imus
Out of context: Reply #202
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- TheBlueOne0
american speeh should know no limits, that shits for the towel heads.
pavlovs_dog
(Apr 12 07, 16:23)Well minus the underhanded towel head remark, I agree with you 100%. But keep in mind this wasn't the FCC or a government body going down on Imus - it was organized private citizens going after the corporate/free market sponsors of said speech on a commercial radio broadcast.
Imus can go stand on a street corner all he wants and say "Nappy Headed Ho" a thousand times. He can make a recording of him and his buddies yucking it up over whatever and sell it to people. There is no "free speech" problem here, no government censorship, no infringing of constitutional rights - this is all about commerce and civility.
The larger question is - do broadcasters have a responsibility - being only licensed users of public bandwidth - to keeping their speech "civil" and to "community standards". Not sure how I feel about that.
I guess what bugs me about this is that what Imus said that day is no different than anything he's been saying for going on 30 years now. It's bad comedy schtick, it tends towards the distasteful, and might even be unintentionally institutionalized and sanctioned racism of a sort, but it's part of the landscape of America really. The shit Imus said is repeated in houses and workplaces - for good or ill - across the country. Where do stereotypes cross the line?
I find the daily spewings of Limbaugh, Coulter and many others to be far worse and far insidious for they crouch their agenda in code words and veiled grammar, but everyone knows what they're talking about. As a democratic voter I don't like being told that I'm a traitor to my country, even in a thinly veiled way, or that women who are friends of mine who are active in women's rights issues are labelled "femi-nazis" by these broadcasters, but for some reason these labels are "ok", but "nappy headed ho" isn't? If it's ok to call someone a Feminazi on the air, well hey, then Nappy Headed Ho stays as well IMHO.
The "rap issue" is a bogey man here - those are artists producing something for the market place - either you buy it or you don't. We shouldn't and can't censor them in saying whatever they want - although the issue might be made over ANY artist's material which is racial, violent, or whatever might "offend" someone being broadcast (rap artists, metal artists, comedians, the Dixie Chicks) - again on publically licensed bandwidth - to the general community. But this has been dealt with by the Supreme Court before. The rap issue is a way to keep race in the mix and distract everyone.
I said it above in a post - this is flaming the culture/race wars - no one wins except the guys with the cash, make no mistake of that. And I mean Sharpton as much as the CBS executives with that. These guys make livings off controversies. You can't legislate human behavior - just look at the wreckage of the "drug war", or the terribly failed attempt at Prohibition. It's the same with legislating expression - it's unhealthy and detrimental to a free society.
Look, I geniunelly like Imus, although he is quite long in the tooth and his show was in it's death throes anyway. I understand times are a-changing and the marketplace spoke. Imus is gone not because of what Sharpton did, or even over what he said per se. He's gone because Staples, Pepsi, and whoever else sponsors his show thinks it's bad business to sponsor it. It's all about the cash, there are no principles at work here.