Pirate's Cove

In case you haven't noticed, I haven't posted on the whole Imus issue. I've left plenty of comments on other sites, including this fine post by Beth at Blue Star Chronicles. It's been more fun and interesting commenting, then doing research and keeping up with what is going on with Imus, a media person I could care less about.

Now, what he said was wrong. People can say his comments were racist and bigotted, but, on a more fundemental level, they were just plain rude and nasty. And, they weren't the first time. People like Rosie can say his comments were Free Speech, and, she is right in that respect. However, with Free Speech comes responsibility. What you say can have effects, and you are responsible for them.

The Constitution has that little section on Free Speech in order to make sure that people are free to criticize the government without reprecussion, as happened prior to the American Revolution. They did not add it so that anyone can say whatever they want, regardless of facts. It may say Congress shall pass no law, but we do have libel and slander laws, which have been upheld as constitutional, and rightly so. And laws against plagerizing, in the civil legal realm.

Back to Don, he said something extremely dumb and hurtful, probably without malice. It was free speech, and he is learning that there are repercussions from the private sector. It would be unconstitutional for the government to do anything. Period. Don dug his hole, much as Whoopie Goldberg did, and is going to pay the price.

Notice that they are both liberals. The left screamed bloody murder when Whoopie had many product endorsements pulled. But, they are now calling Imus a conservative, as The Radio Equalizer points out. You just cannot make this stuff up. (h/t The Jawa Report)

Meanwhile, the LA Times laments the loss of Imus as a Democratic mouthpiece and a place for Democrats to hold forth on their soapbox.

Captain Ed has much more on the topic exposed by the LA Times: Thus starts the hangover from the celebration of knocking off perhaps the only center-left radio talk show host with national reach.

So, what about another Liberal that behaves badly?

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – "CBS Evening News" anchor Katie Couric may vividly recall her first library card, but the network says she was unaware that her online video essay about the virtues of libraries was largely a work of plagiarism.

CBS News said this week the April 4 installment of "Katie Couric's Notebook" consisted mostly of passages lifted verbatim from a Wall Street Journal column by Jeffrey Zaslow that was published in March.

The producer responsible for Couric's piece was fired on Monday night, hours after the Journal contacted CBS News to complain, network spokeswoman Sandy Genelius said on Tuesday.

Katie is another media person that I could care less about, and, based on her ratings, a lot of people agree with me . But here you have a liberal who plagerized, and what is happening to her? She stole another persons written words without credit, and claimed them as her own. After all, the web segment is called "Katie Couric's Notebook." Does that not mean that what is posted is her responsibility? She had no problem remembering when she got her first library card, but couldn't remember that she did not write what she read in the video segment. Sad. And disengenuous.

So, where are the repercussions for Katie? Some producer supposedly got fired, but what happens to her? Apparently, nothing.