Letters to the Editor
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The Dvorak effect
Why do Imus, Stern, and others go over the top? For the same reason John Dvorak baits Mac users with outrageous untruths about the Macintosh: to get people upset and paying attention. Radio may be just like the web in this respect: people commenting on a Dvorak article just gets him thousands of pageviews and he could give a shit about the content of the comments, he just wants the attention. He'll take abuse for the attention.
Imus and Salon comment trolls are in the same camp, they're out to shock to get you paying attention. Imus sells soap, comment trolls use this as their own blog.
Rather than make rules to govern or guide behavior, why not just turn the radio off? The Imus issue is about us, not about him. If no one listened he'd be out of business.
Salon comment trolls are a different story: they're riding on the back of Salon, a subscription magazine with editorial controls. I agree with Joan: those of you who are using Salon letters as your own blog pulpit really ought to get yourselves a personal weblog where you can write, uncensored to your heart's content. Using Salon's letters as a blog and then bitching when someone edits you is ridiculous. As Joan recommends, register www.salon-is-big-brother-and-edits-me.com and post away. Who knows, you may be able to create the Dvorak effect and get a few pageviews.