Imus the conclusion

Imus has been fired by CBS Radio. As I have written twice, I will be shedding no tears for him. He lived on the radio by sewage and died (metaphorically) by sewage. The young basketball players will feel avenged. Good for them. They did not deserve the abuse.

Going forward this means very little. The airwaves will be a little cleaner and clearer, but make no mistake the next Imus will step forward. They will be a little smarter. The lesson they will have learned is you can be crass to some groups but not to others.

If this makes shock jocks think twice about their 'jokes' it may be a good thing. I suspect it will not. It will simply push them in another direction. There are lots of other subjects they can safely skewer. Tasteless jokes about rednecks, Christians, Republicans etc. are still considered safe. They will keep themselves to them. That doesn't elevate the discourse though does it?

The advertisers and the producers will fell superior. They righted a wrong after all. The problems with that thinking is they righted a wrong they created. These same holier than thou executives had no problem with Imus as long as no one was protesting and calling them racist. As long as he wasn't calling attention to them, he was fine.

Lastly we have given another victory to the professional victims. Al Sharpton and company now feel like they are even more empowered to think for the rest of us. As long as he brings his carnival side show to town and gets cameras to come out, trivia over substance wins. In the wake of Mr Sharpton, we see lives in ruins. The Duke LaCross players. Where do they go to get their reputations back? Where does the man Tawanna Brawley accused go to get his life back? Why does Jesse Jackson get a pass when he made idiotic comments, but other idiots don't (for the record in my perfect world none of them would get a pass. The Imus's of the world would be fired, but along with that the Jesse Jacksons of the world would be made to finally go away when they do the exact same thing).

Racism is an ugly thing. It is no less ugly when it is practiced by a professional victim.