What I mean is that the words themselves are innocent. The motivations behind them are not, the speaker or writer is still held accountable. And when the speaker is in a position of influence, and especially when the ones attacked are not, that is a form of power assertion. The words themselves are not to blame.

I completely agree that words used – functionally – to dominate – can’t be held as acceptable in civil discourse. But I would rather see the racist and sexist display themselves for what they are than that they agree in secret but never say anything – the people who enjoy such lyrics in rap songs, the insiders who enable hatred.

I am not defending Imus at all by saying that.

The big sideshow is that we weren’t hearing so much about more important issues – like the fascination with Jon Benet, Michael Jackson, Anna Nicole and the like. They preempt the news for days, or weeks, or months…

In this case, it’s all over, I think. Virginia Tech put it in perspective. But now we’ll glom onto that and worship the tragedy as a fetish, the way we tend to do.

Americans seem to have a limited attention span, a short-term interest… just my opinion.

I think there are plenty of m~th~r~f~k~g sh~t-~ss p~ss~-l~ck~ng bad words. Otherwise, I would not keep my children from using them. [we shall see how many curse words make it into publication ]

To put words on display for discourse is fine. To use them as a hateful descriptor towards a human is a little too edgy for Mom & Dad commuting to the office listening to Imus.

The big sideshow was that it sold air-time, paper and ink.

Imus is not the newscaster, he is an entertainer who was put into a situation where he reacted badly (poor Kramer) He was supposed to use news to intrigue listeners.

From the “Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me” show from this past week, I understand that he’ll be getting a new job at a kinder gentler Japanese performance group called the Happy Headed Nohs.

Actually, there is a side of me that just bristles against censorship at all.

Fundamentally, I don’t believe there is any such thing as a bad word. It’s all about the context, and the person who uses the words.

There is a part of me that would rather have the sexist and racist comments on the table, where they can be confronted.

The big sideshow on this distracted from things that I think are probably more important – but I am glad that the women got to speak, too.

I suppose I still hold on to the idea of freedom of speech, or liberation of discourse. Then, when hateful people express that, everything is out in the open. Chips fall, sponsors back out, same effect.

But it bothered me that the issue of calling accomplished young women whores didn’t seem to bother any part of the community nearly as much as the race issue.

It’s about who was Imus’ audience. If he had been on MTV, he would have gotten a promotion. The fact that he didn’t know his audience is further proof that he should have been removed.