MSNBC said late yesterday it is dropping host Don Imus's morning program after a succession of advertisers suspended sponsorship of his cable TV show and outrage increased over his racially and sexually insensitive remarks.As Keith Olbermann wondered last night, does that foreshadow the doom of other radio talk show people like Rush Limbaugh, Neil Boortz, Glen Beck, and Michael Savage, who frequently use derogatory, racist, anti-Muslim, misogynistic, and homophobic terms? Mr. Limbaugh once referred to Barack Obama as "Halfrican American" and Mr. Savage is so virulently anti-gay that he and Fred Phelps have the same answering service.
Imus's four-decade career as a radio host also appeared to be in jeopardy after a board member at CBS Radio said he hoped the shock jock would be fired. CBS, which syndicates Imus's show to 70 radio stations across the country, continued to stand by Imus, saying it would "continue to speak with all concerned parties and monitor the situation closely."
Don't count on it. Mr. Limbaugh et al are reliable pillars of the right-wing Orcosphere to the degree that they get passes from the keepers of Moral Outrage, a privilege that is not available to those who are Not One of Us. Mr. Imus is too much of a loose cannon -- he supported John Kerry in 2004 and Bill Clinton in 1992 (although he has, predictably, revised his opinion of both men since, once referring to Mr. Clinton as a "pantload") -- and therefore is outside the protection of the VRWC. So he's going to be thrown over the side while the others will go on their merry way.
Trust me, I don't shed a tear about the fate of Don Imus. To paraphrase the immortal Hawkeye Pierce, the instrument has yet to be invented that could measure my indifference to him. But I do think that it is more than a bit hypocritical for there to be little more than a burp from Wingnuttia except to have Michelle Malkin and several other commentators say that rap music is somehow to blame for Mr. Imus's perception that it's acceptable to refer to black women in the way he did. This is the kind of thing that had it come from a leftie would have ingited Mr. Limbaugh, the Hindenburg* of Righteous Indignation, and he would have scorned any attempt at moral or situational ethics on behalf of the defenders. So if CBS and Westwood One fire Mr. Imus, will the righties apply the same standards to their own? Like I said, don't count on it.
*That refers to an old joke: Q: What's the difference between Rush Limbaugh and the Hindenburg? A: One's a flaming Nazi gasbag; the other is a dirigible.
