(no subject)
Apr. 18th, 2007 02:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
holzman_tweedOK, the stupid's gotten pretty thick on the ground, I guess it's time to deal on Don Imus' long-overdue shitcanning. Maybe I'm a little late to the game, but there's been plenty to keep up with.
In a nutshell, people shouldn't be upset that he got fired. People should be upset that he didn't get fired years ago. Now that sponsors have finally said he crossed the line, they should be asked to explain how it was that the thought he hadn't crossed that line years ago.
Myth: Don Imus was censored
Fact: Censorship is when the government throws you in jail or fines you for what you say or write. Censorship is when the government gets you to not say something because you're afraid of going to jail or getting fined. Censorship is not when people say that what you said is disgusting. Censorship is not when sponsors say they no longer want to be associated with you because you say disgusting things. Censorship is not when your employer fires you for saying something publicly in your capacity as their employee that they find inconsistent with their mission, let alone something that has no place in the public discourse.
Myth: Imus' freedom of speech was violated.
Fact: Imus retains the right to call anyone by whatever racial or sexual slurs he likes in his blog. He can also do it in a book he writes. He can even publish that book if no one wants to do it for him. He can stand in any public forum and do it. He can get a job at Faux Spews, where their editorial policy is that they've never met a racial or sexual slur they didn't like, and use them there. He can even buy his own TV station and set his own editorial policy.
There is no such thing as the freedom to get paid millions of dollars for causing your employer to lose millions of dollars in advertising revenue. There is no such thing as the freedom to get paid millions of dollars for abusing your employer's customers.
Myth: Imus got fired because he didn't adhere to a liberal politic.
Fact: Imus got fired because he used racial and sexual slurs to insult a woman's basketball team. It was not a matter of a political analysis being too strongly worded, nor was it a matter of him positing unpopular political ideas. Those who say this is an example of “political correctness” are right only in that “political correctness” is nothing more or less than rudeness.
Myth: Imus was fired for making an innocent mistake, he even apologized!
Fact: Imus called Gwen Ifill “the cleaning lady” at the Washington Post. He said the Williams sisters of tennis fame would make good centerfold models for National Georgraphic. Other slurs to other people have included “boner-nosed, beanie-wearing Jewboy,” “ragheads,” “animals” and more. He even hired a guy to be the mouth that uttered the slurs that he knew ahead of time he couldn't simply shrug off if they were direct from his mouth.
It's not innocent. It's not unintentional. Imus' use of racist and sexist slurs is comprehensive and longstanding. When called on it loudly enough, he usually apologizes – not unlike a domestic batterer apologizes to their victim and promises never to do it again for the umpteenth time. There comes a time in life when an apology repeated enough times without any actualy change in the behavior becomes meaningless.
Myth Imus was just trying to sound “down” by using terms he heard rappers use.
Fact It's not as rap invented misogyny. It's not as if rap has made a break from every other lyrical music form to come before it in including misogynist lyrics. If he was perusing rap lyrics, it was because he was trying to decide which racist and sexist slurs to use, not whether to use them.
Myth: It's a double standard that Imus got fired when rappers who write misogynist lyrics get published.
Fact:A publishing house acts as a disemenator of a broad variety of viewpoints, including those generally regarded as repulsive. A radio broadcaster is entrusted with a limited public asset – the airwaves. They have different missions and different ways to go about fulfilling them.
Dumb-assed rhetorical question: What about Jesse Jackson's “Hymietown” comment?
What about it? It cost him the Democratic nomination in '88. 20 years later he's still being taken to task for it. Perhaps Imus can spend the next 20 years rehabilitating himself and his image.
In a nutshell, people shouldn't be upset that he got fired. People should be upset that he didn't get fired years ago. Now that sponsors have finally said he crossed the line, they should be asked to explain how it was that the thought he hadn't crossed that line years ago.
Myth: Don Imus was censored
Fact: Censorship is when the government throws you in jail or fines you for what you say or write. Censorship is when the government gets you to not say something because you're afraid of going to jail or getting fined. Censorship is not when people say that what you said is disgusting. Censorship is not when sponsors say they no longer want to be associated with you because you say disgusting things. Censorship is not when your employer fires you for saying something publicly in your capacity as their employee that they find inconsistent with their mission, let alone something that has no place in the public discourse.
Myth: Imus' freedom of speech was violated.
