
 |
|
Nov. 20, 2009
Nov. 19, 2009
Jonathan Tobin: ADL Crosses the Line with Report Bashing Obama Critics
Nov. 18, 2009
JWisdom.com: The (Jewish) Dating Game
with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff (8 minutes)
Nov. 17, 2009
Steven Emerson: How Does the 4th Amendment Impact Terror Finance Investigations?
JWisdom.com: If Frank Sinatra married Edith Piaf
with Rabbi Y.Y. Rubinstein (2 minutes) Life lessons from what would be regarded as the most inappropriate lyrics ever sung
Nov. 16, 2009
JWisdom.com: Deconstructing faith
with Rabbi Warren Goldstein (9 minutes)
Nov. 13, 2009
JWisdom.com Sarah's subjective reality
with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 6 minutes)
Nov. 12, 2009
JWisdom.com Does God get tired?
with Rabbi Harvey Belovski ( 5 minutes)
Nov. 11, 2009
JWisdom.com Marriages are not made in Heaven
with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff (VERY fast 15 minutes)
Nov. 10, 2009
Michael Doyle: Author of book exposing CAIR ordered to remove supporting documents from Web
JWisdom.com If the creation so loudly shouts the existence of the Creator, why aren't more people believers? with Rabbi Naftali Brawer (9 minutes)
Nov. 9, 2009
Mark Steyn: Shooter exposes hole
in U.S. terror strategy
JWisdom.com It's never too late to
have a happy childhood with Sarah Chana Radcliffe (5 minutes)
Nov. 6, 2009
JWisdom.com Zero to 1/60th: How
to Empower An Hour with Gavriel Aryeh Sande (7 minutes)
Nov. 5, 2009
JWisdom.com Hidden Hints: Unlocking
Faith & Prayer with Rabbi Jay Yaacov Schwartz (10 minutes)
Nov. 4, 2009
JWisdom.com When God played peacemaker
With Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (5 minutes)
Nov. 3, 2009
JWisdom.com Are you are closet idolater?
With Sara Yoheved Rigler (10 minutes)
Nov. 2, 2009
JWisdom.com Abraham's Strange Change
With Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer (5 minutes)
|
| |
Jewish World Review
April 13, 2007
/ 25 Nissan, 5767
The Imus conflagration
By
Rich Lowry
| 
|
|
|
|
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Don Imus has to wonder where all his friends went. Just yesterday, his radio/TV show was the favorite venue of the journalistic and political elite, who delighted or pretended to delight in his ribald comments. Today, most of them appear shocked that Imus was ever given a show.
The unedifying Imus controversy is almost entirely a liberal conflagration, a perfect bonfire of the profanities: with journalists and politicians caught out ignoring their own standards of political correctness; with left-wing grievance-meisters doing their grim work on the mainstream media's favorite shockjock; with the culture of victimology running its ritualistic course. Armed only with the dubious loyalty of his frequent guests, Imus didn't stand a chance.
Calling the Rutgers' women's basketball team "nappy-headed hos," as Imus did, was, of course, appalling. But you have to feel a twinge of sympathy for him, given the suddenness with which rules that had never applied to him suddenly were brought down around his head. Perhaps if his corporate masters at MSNBC and CBS Radio had told him long ago that he shouldn't gratuitously insult people on the basis of their appearance, race or gender, he never would have made the comment in the first place.
But Imus brought buzzy programming to MSNBC every morning and millions of dollars to CBS, so it was offensiveness in a worthy cause (i.e., $). The talent at NBC and liberal journalists from every other outlet in the country were happy to chuckle along.
Impeccably liberal columnist Tom Oliphant had the misfortune to appear on Imus' show after the "nappy-headed" comment and before it was clear that Imus was on his way to being expelled from polite company. Oliphant excused the Imus remark as something that "can happen to anybody," and ended his appearance by saying that regular guests "have a moral obligation to stand up and say to you, 'Solidarity forever, pal.'"
So there you have it: Offensiveness now, offensiveness tomorrow, offensiveness forever. No liberal would make that kind of stand on behalf of anyone else. Imus got an exemption because his guests could feel as though they were part of the in-crowd and that they had done something wild and naughty by parleying with him.
Time magazine's Ana Marie Cox wrote an admirably honest piece explaining that she went on the show only "to earn my media-elite merit badge." But even those who already had their badges were eager guests. Cox cites New York Times columnist Frank Rich a great scourge of racism and sexism, real or imagined saying it is the only show where he could talk in more than soundbites. As if he had never heard of C-SPAN, PBS or NPR.
Imus did the rest of us no favors by trying to find redemption by appearing on Al Sharpton's radio show, thus helping legitimize Sharpton's aspiring role as the nation's offensiveness cop. A notion that is itself offensive, given that he made his chops by falsely accusing an innocent man of rape something for which he has never apologized and that his specialty is inflammatory self-aggrandizement.
The Rutgers basketball team played its assigned role in the saga. Given its pluck and its athletic toughness, the team would have seemed perfectly suited to tell an aging shock jock where to go and leave it that. Instead, it held an hour-long press conference wallowing in just how hurt it was, and then team members headed to "Oprah."
The Imus saga is another sign of how we've degraded the importance of politeness and decorum, and how we try to make up for the loss with political correctness. Imus' show was always boorish, but that was OK until he offended the wrong people at the wrong time with the wrong term. We shouldn't want our public conversation to be limited to the dulcet tones of public radio some shouting and barbs are healthy but it should have a grounding in civility. On that score, Imus struck out long ago.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
Comment by clicking here.
Rich Lowry Archives
© 2007 King Features Syndicate
|
|

