I don’t have your standard white-guy hatred for Al Sharpton. I really don’t. I have always felt like he has the right to do whatever he wants whether I agree with it or not. Most of the times I disagree with him, but that’s to be expected… he doesn’t represent my “community.” So, when he started pressing Don Imus to be fired, I whole-hearted disagreed with him (for the same reason that I think he has the right to do whatever he wants, I don’t think that anyone should ever be persecuted for what they say on a talk show; short of inciting an insurrection and, even then, I’d have to think about it).

The interesting thing, to me, about the whole Imus situation is this: what did firing Imus fix? Is it going to prevent other radio shows from being racist and misogynistic? Is it going to prevent stern from having “Stripper Jeopardy”? Are Opie and Anthony going to stop playing “Guess What’s In My Pants” (a game where a caller rubs the phone receiver over her delicates and they try to guess how her pubes are styled)?

Really, what did it accomplish? Are these girls, the real injured party in all of this, going to feel better about their season? Does it take away the fact that our parasitic national media followed them around over Easter break and shoved microphones in their faces to get comments on something they never heard, and never would have heard, had this not become a cause? That’s something missing in all this which I haven’t seen mentioned many places. These girls never would have heard this statement had it not blown up. They’re under 50, so they don’t listen to Imus, and they’re in college, so they don’t listen to morning radio. Had this not been turned into a juggernaut, this is something they never would have heard and they would have gone through their entire lives thinking they had a really good basketball season. Don’t forget that our national media turned this into a sensation. Imus sparked it, but our media finished it. The girls are the injured parties here, regardless of what idiot Steven A Smith said on Sportscenter; essentially that the girls’ wishes here didn’t matter. We didn’t have to wait to see what they said, Imus needed to go.

Really, Steve?

These girls had their season turned into national sensation by our media, not by Imus. What he said was out of line, but it was two-week suspension out of line. It wasn’t lose your job out of line. Isiah Thomas, on Smith’s radio show, physically threatened Bill Simmons. Is that out of line? I’d say it was.

But again, I’ll ask “What’s Sharpton’s angle?” What was he looking to accomplish? He certainly didn’t ease race relations. He certainly didn’t make white people respect black people any more. I don’t, and possibly never will, understand Sharpton’s goals. What if he had taken this opportunity to have Imus on his show to let him explain himself and apologize and not spent the entire spot attacking, including escalating an offhanded “you people” comment which was obviously referring to the people in the studio and instead interpreted to be racist. What if Sharpton had spent that spot explaining why the comment was hurtful? What if Sharpton had then gone on Imus’s show, with its predominantly white audience, and explained why black people found that statement hurtful? Why wouldn’t you use this situation to really try to get a message out there in a peaceful way instead of trying to have a guy fired who was obviously sorry and obviously wanted to make amends? Imus was totally willing to give Sharpton airtime. What does it accomplish? Will all the other morning shows stop goofing on stereotypes? I don’t understand it.

My problem with this is that every time Sharpton does something like this, which is waste his time on something meaningless, it takes credibility away for things that he attaches himself to that really do matter, like the Sean Bell shooting. Anytime police officers fire 50 shots in a public place, it needs to be investigated. Had Sharpton not attached himself to it, it probably wouldn’t have been. That kind of stuff is important. But when he attaches himself to meaningless things it becomes harder to take him seriously when it does matter. And that’s the worst part of it because there is good he can do.

At the end, who won? The girls’ season is still ruined. A rich white guy doesn’t have to work anymore. Imus’s telethon for kids with cancer and SIDS research is ruined (and CBS’s firing of Imus during this telethon is unconscionable). Freedom of expression takes a hit. Imus fans are upset. Radio shows aren’t going to change their format. Sharpton looks like a self-aggrandizing tool. MSNBC and CBS look like they don’t stand behind their people. Glaxo-Smith-Kline, Sprint/Nextel, Proctor and Gamble, General Motors, American Express, and DiTech look like they don’t support freedom of expression as guaranteed by the founding document of our country. Who wins?

No one does… and as long as we keep allowing the free exchange of ideas to be compromised, this kind of stuff will continue. I’ll be canceling my Sprint/Nextel account in the next couple of days and using this as an excuse to finally buy the new phone I’ve been putting off for the last six months and switch from Tums (GSK) to Rolaids (Pfizer). As a consumer, that’s all I can do.

Last 5 posts by Thomas Daniels

• Congratulations, President-Elect Obama - November 5th, 2008
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• As If It Matters 2008: Supreme Court (Interlude) - July 10th, 2008
• As If It Matters 2008: Right To Choose - July 8th, 2008
• As If It Matters 2008: An Introduction - July 7th, 2008