Reader Marc Horowitz wrote to ask me, "I am curious do you think the words that got Imus fired are racist or just a bad joke and if a bad joke, what kind of apology is necessary? Do we go to rehab for saying something stupid?"
Well, I think going to "rehab" has become kind of a stunt and a way of escaping personal responsibility…which is not to say some of the folks who do it aren't in need of medical-type attention. I just wonder how many who do it are serious about dealing with the problem in other than a public relations sense. So kudos to Imus for not going that route.
Beyond that, I'm quite conflicted about the whole matter. I never thought the guy was that entertaining and felt he'd lucked into a vicious circle of success. Because of his huge listening audience, he got a steady stream of important guests who'd never have come near the same program if it was on a tiny FM station…and the steady stream of important guests got him that huge listening audience. Every time I heard him or watched him on the MSNBC simulcast in the wee small hours, he struck me as a monotonous presence who felt his duty was to say something nasty and condescending about every person, place or thing that crossed his gaze.
Were his remarks racist? I dunno. There's a fine line between racist and stupid, and what he said could go either way. As utterances of Imus, they were typical and thoughtless. I guess my reaction, as Free Speech Junkie, is that it's just another one of those things that we have to defend even though we don't like the speech or the speaker. To believe in the First Amendment, you have to do a certain amount of that.
On the other hand, no one has a Constitutional Right to have a radio show…and advertisers certainly have every right to distance themselves from something they find offensive or even bad for business. I think they're usually way too cowardly in this regard, reacting to two or three threats of protest and boycott as if they represented the entire buying public. But they have the right to be craven and they certainly have the right to not sponsor a radio personality they find tacky. If I had a company that bought time on shows like that one, I hope I would have long since turned to my advertising department and said, "Let's see if we can find other programs that give us the same bang for our dollar."
I mention the advertisers because obviously, that's what this is all about. The huge salary Imus drew was because advertisers flocked to him. When they start running the other way, it's not unreasonable for his employers to think they're better off without him. I guess this is kind of how the system is supposed to work: You lose your sponsors, you lose your show. And it doesn't matter if they're bailing because they don't want to be associated with you or because they just don't think your program's worth what they're paying. The only real mystery to me here is why, of all the stupid and possibly racist things Imus and other radio personalities say these days, this one comment did a guy in.
For an interesting (if also conflicted) view of all this from a frequent Imus guest, check out Frank Rich's column in today's New York Times. I won't link to it since it's behind a "pay" firewall. But if you do a bit of Googling or a search at Technorati, it ain't hard to come by.