Imus – Reverse Heckling?

Jason Whitlock (Kansis City) wrote an interesting editorial (4/11/07): “Imus isn’t the real bad guy.” In it, he argues that instead of “wasting time on the irrelevant shock jock, black leaders need to be fighting a growing gangster culture.” Personally, I think Imus is a jerk, don’t like him, & don’t listen to him (I have the same position on a lot of media personalities, and not even the obvious ones like Howard Stern and Jerry Springer). Certainly his remark was politically incorrect and sexually insensitive, and not even funny. Imus is often offensive. But losing his job? Does it worry you? Whatever happened to free speech? I thought the whole idea in a democracy with free speech is that you have to be willing to defend the right of someone to say something that is abhorrent to you. And as offensive as some might find parts of the editorial by Whitlock, he does have a point about glorifying the “rich, drug-dealing rapper” image of urban culture. To me, that is not the most important point. People complain about China’s policy of censorship. Agree or disagree with them, but you have to admit at least they are honest about it. We have our own censorship model based that seems to be based on either a “Big Brother” sense of morality or the fear of offending politically identifiable groups. It seems like there would have been more socially positive ways of dealing with it than shutting off Imus’ voice. But everyone, advertisers, networks, etc. just ran for the hills rather than have meaningful dialogue. Most unfortunate.

Maybe the proliferation of media outlets gives more forums for people who speak, as the Chinese would say, “in a way that is detrimental to society. ” The ubiquitousness of media certainly creates more opportunities to be heard This is true of both shock-jocks like Imus and politicians like Sharpton. (And at the very least, staying in the public eye boosts your speaking fees.) We should remember to celebrate the free in “free speech,” as we condemn the speech. Unfortunately for us, politicians actually benefit when there is conflict (like class warfare) as it is a handy vote-getting tool. But then, they have the right to free speech, too.