I Blame Cable

So this Imus thing.... it lingers.

It's morphing faster than the T-1000 at the end of TERMINATOR 2.

First it was Imus, the racist.

Now left wingers are screaming for the heads of all the right wingers on the radio. (So much easier than debating the so-called Fairness Doctrine.)

Other cultural defenders are decrying the hypocrisy of Sharpton and Jackson, and rightfully curious as to how these two became the judge and jury as to what constitutes offensive speech.

One argument against Al & Jesse is that they've never come out against hip-hop and rap lyrics. Sharpton has promised that they're next. I doubt that this is a good development.

Bill O'Reilly and others have proclaimed that rap music is mostly to blame for the decline in Western culture, for the coarseness of everyday conversation and for the foul language used by our children.

I disagree.

I blame cable.

Follow me on this one...

HBO arrived in my home in Northeast Arkansas sometime in 1980, I believe. At that time, we received all of 13 channels. Four stations from Memphis, four from Little Rock, one from Jonesboro, WTBS from Atlanta, KXTX from Dallas, WGN and this new thing called HBO.

For the first time in the history of the American living room, uncensored movies were available over the magical little box that parents had trusted for 40 years.

Naked people, crude swear words, unbleeped comedy - it all came pouring into our homes - and we loved it.

Now, my satellite dish brings me FIVE different channels of HBO, along with a solid handful of cable channels that delight in providing the American public with lightly censored or uncensored material.

I'm in control of watch I watch on TV, no doubt about it. I don't blame Hollywood for making it all available to me.

But I DO wonder if our day to day life might be just a bit more civil - if maybe youngsters wouldn't be subjected to teenagers dropping F Bombs in McDonald's - if those bombs weren't going off with such regularity at home.

Duke vs. Rutgers

I spent a lot of time on the road today. And while I drove, I listened in to Rush, and Sean and Bill O'Reilly while they commented on the day's developments in the Duke LaCrosse case.

It occurred to me that there was a connection between the recent Imus flap and the Duke case. Never in my life have I been so desperate for a clear cell phone connection in order to call a national talk radio program.

My idea was that brilliant. It had to be shared with the rest of the world.

Immediately.

My point was this: A lot of folks have spent the last few days in a tizzy because a Don Imus, a talk show host, failed miserable at an unwise attempt at humor. We have been mortally OFFENDED that a basketball team has been called a name.

Meanwhile, because of some unethical actions by a Prosecuting Attorney, three young men at Duke have spent 395 days with the label "accused RAPIST" hanging over their head. Yes, the charges have no been dropped - but they should have been dropped long ago.

I'm guessing "Accused RAPIST" is probably a lot harder to get over than 'nappy headed ho.'

Shouldn't we be a bit more outraged about the Duke case than the Imus case? (And if you don't think race played a part in the media frenzy at Duke, you're sorely mistaken!)

Well, that was the brilliant idea.

And then, there I was - working in the office tonight, listening to Glenn Beck. (We don't get his show live around here)

Mr. Beck made my brilliant argument EXACTLY. (Unfortunately, he also made it much better than I did.)

Further evidence that Glenn Beck is a GENIUS.