FRAMESHOP:FRAMESHOP: IMUS ABUSED A PUBLIC TRUST

I hate to say it, but...when it comes the case of Don Imus attacking the Rutgers women's basketball team, I think Ann Coulter got the first part of it correct.  Hold on a sec!  Don't throw your laptop out the window.  There's more to my argument.  Coulter didn't get the whole thing right--just one part of it. 

Coulter said, in so many words, that if Imus had called her a "ho" it would have been a very different story.  Beyond the insult of the racism and sexism in his comment, the real offense lies in the radical power inequality between Imus and the people he attacked.  If he had attacked Coulter, he'd have to answer for it, but not in the same way because she is his equal in the media.  So it was wrong for Imus to use sexist and racist language, but the real reason for his being dismissed for it is that he is a powerful,on air media figure who used his show to slur relatively powerless private citizens. 

This power inequality is what takes the Imus story out of the question of free speech and into an arena of care for a public trust.   That's the key phrase:  public trust.
 

In other words:  Imus is not just a man with a microphone, but a public figure charged with responsibility of upholding a public trust (e.g., FCC airwaves).  His language was distasteful, fair enough.  But that alone was not why he deserved to be fired.  Rather, Imus' "hanging offense" was his violation of the very public trust he is charged to uphold when he used the FCC regulated airwaves to attack private citizens. 

So when conservatives ask why Democrats criticize Imus, but do not attack rap music or other entertainers--the answer is easy:  because those are not the same issues.  If and how we choose to those other performers for the content of what they say--that is up to each as individuals.  But rap music is is aired on private stations and privately sold CDs. Those performers are not charged with upholding a public trust.

In other words, The right's red herring on this Imus issue will be to bring in all these other instances, to talk about other media figures not being fired, and ultimately to say that there is some kind of double standard because Imus got fired and others did not.

While those issues of language and decorum are interesting, I believe they are ultimately separate from the Imus affair.

If we want to talk about related cases, then we need to bring in other examples where someone charged with upholding a public trust violates that trust.

For example, consider the case of a ranger charged with upholding the public trust by being  hired to maintain a national park.  If we were to discover that the park ranger was growing opium in the forest to sell to a heroin ring--that would be a violation of a public trust.  Similarly, if a police officer were to be caught running a car jacking racket in an area he was charged to protect--that would be a violation of a public trust. 

Those are parallel examples to what Imus did.

So, if right-wing TV pundits start gibber-jabbering about "liberals being the real racists," (which they will say) or start jabber-gibbering about a "double standard" in the media (which they will say), progressives can respond by refocusing the debate on the real issue--by talking about the responsibility to uphold a public trust one is charged to maintain.  That framing of the issue might sound something like this:

You can scream at each other all you want--and we may get criticized the content of what you say,  but at the same time we'll fight for your right to do it.   But hijack the FCC airwaves to attack a private citizen--that's a violation of a responsibility you have to uphold a public trust.  And when you abuse that responsibility, you're gone.

Ultimately, Imus was hurtful and wrong for using such racist and sexist words to offend the Rutgers women's basketball champions.  But he did not get fired just for being mean.  He was fired for flagrantly shirking his responsibility to uphold a public trust--for using the FCC regulated airwaves to attack, rather than inform, private citizens.

Given all this, it should come as no surprise to anyone if Imus finds a new home, in short order, in an arena that avoids the public trust problem altogether--non FCC regulated media.

©  2007 Jeffrey Feldman, Frameshop