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04/12/2007: "Selective Outrage"
The other shoe dropped today on radio talk show host Don Imus, as he was fired from his radio show by CBS. This comes in the wake of MSNBC's decision yesterday to cease their TV simulcast.
By now, everyone knows about Imus' ill-advised statement in which he referred to the Rutgers University women's basketball team as "nappy headed hos". I'm certainly not going to defend Imus' actions, for while I believe in free speech I also believe in paying the price for reckless speech.
Here's what I have a problem with: Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson led the effort to have Imus fired, first by making sure everyone knew what he'd said, then by bringing sufficient pressure on his advertisers to insure they'd pull out their support. I understand their outrage, but where were they when Imus referred to CNN's Howard Kurtz as a "hook-nosed, beanie-wearing jewboy"? How about when he called his own newsreader Contessa Brewer a "fat pig" and created so threatening an environment that she was forced to quit her job?
Beyond Imus, where is their outrage every time Howard Stern opens his trap and spews garbage about practically everyone and everything? Why don't they hold Robin Quivers, Stern's on-air partner, accountable for the content. Could it be because she's black? For that matter, where was Sharpton when Jackson was referring to New York as "Hymietown".
Look, Imus deserved to be fired. His statement wasn't intended to be racist or sexist, but it was calculated to be inflammatory and for that alone he needs to be held accountable. But he and his kind have been making statements like this for decades; the only difference this time is that Sharpton and Jackson saw an opportunity and jumped on it.
When it comes to moral outrage, there cannot be any selective filters. Either something is unacceptable, or it isn't - you can't pick and choose which incidents to escalate just to make a political point. If you are unwilling to stand up against all injustice, you don't have the right to call yourself a champion by picking and choosing battles.
There are few winners in this incident. Certainly not the Rutgers team, whose shining moment will always be tarnished by its association with an idiotic statement. Not Imus, who long career is clearly over. Not the networks who broadcast Imus, who stand to lose significant money and have already lost credibility by their choosing to can him only once pressure from their sponsors became too much to bear. That leaves only Jackson and Sharpton as the "winners" - and when we allow them to decide for all of us what is and is not acceptable behavior, we all lose.
That's my $.02 - what's yours?
