A lot of people are legitimately offended by the things that shock jocks say.


That is what happened with Don Imus, whose bizarre and unconscionable characterization of female athletes as “nappy headed hos” cost him his job.


The IWF recently published a report on indecency. Here is the relevant idea: Government regulation of the media is bad. The public, through buying advertised products or protesting content, can take care of the problem of indecency.


We think that the market worked in the Imus case: Enough people were willing to switch the channel that the network had to react, and Imus was pulled. End of story.


A lot of people were calling for public regulation in the wake of Imus? remarks, utterly unable to see that it was unnecessary.


I think you can make the case that the protest was organized and counterproductive (see John McWhorter). I think you can point out that the people who were offended by Imus’ remark are not offended by other ugly utterances that happen to be more politically correct.


So?


Imus should have known better. No tears for Imus.