Letters to the Editor
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A kind of agreement with Kansasgirl.
I, too, am a broadcasting long-time prisoner. And I've seen some offensive stuff. But there's a couple of issues here that haven't been mentioned.
Broadcasters - that is, the individual stations - used to be held to certain standards to keep their licenses. That included doing public service to its community and listening to community leaders - including racial and religious minorities - to address community needs.
Ever since Reagan dumped those requirements (to get the press on his side during his awful Presidency) community involvement has dropped to near zero, or has been limited to self-promotion at picnics and community events (often with paid sponsorships by big business). There are nearly no news or community affairs shows or specials.
As a result, it requires PR-hungry national figures like Sharpton or Jackson to mount a war whenever things like this happen. Decades ago, if a similar incident occurred, one or three black community rep's would simply call the local station, and the local station would decide to drop the program or send the protest to the network. (Another thing Reagan did, and blessed by every President since, was to allow conglomerates to swallow up local stations, which also distanced them from the community and local control. Your local station manager has less control over things than the manager of your local McDonald's.)
And let's not forget that "equal time" was also repealed, meaning that your local station didn't have to display opposing viewpoints if it didn't want to. Thus Faux News and the like.
Before this twisting of the publicly-owned airwaves, someone like Imus would probably be off the air within a week. The last time this was possible was when Jimmy Swaggart, Oral Roberts and the other evangelists overstepped their bounds and offended people. (My station also axed the Bob Jones University program when it started pushing its racist and right-wing agenda as the word of Jesus. My GM told them to stick to religion, they didn't, they were cancelled due to viewer complaints.)
As long as you, the people, let profit and megacorporation control run your airwaves, you can expect awful crap like this Imus affair to continue. (A good thing Heather Havrilesky didn't talk about this issue; the only race she cares about is how fast her frappucino is delivered to her table.)