And the radio is in the hands of such a lot of fools

Rick "RightWingNuthouse"Moran needs an intervention.

Unlike Andrew Sullivan, who recently makes a great deal of sense (Welcome out into the light, Andrew), Rick still is a Right-winger, except when he isn't.

Witness this:

There is little doubt that Don Imus deserves to be fired. The problem is he has deserved it for going on 25 years. A major contributor to the toxicity of our culture, Imus has frolicked in the sewer of American entertainment, making a living being pointlessly hurtful and hateful to every ethnic and racial group in America. His targets in the past have included the Jews, Hispanics, Italians, Arabs, Catholics, evangelical Christians, and Muslims, to name a few. And he has gotten away with it because people recognize that he is doing it for purposes of “entertainment.”

Playing to stereotypes is a dangerous game and Imus (and his chief enabler and cheerleader, producer Bernard McGuirk), skirt the edge of outright hate speech constantly, settling for drawing broad analogies and using code words that allow their slack jawed fans to create their own punchlines. This gimmicky approach to practicing bigotry without actually crossing the line earned the radio host a huge following during the crucial morning drive time in most major markets and a sizable audience on television via MSNBC.

Indeed. Glad to see you're so tolerant of all those religio-cultural groups.

Problem is, as I see it, the Free Market works sometimes. It kept Imus on for years past his sell-by date, because he generated $$. But once advertisers started falling away in droves, and he was in danger of becoming a liability, he gets canned. thus, a Right-winger's wet dream: The Market Forces have spoken.

Or something.

And where does that leave all the hate spouting radio/TV folks Rick adores?

Media Matters has this:

On April 11, NBC News announced that it was dropping MSNBC's simulcast of Imus in the Morning in the wake of the controversy that erupted over host Don Imus' reference to the Rutgers University women's basketball team as "nappy-headed hos." The following day, CBS president and CEO Leslie Moonves announced that CBS -- which owns both the radio station that broadcast Imus' program and Westwood One, which syndicated the program -- has fired Imus and would cease broadcasting his radio show. But as Media Matters for America has extensively documented, bigotry and hate speech targeting, among other characteristics, race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, and ethnicity continue to permeate the airwaves through personalities such as Glenn Beck, Neal Boortz, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, Michael Savage, Michael Smerconish, and John Gibson.

Maybe they're still OK, according to the Free Market.

Meanwhile, Rick can keep posting his fanporn of 24.