Imus in the stew pot

Don Imus is an asshole. I've never listened to him and I don't think I ever will. But now, if the reverends Al and Jesse get their way, I'll never get the opportunity.

On Wednesday last Imus referred to the Rutgers Women’s basketball team, which had just lost the NCAA championship game to Tennessee, as “a bunch of nappy-headed hos.” Now the NAACP, Al Sharpton, and Jesse Jackson are all calling for him to be fired. A lot of other people will yell about political correctness run amuck and Freedom of Speech and a lot of other stuff. That's how these things work.

I am pretty much an absolutist when it comes to the first amendment, but firing Imus wouldn’t be a violation of his first amendment rights, because his employers have a right to worry about how his comments will affect their business. And the good reverends certainly have a right to call for his dismissal. But I wonder: if I got up in front of my City College media studies class on Thursday, when we will most surely discuss this, and called Don Imus a racist cracker asshole, would Reverend Al call for me to be fired? Or would he just chuckle and nod?