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For all of the benefits the computer has bestowed on us as a civilization, just like any invention, it of course has its drawbacks. It has far exceeded being just a tool and has transcended itself into an instantaneous lightning rod of information. With the advent of YouTube.com and TMZ.com it has also become the judge and jury of many an unsuspecting and unwilling participant.
We used to rely on newspapers, radio, and television as the way to stay current on what was going on in the world, but as we all know that is no longer the case. The Internet is now usually the first stop for breaking news and quickly followed by all of the rest. With the “greener” our world becomes, you can bet that within our lifetime, newspapers will become a thing of the past. When that happens what will we line the bottom of our birdcages with?
Nobody is safe from the prying eye of the cell phone camera, which can be easily downloaded to your computer on its way to YouTube. We are all sitting ducks for anyone with a cell phone to be photographed at anytime we do anything wrong or out of the ordinary. If you think I’m kidding just ask Michael Richards, aka: Kramer of Seinfeld fame.
A prime example of this happened just this week. A mother was complaining to her son about his failing grade in science class. He told his mother that it was not his fault, it was his teacher’s shortcomings. The teacher was not teaching them anything during the class. As parents, we have all heard this excuse before and this mother’s reaction was the same as ours, skeptical disbelief.
Indignant with his mother for not believing him, the son decided to take action. During the next session of the class, the son took out his cell phone and recorded the goings on, then took it home to show his mom. She was absolutely shocked to see the students running, screaming, and wrestling around the classroom while the teacher sat at his desk not doing a thing, he didn’t say a word. She apologized to her son who was vindicated by this indisputable video proof.
Where did I see this? Why of course, first on YouTube, and then multiple times on every news station on TV. While the Internet may be the launching point, patient X if you will in this virus, it is what the TV stations, newspapers, and radio do with it after it is released. They ride that horse until it is foaming from the mouth and falls dead from exhaustion.
Sometimes the media don’t have to rely on the Internet to find the whipping boy of the month, sometimes it comes to them via their own, like the recent ruckus over Don Imus. In this case the order was actually reversed, starting in radio and working its way back to the Internet and then back to TV again where of course the crucifixion truly took place.
This is not to say that Imus doesn’t deserve to be crucified, he does in my opinion. Anybody who is dumb enough to use racial and gender slurs defaming people they know little or nothing about, deserves to be nailed to the cross. He should have two additional nails inserted in his head while he’s up there. One for thinking that way in the first place, and the second for being so stupid as to say it in a public forum.
Imus has been on the radio for thirty years. To be honest, for the last fifteen I didn’t know he was still on the air. Since he has always looked like the “Crypt Keeper” I kind of thought he was dead. If all of the people protesting about what he said have their way he won’t be on the air much longer.
I mean come on. Didn’t he learn anything about how society feels about using racial slurs from the Richards fiasco? Sure, he’s a shock jock or at least he used to be considered one until Howard Stern came along, but even Stern is not foolish enough as to say anything so idiotic and hurtful.
Stern, who is much younger, has crossed many lines and as obnoxious as he can be is smart enough to know what is really going on in the world. Imus, who is older than Methuselah, obviously still has those backward racial thoughts in the recesses of his mind. I guess it was only a matter of time before they surfaced. What this points to is it’s time for him and his Stetson to retire to his horse ranch where the only things he can insult are his livestock and the cacti.
Imus tried taking a page out of the Richards’ playbook by apologizing profusely to anybody who would listen. Throwing himself on the mercy of the Reverends Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson didn’t help. It didn’t help Richards so why would it help him? His trademark deadpan delivery isn’t helping his cause, it only serves to make his apologies and acts of contrition ring shrill and hollow. His once happy trail is leading him from the mornings into permanent midnight.
As out of step with the current reality of the world Imus may be, there are two points that need to be said, not in his defense, but as a matter of fact. Number one, as bad as his attempt at humor may have been, there are many people who are out there saying equally stupid and hurtful things. If you don’t like what he is saying, don’t listen to his program, if he still has one after his two week vacation, I mean suspension, is over.
Number two, the groups who are the most upset about his words and are calling for his head need to clean up their own backyards first. If they want this type of thing to stop happening in future generations the entertainers they listen to need to stop using similar language.
If these groups don’t protest against the rappers and comedians who continually use the “N” word and make misanthropic references to women, how do they think this madness will ever stop? As long as our youth continues to hear these words in the music they listen to how do they expect these words to vanish from our vocabulary? If they don’t want to hear it anymore they need to stop the artists that they hold in such high esteem from passing it along to future generations.
Firing Imus might send a brief message to the adult masses, but I can guarantee you that our youth is not listening to his show, if for no other reason than he is old, un-hip and most of all boring. They are listening to 50 Cent, Young Buck and Akon, whose albums all contain parental advisory labels for using language far worse than anything Richards and Imus ever said. Oh, and if you think those parental advisory labels do anything to deter a determined youth from getting his hands on them, you are more delusional than Imus.
So everyone needs to spend a little less time focusing on what some old closet racist who lives in the past said. His days are numbered one way or another and he will be riding off into sunset soon never to be seen or heard from again, hopefully.
We all need to concentrate on the poison that is being passed on to our future. They are always our best hope for a better tomorrow.
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