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• Wednesday, April 11, 2007 05:06 PM

  Mixed feelings and double standards

  What we really need is a national conversation about race and sex and language. It seems like what's happening is more like a bunch of people talking at and past each other.

  I'm sure that Imus was caught off guard by the uproar, as he's been saying this sort of stuff for years, with no repurcussions. It's also true that far worse goes out over the airwaves every day, with no repurcussions.

  I haven't actually heard his apologies, so I can't judge how sincere they are, but it does seem like there should be a place for atoning for one's wrongs. It seems like we have fuzzy lines, but when it's deemed that someone has crossed the fuzzy line, retribution is swift and total.

  There also seems to be little or no gradation of punishment. I have to think that Imus is wondering "gee, nobody said anything after all the other stuff I said."

  I've often wondered how the producers and station managers for these shows can sleep at night, and why, apparently, they don't ever say to the talkers "you know, the stuff you said today is repulsive."

  So, the talkers keep pushing the bounds of decency, and every once in a while, one is deemed to have crossed the line. Most of them cross the line all the time, yet they continue to do so without consequence.

  I also have to wonder if Imus is a sacrificial lamb because he has been critical of this administration and the war in Iraq.

  —didjman Read didjman's other letters
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