Arnold Ahlert
Mitch Albom
Michael Barone
Dave Barry
Tony Blankley
Andy Borowitz
David Broder
Stratfor Briefing
Mona Charen
Linda Chavez
Ann Coulter
Greg Crosby
Larry Elder
Suzanne Fields
John Fund
Frank J. Gaffney
Lloyd Garver
Jonah Goldberg
Julia Gorin
Jonathan Gurwitz
Paul Greenberg
Lewis Grossberger
Victor Davis Hanson
Betsy Hart
Nat Hentoff
David Horowitz
Laura Ingraham
Cheri Jacobus Jeff Jacoby
Paul Johnson
Jack Kelly
Ed Koch
Ch. Krauthammer
Michael Ledeen
John Leo
David Limbaugh
Kathryn Lopez
Rich Lowry
Michelle Malkin
Jackie Mason
Dick Morris
Bill O'Reilly
Jim Mullen
Clarence Page
Kathleen Parker
Dennis Prager
Wesley Pruden
Tom Purcell
Jonathan Rauch
Celia Rivenbark
Robert Robb
Cokie & Steve Roberts
Pat Sajak
Debra J. Saunders
Culture Shlock
Roger Simon
Michael Smerconish
Thomas Sowell
Mark Steyn
John Stossel
Cal Thomas
Bob Tyrrell
Diana West
Dave Weinbaum
George Will
Walter Williams
Byron York
Mort Zuckerman

Robert Arial
Chuck Asay
Baloo
Chip Bok
Dry Bones
Lisa Benson
John Branch
Gary Brookins
John Cole
J. D. Crowe
John Deering
Brian Duffy
Everything's Relative
Mallard Fillmore
Jake Fuller
Bob Gorrel
Joe Heller
David Hitch
Jerry Holber
Steve Kelley
Jeff Koterba
Dick Locher
Chan Lowe
Ranan R. Lurie
Jimmy Margulies
Rick McKee
Michael Ramirez
Kevin Siers
Jeff Stahler
Ed Stein
Danna Summers
John Trever
Gary Varvel
Kirk Walters

How 2
Lori Borgman
The Savvy Consumer
Elder matters
Fixit
Dr. Peter Gott
GET A JOB! by Marty Nemko
Richard Lederer
Tech Maven
Every Monday Matters
Nutrition Myths
Bookmark These
Bruce Williams
How Stuff Works
|