You've made this point now a couple of times in blog posts. Maybe you could pick one of the other blog posts and post this as a comment in that discussion?

P.S. Maybe you could also hit the enter key twice to make a paragraph every now and then?

I've been trying to make a paragragh ever since bbeanster said i should.
Never had a computer till a couple of years ago.Didn't even know how to type.
So the simplist things take a while.

I think the only people so-called liberals feel should have un-censored 100%free speech are those who say way out wacky stuff about the president and Jesus. The mass hysteria about the Dixie Chicks and last year the Book of Daniel show was the same as what is going on with Imus.

Let's compare:

"I'm ashamed that the president is from Texas."

"That's some nappy-headed ho's there."

Nope. Not the same ballpark, not the same game, not the same league, not the same sport.

And, y'know, for someone who complains vociferously that there are much better things to discuss in the world, you sure have not a lot to say about those things.

Next.

I grew up on Archie Bunker, who could not survive in today's sanitized world.

Hm. Richard Jeni, Bill Maher, Andrew Dice Clay, Henry Rollins, Ricky Gervais, David Chappelle, Sam Kinison, George Carlin, Bill Hicks, Sacha Baron Cohen, Chris Rock, DL Hughley, Ron White, Adam Corolla, Jackie Martling, Ralphie May... all modern comics who work(ed) pretty blue and can still make a controversial subject into a funny.

Have you ever seen Chappelle's Show? Ever see the UK version of The Office?

Imus is just an overpaid purveyor of crude dick jokes, and this was about his 10,000th on-air infraction. This sacking was a long time in coming.

____________________________

"If people think nature is their friend, then they sure don't need an enemy." K. Vonnegut, 1922-2005

I have the freedom and the ability to jump off of a tall structure. If I decide to do it and do not broadcast it, it is unlikely that anyone can stop me. That freedom will NOT prevent my being injured and/or killed.

Imus is not being prosecuted. The government as established by the same document that mentions freedom of speech, is not pursuing Imus. His freedom of speech has not been abrogated in any way. That there are sometimes non-governmental repercussions to our speech and actions should be obvious and for most people, are a consideration. You probably would avoid walking alone in certain areas, particularly after dark. You have the freedom to go there but it could have negative repercussion so you do not. Your freedoms are intact as are Imus'. However, his sponsors, those who in the final analysis paid his salary and many others, said that they would not support what he used his freedom of speech to say. As it turned out, they were free to do so.

CAFKIA

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It is impossible to defeat an ignorant man in argument.
  - William G. McAdoo

Didn't all the wingnuts run around screaming "Free speech isn't free" when they were all up in arms about the Dixie Chicks?

Imus has the right to say anything he wants. He did not get fired for what he said. He got fired because the advertisers pulled their ads because they thought he said something truly disgusting. You do not have to buy Dixie Chicks CDs or go to their concerts. Advertisers do not have to buy ad time on any radio show featuring Imus. This is America.

If nobody is buying ads on Imus' radio show, he gets canned. It is called the free market. If you cannot make your bosses money, you get fired. I thought wingnuts loved the free market.

Thank goodness you are speaking out about political correctness, StaceyDiamond. If only there were multiple posts on this subject!

Any fourth grader can grasp the meaning of context. You can't say things in Sunday School you can in a Saturday night poker game.

I could post a series of ethnic gynecological jokes here and lose my trusted user status. But I'm not dumb enough to cry censorship afterward.

Imus tried to walk the line between toliet humor and Serious Guy Who Interviews U.S. Senators and Big Foot Reporters. He shouldn't have been surprised talking like a pre-pubescent redneck in the media capital of the world would get him in trouble.

Now See... You got it wrong right from the very start. You're gonna have a tough time convincing me you do all that much "thinking"..."believing" maybe, but not "thinking"

I'd been looking for this online, but it's behind the NYT's subscription-only curtain, and I can't link it. But from what I gather, this column is what broke Imus's back with MSNBC and CBS. The part that really did him in recapped an Imus appearance on 60 minutes in July 1998, when Mike Wallace characterized "Imus in the Morning" as "Dirty and sometimes racist."

Imus denied the racism charge and said "Give me an example."

Wallace said "You told Tom Anderson, the producer, in your car, coming home that Bernard McGuirk is there to do nigger jokes."

Imus denied having said this until Anderson was brought on camera to confront him. Then he said:
"Uh, Ok, I used that word, but it was in an off-the-record conversation."
"The hell it was," said Wallace."

Herbert said that MSNBC executives "began acting pretty weird" earlier this week when he told them he was going to write about this. '"We'll get back to you,' they said."
Herbert went on to say that "some of the most telling and persuasive criticism came from an unlikely source -- internally at the network that televised Mr. Imus's program. Women, especially, were angry and upset. powerful statements were made during in-house meetings by women at NBC and MSNBC..."

Herbert says that to McGuirk, "Blacks werejigaboos, Sambos and Brilloheads. Women were bitches, and above all else, an endless variety of ever-ready sexual vessels, born to be degraded."

I'd seen this column referenced several times, but wasn't able to get my hands on it until today.
p.s.: Deirdre Imus says the Rutgers players are getting death threats. Wonder if Stacey thinks that's protected speech?

You know what I think about this? Karl rove is eventually going to jail, Paul Wolfowitz is corrupt and is about to lose his cush job at the World bank, and..."Hey Look...Over there...a shiny object dressed up as a has been shock jock who never should have been all that prominent anyway."

Don Imus can still say any damn thing he wants. He just doesn't have a right to a paycheck for saying it.

Liberty and justice for all.

Your mouth to God's ear

Let's hope she's listening.