Throwing Imus into the volcano

---by Micheal

So, CBS decided that someone needed to be thrown into the volcano as an offering to appease the cultural storm gods. In goes Don Imus. It's for the greater good, you know. Unfortunately, like the all the other sacrifices before him, he will have gone in vain. The storms will continue. The "gods" are never satisfied.

What bothers me is the whole unruly mob process by which Imus was sacrificed. Everyone should be nervous instead of feeling better. Yes, Imus is a pompous, rude and insulting guy. That's why I never voluntarily listened to his program. But when I read the transcript in which he made his fatal remark, it seemed like the trumped up charge a lynch mob might cite.

Imus and his producer were engaging in some typical banal sportscaster blather with some lame affectations towards inner city slang. They weren't trying to defame. They were trying to sound cool. Dumb, I know, but trivial. Actually, Imus' producer said more of the "bad words", both before and after Imus did. Yet, no mob insisted that McGuirk be thrown into the volcano. The mob's capriciousness is a bit disconcerting. "Bad" words are only bad when the mob decides?

Even black commentators have pointed out that Imus' fatal words are fairly common in rap lyrics. Yet, rappers are not thrown into the volcano. Black males can call black females a "ho" but (some) white males cannot, (sometimes). During the early Civil Rights era, black men were killed by white mobs for saying something trivial like "hey baby" to a white woman.

With Imus tossed to the flames, we seem to have the exact same system at work. If a group is offended, someone must pay. Mob "justice" demands a sacrifice. Fairness, or even rationality, is not important -- only that someone be tossed into the volcano to appease the angry "gods".

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.