Here's a guest blog item from Brian C. Jones (since Brian wrote this, Imus's show has been suspended for two weeks):
If you are a Don Imus fan -- and I am, big time -- you were probably shocked at the controversy that erupted over racial insults aimed at a women's basketball team on the national radio program. Shocked because why it was that this particular burst of degrading free speech caught someone's ear and not something else. Racial trash talk is a staple of the program -- and quite likely a deliberate attempt to "diversify" the audience beyond liberal-leaning folks like me.
But with millions of other listeners, I have been part of the problem by not previously and relentlessly objecting to the program's race segments. I am always offended and humiliated when I hear its periodic racial remarks, along with recurring gags such as the imitation that Bernard McGuirk, Imus's producer, does of New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, clearly aimed at preserving the stereotype of black men as lazy, stupid and underhanded.
The current flap featured this exchange:
Imus: “That’s some rough girls from Rutgers. Man, they’ve got tattoos…”
McGuirk: “Some hardcore hos.”
Imus: “That’s some nappy headed hos there, I’m going to tell you that.”
This caught fire in part because a black journalists' association flagged it, calling for Imus's head, and also chiding regular guests of the program, who include American journalism's elite -- NBC's Tim Russert and the New York Times' Frank Rich --demanding they boycott the program.
I think the call for a boycott is wrong. The Imus program has many great attributes: Imus's impressive grasp on politics, music, and sports, and the unique forum the program has offered for political and public affairs discourse.
Also, I've long moved past the "love it or leave it" alternatives, especially because there are too few outlets on the level of Imus. And having worked for newspapers for 40 years, I don't believe customers should cancel and give up on the papers when they read something they don't like.
Instead, we should speak out. We should never still or be quiet when these things happen. Those of us who are fans and consumers of news should write, e-mail, phone and fax. We shouldn't let Imus or anyone else get away with abominable racial talk. And the heavyweights like Russert and Rich have an obligation, when they appear on the program, to do the same.
As is always the case in a democracy, silence is the ultimate enemy.