Just weeks after Americans were glued to their televisions to watch MSNBC and FNC for the latest on Anna Nicole Smith, we enter day 7 of “Imus-gate.”

The latest update is that CBS Radio and MSNBC Television have suspended Don Imus for two weeks for calling the members of the Rutgers Women’s Basketball Team, “Nappy-headed hos” last Wednesday morning after the Scarlet Knights lost in the National Championship Game to Tennessee on Tuesday night.  NBC called the comments, “disgusting and reprehensible.”  Imus spent the last 7 days apologizing on his show, and most recently, on the radio show of the Reverand Al Sharpton.

Let me start of by saying that I personally believe Imus’ comments are ignorant, insensitive, sophomoric, and hurtful.  But the growing inferno of public opinion and discourse sparked by Imus’ quip raise several questions left unanswered by Imus, Rev. Sharpton, ESPN, CBS radio, and MSNBC.More...
First, why is this news?  Just as Americans were riveted by the battle between a prematurely dead ex-playmate’s mother, lawyer, and ex-boyfriend for rights to her carcass and newborn daughter, who none of us have ever met, so too are they now sounding off with their two cents regarding the asinine comments of an aging and increasingly irrelevant blowhard who should have been put to pasture decades ago.  The Imus story is headline news on ESPN.com, CBSSportsline, and SI.com.  It has been the topic d’ jour for sports talk radio all day, despite the incredible suspensions of Pacman Jones and Chris Henry as well as opening day at Yankee Stadium and Fenway Park.  While I’m not defending Imus’ comments by any stretch of the imagination, we live in a country where everyone is free to speak as they please, and somebody unfortunately says something stupid and racist every day.  If you don’t like it, change the channel.  I will not watch Johnny Depp movies or buy Citgo gasoline because of comments by Depp and Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez.  If you happen to be one of the Rutgers players, or the parent of one of those players, you are the only ones directly affected by Imus’ comments and you realize that Don Imus has never met you and he doesn’t know you, so who cares what he says?  He’s an uninformed idiot.

Second, I find it ironic, and all too familiar, that Rev. Sharpton and Rev. Jesse Jackson are on full alert responding to Imus’ comments, responding with a vitriolic fury and intensity that I never see them apply to the real problems facing the African-American community such as discrimination, drug-use, poverty, and crime.  If these two men truly represent the interests of the African-American community they claim to advocate for (I happen to view them a self-interested, opportunistic charlatans not at all representative of the black community), wouldn’t they focus their energy on those aspects of American society that actually impact on the daily lives of African-Americans?  I seem to remember something from my childhood about “names never hurting.”  Sharpton and Jackson attack Imus for calling these young women “hos,” but where are their protests when a rap “artist” calls women “hos” and “sluts” and “bitches” in their “music.”  Is there a double-standard?  Does freedom of expression only apply to one group and not the other?  The chauvinistic and misogynistic lyrics in rap music cannot be viewed in isolation from the problems facing the African-American community, such as the jaw-dropping fact that an astounding 70% of black children in America are born to single women.  Rev’s Sharpton and Jackson should spend their time, resources, and extensive media access solving these real problems, not reacting to a jerk on the radio.

Third, this is hardly the worst thing Don Imus and his “zoo-crew” have ever said on the radio.  Imus routinely pokes fun at various ethnic, religious, or political groups, including Catholics, Jews, Muslims, homosexuals, the Irish, the French (that happens to be my favorite), Latin-Americans, and of course, Republicans.  None of these insults has ever drawn the ire of the American intelligentsia, but now, after decades of “cutting-edge, racy” radio, Imus is a being called a bigot and a racist by thousands of Americans who have never listened to a minute of his show, absent the 30-second “Rutgers” clip on YouTube.  People who absent-mindedly endorsed by omission his hurtful comments directed at other ethnic and religious groups, are now calling for his immediate firing in the wake of the Rutgers statement.

Angst over the expression of free speech and the inherent tension of race relations in America are not new.  They have been “red-button issues” in America since before the founding.  Apparently, they aren’t going away any time soon.  I just wish there was some consistency in place of the rampant hypocrisy.