Should Don Imus have been fired?

I am conflicted about this. One one hand, I wanted him to be fired. But on the other hand I’m not sure if anyone should lose their livelihood because of speech unless the comments are extremely egregious. These comments were not what I would consider a fire-able offense.

Now the reason I wanted him fired was simple. If he was a conservative talker he would have been fired years ago. The double standard is plain to see in this case. He has been saying this kind of thing and worse for years. Everyone in management knew it, but he cozied up to John Kerry and the like so it was ignored. I just wanted him to be held up to the same standards, that’s all. They tried to wait out the controversy and hoped it would go away, but when it didn’t, they had to fire him.

This is the statement that forced Rush Limbaugh to resign from ESPN before he was fired:

“I think what we’ve had here is a little social concern in the NFL.
 The media has been very desirous that a black quarterback do well,” Limbaugh said.
 “There is a little hope invested in McNabb, and he got a lot of credit for the
 performance of this team that he didn’t deserve. The defense carried this team.”

Now I ask you, was this a racist comment? Is this a fire-able offense? I don’t think so. This was supposed to be an indictment on the media, not an attack on McNabb’s race. Granted the whole issue of black quarterbacks in the NFL was old and outdated at the time of this comment, if Rush was guilty of anything it was of dragging out an old, outdated, and irrelevant issue.

Michael Irving actually said “Rush has a point” after the comment was made. It doesn’t seem as he found this offensive.

Rush was forced to resign.

Here are some comments made by Jesse Jackson as listed in wikipedia.org:

Nixon was less attentive to poverty in the U.S. because “four out of five [of Nixon’s top advisors] are German Jews and their priorities are on Europe and Asia”; that he was “sick and tired of hearing about the Holocaust”; that there are “very few Jewish reporters that have the capacity to be objective about Arab affairs”;  In addition Rev. Jackson had referred to Jews as “Hymies” and to New York City as “Hymietown” in January 1984.

I’d say these remarks are pretty offensive.

Here’s a quote from Al Sharpton:

“White folks was in caves while we was building empires…
 We taught philosophy and astrology and mathematics before
 Socrates and them Greek homos ever got around to it.”

Just as offensive, yet these are the two who led the charge for Don Imus’ job and they succeeded. If you can’t agree that there is a double standard here then you don’t want to see it.

Why were these two not held accountable for their actions?

It must be because they are on the proper side of the isle.

So wrapping it up, I don’t think Imus should have been fired for his stupid, thoughtless, and idiotic comments, but in the interest of being fair and balanced, he had to go.

America has become a country of victims and offensive-dom. Anybody can be offended by anything at any given time, and become a victim. It’s easier to blame your problems or shortcomings on being a victim of something than to face them and try to make yourself better.

Political correctness is an attack on free speech. What kind of country is America going to become if we all have to watch everything we say for fear of offending someone.

It’s time for Americans to toughen up and stop letting words offend them.