Junto Boys

ENOUGH OF THE REVERENDS

Don Imus was for some unexplained reason a darling of the media elite. I would some times tune in to the MSNBC show in the morning and watch to him get sarcastic with David Gregory and Tim Russert and wonder why they even called his show. I heard Larry King once say that Don Imus was the best talk radio guy in the country. All I've ever heard him do is wine and pat himself on the back for his charity work. But now the same media has fed him to the reverends.

The reverends went just as hard against those Duke Lacrosse players, because again the racial politics demanded it. The racial politics never demand that the reverends repent for their mistakes, though. The repenting is for others. That the Duke students have been cleared hardly registered a sigh or hum from the reverends. They’re not outraged that a young woman lied and made them look bad, because no one makes them accountable. The reverends don’t have to be right, just scary. Anything that looks like a rehash of slavery or segregation or white privilege is mega-phoned until their brand of justice is delivered. When they’re wrong they just stop talking about it.

The media let these stage clowns represent a whole segment of society because they make good theatre. But by letting these guys speak for 12% of the population they are consciously or subconsciously saying that these con men are representative of that segment of the populace. Would you hire Al Sharpton to work as an employee in your company? Would you trust him? If the media is presenting Sharpton as the embodiment of blacks in America then doesn’t that hurt black Americans in their relationships with white Americans? It seems like the media is perpetuating a stereotype each time they put him on the air.

I'm surprised corporate sponsors have the guts to advertise on talk radio anyway. Sure the ratings are great, but if you work in a corporation you know that a majority of people are more afraid of making a mistake than being mediocre. And the corporate types shun any kind of negative publicity while adopting numerous politically correct platitudes because it's easier than having to defend common sense. Look, we have a sensitivity program!

Considering how much talk radio we have and how it is by nature controversial, should we expect the reverends to go down the list trying to knock off others? Why haven't they gone after Rush or South Park? Was Imus a dry run? It just seemed too easy. Two guys stand up and start bitching about a guy who has always been anti-social and mean-spirited and suddenly everyone decides he's anti-social and mean-spirited.

I saw some of the press conference by the Rutgers team and it was depressing. The girls defended themselves as if people were really sitting around saying, "Yeah, Imus nailed it." One girl said that they are going to have a private meeting with Imus so that he can explain what he meant. Why bother? Another girl listed her teammates and explained which ones were funny and who would make a good lawyer and how they were all her family.

Instead of the pity party, one player should have come forward and said, "We accomplished a lot this year and we're not going to be defined by Imus or this media event that you're creating. We don't know why people say mean things about strangers. Ask a psychologist. "