Imus and Sharpton

I think most (yes-most-not all) people agree that the Don Imus comments and subsequent apologies, suspensions, and ultimately firings all went a little too far, but for my own sanity, I want to break this down:

1. Don Imus calls the Rutgers basketball players 'Nappy-headed hos.'
2. Story festers for a few days before FINALLY picking up more and more media attention (I'm sick and tired of the media jamming stories down our throats that no one cares about. ESPN does this better than anyone else).
3. Suddenly the public outcry grows.
4. Imus apologizes on Sharpton's show (we'll get to Al in a bit).
5. The Rutgers basketball team--the focus of the comments--want a sit-down with Imus and an apology.

END OF STORY....ok, not really

6. Imus suspended for two weeks.
7. More media infatuation.
8. Imus fired from MSNBC
9. Imus fired from CBS
10. Imus meets with Rutgers players.

Final tally: 1 fired radio personality, 1 team of players with hurt feelings, and 1 nation who knows that racism and stereotypes still exist.

Let's take a look at what happened a year ago...

1. Allegations surface that a stripper was raped at a college party where Duke lacrosse players lived.
2. Story festers before gaining more and more attention until the DA realizes that he can use this case to bolster his re-election campaign.
3. Nation focuses on story.
4. Al Sharpton shows up and leads parades, demonstrations, rants about racism.
5. Jesse Jackson vows to pay for the two strippers' college tuition.
6. DA calls the players hooligans.
7. Lacrosse season cancelled, coach no longer with team.
8. 88 Faculty sign letter that prematurely convicts players. So much for higher education.
9. Shit hits the fan and things get ugly.

...eventually we hear the whole story and begin to realize that we've been had by: the money-driven media, the politically-driven DA and the financially-driven 'black advocates' like Sharpton and Jackson.

After the charges were dropped we realize that the tally for this event is far worse than the one for Don Imus: 3 young men who's lives are forever tarnished (anyone who ever Googles them will automatically have some sort of bias), 1 corrupt DA, 1 (rightly) tarnished institution of education and 2 black men who get to keep their jobs spewing their own form of racism over the airwaves because everyone is afraid to stand up for fear of being a racist.

Now this may seem radical and controversial, but If I were the president of the radio company that runs Al Sharpton's radio show, I would fire Sharpton and announce that racism is not tolerated from either side of the color barrier. But that's just me.