It is a shame in today’s society that the single most important news story for a week straight is not who Anna Nicole Smith’s baby’s daddy may be, but rather, three words spoken by an aging shock jock suffering from mental diarrhea. Wanting to open my blogging career with an entry about Imus doesn’t exactly seem like a joy, but it’s something I feel should be addressed, because what those three words have spawned in our present culture is frightening to me, and should be frightening to anyone who cares about the liberties of America.
There are a few things about this situation that have angered me over the week, and the first of those was the simple fact that Imus has said hundreds of things worse than this (knappy headed hoes…not exactly as bad as his diatribes against Jews or women, or the Indian tennis double players). Why this phrase, especially considering that it could have very easily have come out of a Dave Chappelle or Carlos Mencia show, or off the airwaves of any rap station in America? Behind this question is another, in which for days after the words were said there wasn’t a major uproar (sure, the Rutgers girls were hurt, and Imus was apologetic), but he surely wasn’t in immediate danger of losing his job. Until Sharpton. Perhaps he wasn’t the first to suggest that this would be a race issue, but he was the one who gave the issue its face. While personally, I find it hard to think that Imus’s remarks towards the Rutgers players is any more racist than what he’s said about other races, or any more sexist than what he’s said about white women or other women, the media immediately latched onto this and the truth is now that Imus has lost his job and his credibility. What Al Sharpton has shown America is not that diatribes against African-Americans (or just three words, not necessarily diatribes) will lose you your job because Imus is not the only one saying these things. Sharpton should be knocking on the doors of every rapper and talking with them about the sexist, racist, and violent lyrics that pour from the same radio that Imus once did. But Sharpton calls this “poetry.”
So, I think there are two major issues that come out of this scandal that are important to look at in depth:
Americans ARE as Dumb as Everyone Says We Are
Or at least at some point this is what corporations, the media, and news would like us to believe. Apparently, we, as Americans, are not able to determine what is good and what is bad. I’m not sure about standard Americans, but generally when I come across a show that messes with my sensibilities (and I have fairly strong sensibilities, so they aren’t often ruffled), I do what comes naturally: I turn the dial or change the channel. Sometimes I find myself watching Fox News because I find them interesting, but at times the preachy musings of Bill O’Reilly force me to go to MSNBC where even then Keith Olbermann’s desire to be the next Edward R. Murrow has me forgetting the news for the day and spending the night with the Discovery Channel. This ability to make decisions is a basic ability of human beings. When I was four I knew that I wanted to play with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles things and not G.I. Joes (that would come later). So, for the corporations, the media, or the news to perform a witch hunt against Imus is simply a sign that they do not trust us Americans to make a decision for ourselves.
If the thousands of Americans who listened to Don Imus had heard his remarks and then turned him off, it would have reflected in his ratings. If those people continued to turn him off, it probably would have affected his job. This is the consumers right to choose their poisons. Howard Stern, who makes Don Imus appear like a vestigial virgin in contrast, still has a lucrative job, even after saying and doing things much worse. Stern’s response to criticism was simply to say, if you don’t like me turn me off. Much in the same way I sometimes prefer O’Reilly or Olbermann, Americans have the ability to dictate what they prefer, and those preferences are reflected in what is offered. Capitalism mandates that things that are not popularly accepted will not continue. If there isn’t a market for it, it won’t last.
So let us make our own decisions about what we find acceptable or not.
All Men Are Created Equal…but Free Speech is Not
When Don Imus appears on the cover of TIME magazine, it makes the issue a big deal. Perhaps up until that point he hadn’t been a big deal. Sure, dominating newscasts may give the impression of importance, but when your only other competing news story involves Anna Nicole Smith’s baby, I wouldn’t exactly call it a major award. But when TIME recognizes your importance, America pays attention.
And what does the cover of TIME ask? Who Can Say What? (view inset picture above)
And this is a great question. Because of Imus’s words (and remember, there were only three of them), radio broadcasters across America are sitting a little hotter in their chairs for fear of what they may say or do. While this is a good thing, it’s also a terrible thing.
Explanation?
People now realize that what they say carries consequences. In this American culture, it seems that you can get away with saying anything, simply because of free speech. And you can. However, you should be prepared to deal with the consequences of what you say. If nothing else, Imus has taught America responsibility.
However: Imus has also given those who would like to P.C. America (to its free speech grave) a ticket in this situation where now they can teach America responsibility. They, the Al Sharptons and those behind the firing of Imus, now have a pulpit in which they can preach that you are not free to say anything you like.
Sure, don’t get me wrong, I think what Imus said was reprehensible (especially considering that this is the most minor of a long string of racist, sexist remarks). However, Imus said it to an audience who knew what to expect. People listened to Imus daily and knew that shock jocks shock people. In this case: Imus shocked the wrong person. This isn’t grounds for his expulsion from his job or chosen career. Imus sold. What he said sold. And, under the American Constitution, Imus has done nothing wrong. The founding father’s granted everyone rights, one of those was not the right to not be offended.
In a perfect world, Imus would have lost the faith of his listeners, who would then have affected change by silencing him in the best way possible: the volume dial. When Imus’s ratings dropped, the network would have dropped him. Same result, but reached in a democratic and AMERICAN way.
But we do not live in that perfect world. Imus was fired for what he said, sending a message to anyone in the public sphere (be it Rosie O’Donnell on The View or Snoop Dog, or Lisa Lampinelli and her fellow comedians such as Carlos Mencia), that what you say can destroy your life. Rather than letting the American public choose Imus or not, that right of choice, just like Imus’s right to free speech, has been taken away.
In conclusion, I want to make it clear that I think Imus losing his job for this is a just end to what he said. However: the decision was reached in the wrong manner, as I’ve already pointed out. This situation has spawned the next evolution of the P.C. movement, and eventually, all Americans will be touched.
One day, we’ll listen to clean music, clean talk shows, clean television, etc. And this blogger believes that that will be a terrible day. What America and its artists and mouth pieces have to say is not clean, and when we begin to ignore the things we don’t want to hear (i.e. the truth that racism and sexism still exists), then radical and important change will cease. How are Americans to know that racism needs to be addressed unless someone outwardly expresses their racism (as Imus may have done in this case)? The P.C. police would like to homogenize all American speech into perfection, and create nothing but lies about the imperfection that America still is.
But perfect speech is not perfect thought or action.
Maybe one day, when all people do view all other people as equals, and all men and women of any creed and color and religion find themselves on an even and completely homogenized keel, this talk will cease to exist and it will not be a problem. The truth is: what Imus said is only a problem, because the culture behind his words still exists. Imus’s three words are only the tip of an iceberg, where in 90%, the culture, is hidden from our view. Right now, America knows the iceberg is there, and we can smoothly sail around it, in knowledge of the problem, but not skirting the issue. If the P.C. police have their way, that 10% will disappear, but the iceberg, will not.
And it’s a shipwreck waiting to happen.
