T Dog Media Blog Think Tank: Shut up, already! Damn!

Three think tanks in one week... When this blog was started, I couldn't even do three in three months....

It seems that everybody and their mama has something to say on the Imus controversy. From Mancow to Eric Zorn, from Mike North to WMVP's Dan McNeil, they were talking about Imus. Who's next to comment? Dr. Phil? Simon Cowell? Tom Arnold? Sanjaya? The mayoral candidates in Country Club Hills? That screaming fat woman on Trading Spouses? Geez, do we even care about these useless people and their useless opinions on this subject? Good Golly, Miss Molly...

But you'll find a lot of talk about Imus on a lot of blogs and message boards.

Some of the posts on blogs and message boards about the Imus controversy have been quite amusing, others just downright mean-spirited and unnecessary. Particularly media related radio and TV boards.

On every board and blog I have visited on this subject, even the more intelligent ones, a lynch mob mentality has developed. Many posters are calling for Imus to be fired, all hip-hop and rap music to be banned from the airwaves, for black radio stations' FCC licenses to be revoked, even some posters ripping the Rutgers women's basketball team for over dramatizing the incident.

I say this to the posters: GET A LIFE.

Aren't there more important issues in the media industry that need to be dealt with? Like media consolidation? The fact that the RIAA is trying to take away Internet radio from us? What about the fate of Tribune's media properties in Chicago?

It seems some people (both black and white) are using the Imus incident to further promote their prejudice and their ignorance. (To see proof of this, go to Radio-Info.com, a waste of a website if I ever saw one.) The mainstream media likes this story because it is one that drives people to their outlets and to their web sites. It contains racism, sexism, and other ingredients so when you mix them together, BOOM! All hell breaks loose. The mainstream media makes money from racial polarization, which garners higher ratings or web hits - particularly for the cable news networks (It's ironic that Imus' show was on one.)

And as for the haters who want hip-hop and rap music out... give it time. You may soon get your wish, if this article is any indication. (Personally, much of today's hip-hop and rap music does suck. They demean women in the worst way, and it's getting worse. Listen to that awful song Laffy Taffy, and you know what I mean.)

That decision is not mine, or yours. The free market makes that decision. Keep in mind that Imus' MSNBC show was already struggling in the ratings, before it got axed. If it had higher ratings, the outcome would certainly been different.

And for those of you celebrating Imus' firing, don't forget - you still have O'Reilly, Rush, Hannity, Savage, Beck, and Mariotti to deal with. And Imus is still under contract to CBS Radio.

Look, if you don't like Imus, if you don't like black music, if you don't like country music, if you don't like O'Reilly, if you don't like WCKG - tune it out. Ignore it. Don't watch or listen or read. And get on with your life. If you have one.