Don Imus

Don Imus

Early this month radio jockey Don Imus live on radio made an offensive remark. He offended the Rutgers women's basketball team by calling them nappy-headed hoes. This comment and offense escalated into something big enough to get him fired. People are debating the fact that if he should get a punishment so severe as to get fired from his radio program, why shouldn't rappers pay a consequence for saying those kinds of words in they're lyrics. Should they be penalized?

In my opinion I don't think MSNBC should not have taken it as far as to fire him, but I think he should of gotten more than a 2-week suspension. I agree that what he said was wrong and what rappers are saying in their songs are wrong but I do not think rappers should pay a penalty for saying that stuff in their lyrics. I think the reason rappers have not been looked on this in the past is because rappers usually draw in more of a younger crowd, and with the youth today, it is appropriate to say those kinds of words. We say them to each other everyday, and parents or adults really haven't paid much attention to them because usually they have no interest in that kind of music, so all of that had been bypassed. Don Imus attracts more of an elderly crowd. More adults than younger people. To say that state in a more sophisticated environment and directly towards a group of people would lead to some offense.

Also, some of this revolves around Money, Reputation, and Democracy. The reason this revolves around Money and Reputation is because is MSNBC would have kept him on their show, they would have lost a lot of listeners who have agreed to the fact that he should get fired, and it would of made them look like they did not care so much as to what he said, so MSNBC's reputation was at steak. They would have lost a lot of money from the viewers they were losing and as for any business, making money is real important so they did what they had to be done. I know that either way they went with it they would have lost viewers because the people who disagree with him getting fired would have stopped listening, but as far and serious this matter has become, they obviously were the minority in the two sides and that would have been a less money loss for MSNBC. Rappers are encourage to say those kinds of things judging from their album sales, so their would really be no reason to stop repeating those lyrics, and if they did, their album sale might drop because it would be less interesting to the younger crowd resulting in money loss, and making their record label look bad. This revolves around democracy because here in the U.S everything is people's choice. If majority the people is not going to complain about the rappers, then it would make it fine for them to say it, but obviously majority complained about Don Imus's use of the word so they got rid of him.

I think another reason why his statement cause so much fury, was because people would expect a man of his age to know better than to say those words, because I am pretty sure when he was younger there was still segregation going on between races and it was not allowed for anyone to say those words. He should know that just because the younger people are saying such language that does not make it accessible