Fact: Imus retains the right to call anyone by whatever racial or sexual slurs he likes in his blog. He can also do it in a book he writes. He can even publish that book if no one wants to do it for him. He can stand in any public forum and do it. He can get a job at Faux Spews, where their editorial policy is that they've never met a racial or sexual slur they didn't like, and use them there. He can even buy his own TV station and set his own editorial policy.
There is no such thing as the freedom to get paid millions of dollars for causing your employer to lose millions of dollars in advertising revenue. There is no such thing as the freedom to get paid millions of dollars for abusing your employer's customers.
Myth: Imus got fired because he didn't adhere to a liberal politic.
Fact: Imus got fired because he used racial and sexual slurs to insult a woman's basketball team. It was not a matter of a political analysis being too strongly worded, nor was it a matter of him positing unpopular political ideas. Those who say this is an example of “political correctness” are right only in that “political correctness” is nothing more or less than rudeness.
Myth: Imus was fired for making an innocent mistake, he even apologized!
Fact: Imus called Gwen Ifill “the cleaning lady” at the Washington Post. He said the Williams sisters of tennis fame would make good centerfold models for National Georgraphic. Other slurs to other people have included “boner-nosed, beanie-wearing Jewboy,” “ragheads,” “animals” and more. He even hired a guy to be the mouth that uttered the slurs that he knew ahead of time he couldn't simply shrug off if they were direct from his mouth.
It's not innocent. It's not unintentional. Imus' use of racist and sexist slurs is comprehensive and longstanding. When called on it loudly enough, he usually apologizes – not unlike a domestic batterer apologizes to their victim and promises never to do it again for the umpteenth time. There comes a time in life when an apology repeated enough times without any actualy change in the behavior becomes meaningless.
Myth Imus was just trying to sound “down” by using terms he heard rappers use.
Fact It's not as rap invented misogyny. It's not as if rap has made a break from every other lyrical music form to come before it in including misogynist lyrics. If he was perusing rap lyrics, it was because he was trying to decide which racist and sexist slurs to use, not whether to use them.
Myth: It's a double standard that Imus got fired when rappers who write misogynist lyrics get published.
Fact:A publishing house acts as a disemenator of a broad variety of viewpoints, including those generally regarded as repulsive. A radio broadcaster is entrusted with a limited public asset – the airwaves. They have different missions and different ways to go about fulfilling them.
Dumb-assed rhetorical question: What about Jesse Jackson's “Hymietown” comment?
What about it? It cost him the Democratic nomination in '88. 20 years later he's still being taken to task for it. Perhaps Imus can spend the next 20 years rehabilitating himself and his image.
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(no subject)
Date: 2007-04-18 07:13 pm (UTC)Are you actually hearing much of that from people you know, or is it perhaps desperate reporters who want to get one more angle out of this thing before it gets cold? I think all rabid and opportunistic racists/provocateurs deserve to get skewered by a fed-up public. It's nice when the market comes a-calling so that there's no question about government action. I agree with everything you say, but I guess I am perplexed that there seems to be a "need" for the saying.
Aside: I mostly remember both Imus and Stern as 1970s AM radio morning show hosts. Booorrrr-ing!
(no subject)
Date: 2007-04-19 12:09 am (UTC)I can honestly say I never listened to Stern or Imus for longer than the three minutes it took to grow bored.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-04-19 03:14 am (UTC)I.e., had he said they were "unwashed women of ill repute" it would have been easily as bad, and certainly just as lacking in humor. But would everyone have reacted the same? They should. As someone who got to witness the rise of campus PC from the POV of an anthropology department whose left-of-left socio-linguists were going "HUNH?!", I have to agree - the words are often nothing compared to the thrust of it; the meaning, the message, the implications, i.e. the context is everything. Sometimes that really is in the choice of a single word; sometimes it's in the context of otherwise innocent words. But we as a society seem to like easy rules about "words" - not hard rules about, I don't know, about telling harmful lies about people in public?
Imus deserved to get burned years ago, not for nasty words, but for making as if telling nasty lies in public was "just being funny." It's a pity the market didn't react sooner. Oh, wait, the market is America; we have only ourselves to blame.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-04-18 08:02 pm (UTC)I'd also like to add that rappers who use mysoginistic language are cash cows for the record studios. The minute that they don't make millions from these albums is the minute you won't be hearing them on major labels anymore.