real reason Don Imus was fired was because he was about to reveal 9/11 secrets:
In a clear sign of its intent to reign in dissident American media personalities, and their growing influence in American culture, US War Leaders this past week launched an unprecedented attack upon one of their most politically 'connected', and legendary, radio hosts named Don Imus after his threats to release information relating to the September 11, 2001 attacks upon that country.There you have it.
On a more serious note, I might as well weigh in on this saga.
I note at the outset that I don't feel sorry for Imus. He's been saying stupid and offensive things for years and it finally caught up with him.
That said, I find the media reaction to this to be one of the more interesting angles to the story. As Gwen Ifill pointed out today, we've had elite news and opinion leaders going on air for years as Imus carried on his act, and they hardly said a thing about it. Then, magically, the switched flipped and it suddenly became cool to pile on Imus under the guise of a national discussion on civility/meanness/racism/whatever.
Why were all these people seemingly okay with the coarseness until last week? I heard more than one "journalist" attempt to justify his/her change of heart on the incident after seeing the Rutgers basketball players being paraded before the TV cameras. I'm not sure when we started needing victim impact testimony to determine if a remark was sufficiently offensive or not. What if several Rutgers players had come out and said that Imus' remark didn't bother them at all? Would that have made his comments okay?
Anyway, I'd like to believe that this was truly the start of a national conversation and soul-searching about public racism, mean-spiritedness, and shock radio. But my suspicion is that issue has a shelf-life of no more than three more news cycles or the next media pile on, which ever comes first.
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