Constitution Talk ... or Back to Imus for a Second

Amendment 1: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

I just wanted to put that up there for a second. As it's a constitutionally protected right inherit to every American and really, every person living in America, be they citizens or not.

From Newsbuster's this morning, Todd Boyd of ESPN wrote an article entitled "Imus Shouldn't Give Hip-Hop a Bad Rap." He finds that hip-hop and Imus's radio program don't have anything in common, as Imus's show is based in reality and Hip-Hop is fiction set to music. Like a novel. If it were reality, police officers would be arresting singers for references to drug use.

While it is true that Hip-Hop presents itself in a fictional form, rappers them selves have said that Hip Hop is based on their life experiences, and Imus can't use the words they use because he doesn't share their life experiences. Doesn't really sound like they're claiming their work is fiction and therefore should not be used in real life context.

And I just don't buy it. A comment in the Newsbusters article says that the real crime was Imus trying to be cool and hip with his joke but it wasn't funny. And that being unfunny was what nailed him. If what he'd said had been funny, there would have been no scandal. Maybe.

But the thing is, Imus's radio program is as real as The View. And while I know there are probably many loyal View watchers out there who swear the show the real and news based ... it just isn't. Imus talks endlessly about "The Baby Jesus" and makes jokes about Christianity and Catholics all the time. He spends most of his time talking about how hard it is for him in his life and woe is him.

But he is inside the beltway and he does talk about the gossip of the day as it's relevent to Washington. Which happens to mostly include politics. He endorsed John Kerry and I believe he had him on the show a few times. And he liked Rep. Ford of Tennessee.

But he does try and be funny, most of the time. He doesn't succeed often, in my opinion. But hey that's just me. But calling a radio personality on an editorial show a news show or "real" show is kind of a stretch. He's an opinion guy, an entertainer for people who care about what he thinks. And he stepped in some yucky stuff with what he said. His ad people didn't like it. So he lost his job. Go figure.

My point is you can't legitimize some forms of speech and censor others. It's the same words. And the thing about the Bill of Rights ... it's universal. It doesn't say that radio hosts can't use the same words or phrases as hip-hop artists. That's not in there. I'm not defending what he said, he picked on the kids in the playground because he felt bigger than them. It was wrong. He was right to apologize. But the massive out pouring saying he can't use those words is just stupid.

And what got me on this today was the Oscar that went to "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp." It played on Oscar night, to millions of viewers. Sponsors of the show were many. Commercial's were aired. And the lyrics called women the B word, the H word, even saying he had "H** on a tray."

It's vile. And I'm not going to post all the lyrics. There linked above. But the point is ... Hollywood gave that song an Oscar. An Oscar. You don't get much more mainstream than that. As a culture we're giving awards to people, big awards to people who use the same language as what Imus used.

Hypocrisy knows no bounds.