Saturday, April 14, 2007

"Hypocrisy cloaked in righteousness."

I've titled this post "hypocrisy cloaked in righteousness" because I read it on another forum and I think it best encapsulates CBS' decision to fire Don Imus.

Full disclosure: I don't like Don Imus. I don't think he's funny. And so I didn't listen to him. But millions of people did, every day for God knows how many years. And he spewed a lot of insensitive, even hateful comments during those years. And he did so over and over again.

And guess what? During all that time, CBS was just fine taking in the money that accompanied them. What's changed now? It's not the fact that he talked smack.

The other part of this hypocrisy is Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson. If they are so concerned about racial and sexist comments, why aren't they going after African American rappers and comedians who are some of the worst perpetrators of hate speech? Why aren't they out there apologizing to the Duke lacrosse players that they vilified last year? Why aren't they trying to start a real dialogue instead of just grandstanding for ratings?

Because they don't really give a shit either.

We can sit here and pretend, my friends, that this is all about an intolerance for prejudice. But we're just kidding ourselves. It's all about the bottom line and until we can all be honest about what is driving these comments and these reactions, that is not going to change.

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