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Blogger Spurs US Radio Host's Firing
jas_public writes "The Wall Street Journal reports on the controversial events which ultimately led to the firing of radio shock jock Don Imus. 'At 6:14 a.m. on Wednesday, April 4, relatively few people were tuned into the "Imus in the Morning Show" ... Ryan Chiachiere was. A 26-year-old researcher in Washington, D.C., for liberal watchdog organization Media Matters for America, he was assigned to monitor Mr. Imus's program. Mr. Chiachiere clipped the video, alerted his bosses and started working on a blog post for the organization's Web site.' The article breaks down how that viral video clip and word of mouth outrage reached the ears of the presidents of CBS and MSNBC, ultimately leading to Imus' dismissal."
Ludacris, Danny Glover, The Dixie Chicks, and Bill Maier (sp) are just a few minority or liberals that have been punished for saying things that right wingers didn't like over the last few years.
But don't let that get in the way of your victim streak.
Dissolve... Resolve... Evolve...
It sounds like your basic arguement is just 'hey, we're doing better than we've ever done before'.
Well bravo, we're doing better than the days of slavery and when it was ok to kill your wife for talking back to you, and women, like slaves, were property to be traded and sold.
So what? Isn't that a bit like saying "well hey, I don't beat my slaves, so good for me, this is so much better than it used to be"? What are you looking for, thankfulness?
So that means we just sit back and congratulate ourselves? Gosh, aren't we great. Nope, couldn't do any better than this. Forget the whole thing!
I never said this was "unchanging" or "universal". It is, however, current. To change it, it needs to be addressed. It cannot be addressed with people like you dismissing everything another section of humanity experiences as invalid, or the same or analagous as what you have experienced... especially if you cannot even recognize the priviledge your own position grants you, RELATIVE to other large sections of our population.
The lesson to be learned is that to achieve this intrinsic fairness that I think it's safe to say we both want, you first have to understand. To understand, you have to listen... and listen hard, and listen long, before you judge. And TO listen, you have to stop talking, and stop shutting people down. Because I guarantee you have not intuitively grasped the perspective of another group of people simply by thinking about it on your own, and when you attack people with less power, they stop communicating. Try the mix gender discussion test sometime. It's quite eye opening to realize how blind to your own self absorbed short sightedness you really are, WHEN YOU WANT TO VALUE THE INPUT of people who are being pushed out of the discussion.
To make things perfectly clear on a personal level, I think all this hoopla over Imus is stupid. His job is to be an offensive jerk, and it's dumb to pay him millions to do it and then suddenly get all offended and fire him... very dumb. You don't listen to Imus for intellectual discourse or balanced viewpoints.
But most of the backlash to this is based in the same old tired shit about how (basically) these people who are trying to express some of the problems facing them because of their color, background, sex, etc... which are better, are improving, and still exist... are whiny victims. Well, to some degree that may be true. But to what degree, very few people on the white male side of the fence are really qualified to judge because very few of us have spent serious energy relating to people in other shoes to try and even understand what they are talking about. Most of us white males are simply knee jerk reacting to a perceived affront against us... just like the "black voice" people here... except we come from a very different point of power.
It's changing. But it's not done, so stop trying to shut it down. Participate in the discourse. Start, by really listening and really trying to understand.