The Public is to blame for hateful rhetoric on the airwaves

As someone who firmly believes in a person's right to their own opinion, no matter how much I may disagree with them, I want to point out that folks like Don Imus, Howard Stern, Glen Beck, Limbaugh and all the rest of the "shock jocks" and promoters of hate speech...are folks that got where they are today because the listening and viewing public loved them..

They got rich and famous pushing the line.

I personally don't listen to these folks because I find them all distasteful.

But by all accounts a good number of them have become very rich because there are people out there who love this crap they spew. And the sponsors will sponsor what the public likes...

Whether it is making fun of people based on their ethnic or religious or political background...or one of the most popular punching bags...Just being a Woman...cuz nothing is more fun than demeaning women and or scrutinizing their bodies and telling them they are too fat, too ugly or need implants to be more of a woman...

These guys fill a need...a sick and depraved need in my opinion...but they fill that need for some people ...and they have gotten rich...

Imus is getting punished for crossing the line...but is this a sign of things to come or is it just the fickle behavior of the public?

Has the public finally tired of this? I can help but think they aren't although I hope I am wrong...

I cannot listen to them either. Sad thing is that they permeate the airwaves.
As I stated before, most sane people know when the line has been breached. They turn it off.
However, there is a substantial number (think in terms of the 30% that STILL back Bush) that cannot turn it off.
The hate speech empowers them to take the next step, whether it is beating their wife or children, burning crosses on lawns, or beating up the gay kid down the street...the hate rhetoric empowers them and reassures them that they are REALLY in the mainstream when if fact they are swimming upstream.

in their hate of others..

So the guy who thinks all women are whores because he has had a run of bad luck feels vindicated when a shock jock refers to women in a demeaning way and dehumanizes them...

Public covers a lot of ground. Just look around here. The part of the public that was maligned jumped up and the rest of the public that either agreed or recognized an unsupportable position when they saw one joined the fray. I am not sure that means that, as a society, we are swinging back to a more circumspect era in broadcasting.

cuz I think he was pulled because of the racist aspect and not the sexist aspect...

He was wrong in my opinion and is reaping his reward.

However...had he used just sexist comments...would he still be on the air?

The public is fickle..


and I don't blame the majority for making them popular...however I wonder why the same folks outraged at Imus aren't outraged by more of his buddies..

considering that there have been plenty of people posting here who see the racist aspect of this but not the sexism. If people on DU don't care about denigrating women then I certainly don't expect much of the general public.

I don't mean that flippantly. Feminism had its heyday and I would be willing to bet that during that time, somebody like Imus would have gotten in trouble for throwing around the 'ho' thing. Women have a harder time getting people riled up on their behalf these days. People are inured to sexism, I think. For one thing, women have been subjugated for far longer than African/Americans. For for so long and so much so that a lot of people just don't even SEE it any more. For another, I think a lot of people feel like we 'took care of that' already.

Can't blame it all on the corporations b/c as H.L. Mencken said, "Nobody ever got poor betting on the stupidity of the American public."

Can't blame it all on the radio talkshow hosts. Some segments of the population have let them get free passes and the standards of acceptable criticism have lowered as some of us have listened in silence, without comment. Well, more of us are speaking out and getting recognized and decisions are being made accordingly.

was the first thing that popped into my head as well.

Yeah, he can be a huge ass but sorry - he keeps it to potty talk and making fun of the stupidity of stereotypes. Politically incorrect? Yes. Tasteless? Yes. Outright hateful? No way.

:shrug:

fun of stereotypes...?

I don't think so...

I wonder...will Howard bring one of his daughters on the program to rate their bodies and have his friends rate them???

Yes, I do think they get the joke. Nevermind that Howard is no longer available on the public airwaves, at worst he can be accused of spawning a lot of really BAD imitators.

As for rating bodies, I did mention that he can be an ass, I'm not giving him a free pass.

Others here like me have been changed. You will see, it's really for your own good.

Happy thoughts...

Get off your high horse!

:nuke:

I was sitting here wondering who listens to these nasty, lying, sexist, racist assholes? And why do people listen to them? When did all of this spewing of hate become fashionable?

or I listen to the stuff I have on my mp3 player..

However when I have scanned the stations in the morning I can sum it up as this...

1. The goofy disc jockeys that pal around....make light or silly conversation and play a little music in between their babble.
2. The Hate Jocks..this is the right-wingers...the play little or no music and they spew hateful rhetoric about women, people of various ethnic backgrounds...and the make up stuff in order to get people outraged.
3. The Sexist Pig Shock Jocks..with Stern off the air..this is typically a group of local guys trying to fill the gap...
4. There are also the Old Time Religion shock jocks and these ones humor me because they are either talking about a flamethrowing hateful god who will smite all the bad folks...or they have a loving god who still hates gays, and wants to punish people who are catholic and have not yet seen the way to what ever particular brand of religion the guy on the air is promoting...
5. A Classical station if you are lucky..
6. A Jazz Station.
7. Country...(and number 1-2-3 above may be the host of that show)
8. and the stations that just focus on music...

So you can see why I listen to Dean Martin, Ella and Louie on my commute or to classical...

I unplugged my TV a year ago. I only use my radio/stereo for listening to CD's.

Why? I just got sick of all the mean-spiritedness: Reality TV featuring unpleasant people doing nasty things to each other. News programs that pandered to the lowest interests (I really don't care where Britney Spears flashes her crotch, who fathered Anna Nicole Smith's baby, and what Paris Hilton is wearing). I suppose this general nastiness has always existed; some political cartoons from the turn of the last century are repugnantly racist and xenophobic. It's just that this stuff was so much in my face due to the mass media these days.

Imus crossed the line by making statements that happened to be both racist AND sexist AND foul-mouthed, but he crossed a line that a lot of people have been toeing lately. I was disturbed by "Borat" not because of Sasha Cohen (who I think is a genius with titanium gonads), but because so many people didn't get the joke. They agreed with Borat, the way they do with Limbaugh, Stern, Imus and the rest of that distasteful mob, not realizing they were being parodied.

On the rare occasion I plug my TV back in (usually when a hurricane is on its way, or I need to check the local weather), I realize how wise it was to unplug it. There's enough of that unavoidable nonsense on the net; I don't need to be immersed in it. It almost always results in an impulse to throw all my belongings in my car and drive to the only Buddhist monastery in North America that accepts women.

Freepers eat it up, they love that simple-minded, hate-filled type of entertainment.