I confess to ignorance about Imus before he was fired. I never listened to his show, or any other radio show, actually. It took some back reading and summary articles before I could have an opinion: that his sorry a** should've been fired a long time ago. But so should a lot of others.

In the aftermath, the media is looking closely at rap, free speech, whether or not flippant but hateful statements even matter, and what else, or who else, should follow Imus.

Nothing will change. Imus was never the problem — there's no shortage of ignorant old white men with opinions, and there never will be, unfortunately. But there's also no shortage of media professionals willing to employ these men and no shortage of a complacent audience to ignore their racist/sexist remarks.

People are willing to let it go — so what, he was joking, he didn't mean it, get over it, God, you're so sensitive. It's just some casual racism with my morning coffee. It's just a sexual put-down to women that we want our daughters to look up to: women who have the strength, intelligence, courage, and self-respect to never be "hos." 
Maybe if, for all these years, Imus had just been the old coot down the street or your drunken uncle, it wouldn't matter. But when you're paid to say such things, it matters. When millions of people, even those young and just learning right and wrong, are listening, it matters. When others follow in your footsteps and willingly spew hatred for cash and fame, it matters. If you ignore Imus, you have to ignore every other talking head who says something that is just plain unacceptable. The dominos keep falling — ignore what Ann Coulter says about The Jersey Girls or Rush Limbaugh's take on Michael J. Fox, and others fall in line.

In Virginia, a record number of innocent people were killed. Their family member and friends will never be the same. Most of all, the survivors no doubt have the hardest road ahead of them. Instead of support, sympathy, or aid, an Imusite, John Derbyshire, has only this hurtful bit: "College classrooms have scads of young men who are at their physical peak, and none of them seems to have done anything beyond ducking, running, and holding doors shut" (via Time). A blogger named Nathanael Blake agrees with him.

Haven't they ever heard of survivors' guilt? The constantly haunting questions of "Why did I get out and not them? What could I have done differently? If only I hadn't been here or doing this?" It drives people to suicide. Then there are the coming stories of students who did step up, who did fight back, who risked or gave their lives to help the person next to them. But people like Derbyshire and Blake have no problem rubbing unnecessary salt in a fresh, gaping wound.

Journalist Gwen Ifill (in 1993, Imus said of her professional appearance at the White House that they had let the "cleaning lady" in) appeared on "Meet the Press" and spoke about the Imus incident: "…people will say, I didn’t know, or people will say, I wasn’t listening. A lot of people did know and a lot of people were listening and they just decided it was okay. They decided this culture of meanness was fine — until they got caught. My concern about Mr. Imus and a lot of people and a lot of the debate in this society is not that people are sorry that they say these things; they are sorry that someone catches them."

Think of how many there are who are not afraid of getting caught, whose remarks will not be condemned, who will keep their jobs, and who will never have to or want to apologize. Imus apologized and got fired. Does that really change anything? Michelle Malkin, for one, is still getting air time and column space. Countless others like her are on radio, on TV, in print every day saying worse than Imus. And they will be tomorrow and the day after, as long as you let them. Everytime you hear something that you know in your heart is wrong but ignore it, you are no better than Imus. As long as you listen, let the advertisers pay, shrug, don't write that letter or blog post, don't protest, don't act, you're telling these fame-seeking mouthpieces and the world that it's OK.

This is the ugly side of free speech. Yes, I do believe the above mentioned have the right to say whatever they want. It doesn't mean it's right, entertaining, acceptable, unimportant, or worthy of a salary and a spot on any news show.

Jennifer Leblanc