Imus debacle: Cause for Censoring our Airwaves

Last week, radio personality Don Imus made some racist remarks about the Rutgers University Women’s Basketball team, which have caused uproar in all aspects of the national media. CBS radio immediately decided to suspend Imus for two weeks, and yesterday, April 12, decided that Imus would indeed be fired from the station.

Many are making the case that this is censorship and that Imus’ remarks are protected by the First Amendment, but this amendment does not protect against hateful and inflammatory remarks towards others. Imus’ remarks were not only racist and insulting, but they were wrong. Many members of the Rutgers Women’s Basketball team is not black, so Imus had no bearing for addressing the team members as “nappy headed hos.” There are so many things wrong with this statement it is not even funny. The obvious implication is that this is a racist comment, but it is also a derogatory statement against women.

Thankfully, this misogynist racist has been taken off the air, so we will no longer be subjected to his insensitive remarks. It is because of people like Don Imus that we need to regulate our airwaves. Right now, when there are complaints made against something said on the radio, the station receives a fine and then they pay it and life goes on as normal, until the next time something is said. CBS radio used this practice for years while Howard Stern was on its airwaves. Terrestrial radio is dying because of satellite and the stations will do anything to keep their moneymakers in house. Since Stern left in early 2006, Imus was the biggest draw for CBS radio. I’m sure money played a large factor in the decision to fire him, and that is why it took about a week to make the final decision; it was not until advertising powerhouse Proctor and Gamble pulled all of their ads from CBS that they realized that they would be losing money either way and would rather save their reputation.

So if radio stations are set against letting go of their popular radio personalities, they why do they allow them to say the things that they say? Surely the DJs know the rules, they know the seven words they can never say on the radio, yet incidents like this keep happening. I think we need to make the punishment for derogatory speech more than just a fine; there should be actual repercussions for the station. Radio is a very rich business and the fines that disc jockeys accrue are not enough to make them go bankrupt, or to even put a dent in their deep pockets. One option is for the FCC to significantly raise the fines that are levied against radio personalities so that the stations will start to feel the brunt of these words. Another option is to keep the fines around the same scale, but force the station to pull the show for a number of days, depending on the severity of the incident. Whatever stations decide to do, it has to be better than the system we have now.

Many will cry that this is censorship and unfair or unconstitutional, but the same people were up in outrage when they learned of Imus’ comments. We can not have it both ways, and I for one would rather see a world where we are free to listen to the radio without the threat of being offended. So what if the DJs have to learn to watch what they say on air, they should be doing that already. We cannot sit by while this hateful speech is disseminated into our homes and jobs everyday, especially when the stations that are supposed to be monitoring it are not doing anything. I am a supporter of free speech but the line is crossed too often; I am merely proposing a recommitment to enforcing the rules that are already in place.