Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Radio shock jocks

That we know the names of people like Imus, Limbaugh, Coulter, Stern, Savage, etc. - that they are mainstream instead of niche - speaks to an utter lack of taste in the general culture, and of the awesome ability of the free market to find and cater to such.

Gwen Ifill has a thoughtful piece on the latest Imus nastiness.

"...I’m a big girl. I have a platform. I have a voice. I’ve been working in journalism long enough that there is little danger that a radio D.J.’s juvenile slap will define or scar me. Yesterday, he began telling people he never actually called me a cleaning lady. Whatever. This is not about me.

It is about the Rutgers Scarlet Knights. That game had to be the biggest moment of their lives, and the outcome the biggest disappointment. They are not old enough, or established enough, to have built up the sort of carapace many women I know — black women in particular — develop to guard themselves against casual insult.

Why do my journalistic colleagues appear on Mr. Imus’s program? That’s for them to defend, and others to argue about..."

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Why do people listen to the Imus show? Self-indulgence?