Tom McMahon is known for his irreverent humor and in the case of the ‘bumper sticker seen in Madison’ he was, of course, trying to provoke a bit of thought…personally I thought it was quite good.
His posting has made its way around the blogs and when it hit Charlie Sykes’s blog all hell broke loose.
The Interfaith Conference of Greater Milwaukee took offence to the bumper sticker and Charlie’s posting of it on his blog. They wrote a letter asking for its removal from the WTMJ website, even while saying “Though we support your right to say and post on websites whatever you like, even when offensive to some, we reserve the right to point out things we find offensive and to call upon our local media to act in a more responsible manner.”
So I guess that means as long as you don’t offend them it is okay.
Charlie Sykes posted his reply to the Interfaith group’s letter and their letter on his blog this morning: DRAWING THE LINE
Well said Charlie!!!
Three white teens make overt racial references by hanging empty nooses in a tree.
Six black teens physically assault a single white teen.
The white teens broke no laws but committed a morally offensive gesture and they were suspended from school.
The black teens broke the law by beating on another person and they have been arrested and are going to be charged with battery.
Rev. Sharpton wants “federal intervention to protect people from Southern injustice”
Why don’t we turn the tables on Rev. Sharpton and ask the following hypothetical:
Six black teens, upset due to an out of date “white tree,” place pointed white hoods on the lockers of those white teens that hang out by this old “white tree.”
Days after the event, three white teens jump a single black teen and beat on him.
Should the white teens in my scenario be “set free”?
Any way you cut it what the teens did was wrong. The black teens unfortunately took it too far and now they are facing criminal charges. There were better ways to have handled the situation.
I think Rev. Sharpton would have been right to have “marched” after what the white teens did, not that it would have done anything, but that would make much more sense. But the idea of supporting a bunch of criminals (black, white, or purple) just makes a mockery of the Rev. and of the civil rights movement that he was a part of.
According to the story Imus has hired an attorney to look into the suit and try to reclaim the $40 million left on the contract.
I believe that there is a better than 50/50 chance that CBS will settle. I don’t think that they want this to go to court. While what Imus said is appalling to most people it was well within his rights to say it. In fact since the FCC controls a lot of what is said on the broadcast airwaves Imus would only have to prove that the FCC has not imposed any restrictions on similar language on other stations.
If Imus wants to continue doing radio though it would be in his best interest to get this settled ASAP. The more the media restates his slur the longer it will remain in peoples minds.
