Imusn't say that again.

It has been noted that I usually write of experiences and, therefore, really “don’t think.” This, then, will have nothing to do with my own experience, but only my own thoughts.

Part of living in a free country means that you have to trust your neighbor, and you’re likely to be offended by him or her at some point in some way. As Timothy Noah points out here , Don Imus had been shoveling his brand of hatred for years. In fact, I also read that he hired one of his show’s personalities because of the guy’s willingness and ability to tell “nigger jokes” on the air.

Obviously, living in this country, growing up with these values, and actually believing them to be the better way to do things, I don’t think for a second that Imus should have any legal challenges to his on-air behavior. I’m not a fan of the FCC in general, although I think the idea of ratings and ability to block shows on your personal TV set is a good one, and I don’t think they should have had anything to do with this. We are granted free speech, and if someone is willing to hand you a microphone and offer to pay you for the privilege of broadcasting your voice and opinions all over the country and beyond, more power to you. If someone’s willing to supplement that by putting you on TV for no extra work on your part, then you obviously are a pretty lucky person. And with that exposure, in America at least, you’re free to do precisely what you want with it.

However, the values that capitalism depends on are not as reliable and difficult to cross as the Constitution. To limit the right to free speech, you pretty much have to be the president or an integral part of the executive branch acting on behalf of the president. Even then, you’ll eventually be questioned. But corporations don’t answer to this power; they answer to their bottom line and their stockholders. And I believe this is what it came down to with Imus. As long as he was little-known and out of the eye of the Washington Post’s front page, he could preach whatever type of garbage he wanted and he would find an audience. One wonderful thing about America is that it’s a diverse place, and there’s an audience for everyone’s opinion, no matter how much it goes against the ‘cultural values’ that the mainstream professes to share. There is no one set of values that defines Americans as a group. And as long as Imus could find an audience, his sponsors (CBS and NBC) could find advertisers for his show. Advertisers equal money.

Sometimes, advertisers will pull out of a topic temporarily while a shitstorm blows over. Other times, like the OJ mockumentary , something is in poor enough taste that extra publicity actually DIScourages advertisers who don’t what their products associated with the filth, even if it does have an audience. I think this is what happened with Imus. It was impossible to say that this comment was a freak slip-up or lack of judgment, but as long as only his audience was hearing what he was saying, it wasn’t seen as a problem. But when he got too much attention, the advertisers pulled out, probably for good. Then CBS and NBC made some of the best decisions they ever could from a social consciousness standpoint by following their bottom line and canceling the show.

Why was this one comment the straw that broke the camel’s back? It was a pretty slow news week. The real question is why do companies allow themselves to be associated with Rush Limbaugh or Ann Coulter or other people who preach hate with a microphone? I don’t know. I know some people who have stopped using products specifically because Rush endorsed them, but I also know people who take whatever dribbles out of Rush’s mouth as gospel truth. I suppose the lack of support has not reached a critical level yet, but it may.

In a few months, Imus may show up on Sirius radio or something else that is further from mainstream criticism and self-righteously defend his show and ethics. Maybe he’ll be the anti-Bill Maher. But that’s the beautiful thing about America’s system: even people we disagree with are allowed to speak. Loudly.