Just thought I would repost this here, as I've been listening to a lot of sports talk radio, and yesterday, when there are no Giants, A's, Warriors, OR Sharks game, this was all they talked about.

Sorry I haven't linked Davey D's original post, but I bet you can find it. I've also amended this slightly, thanks to the ability to preview before posting....
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"Well said Mr. D, but I feel there is something else going on that has yet to be discussed publicly regarding this whole matter.

As any good A's fan will tell you, this year the CBS affiliates broadcasting games on the radio decided to implement a ~17 second delay in their broadcasts, something which infuriated the Green and Gold Nation. (We like to listen at the park, or turn down the TV to hear the play by play.) Why would they institute such a preposterous delay? Don't they know their audience? Well they don't. They fear the FCC and the thousands of dollars in fines they might incur if a four letter word slips by the microphone, be it their own commentators or the plaza level below the booth.

If I recall correctly, there is already an installed delay in television and radio for censorship purposes. Doesn't CBS have someone sitting there, waiting to push that button? Haven't they done enough to prevent this from happening over and over? Apparently not, if you remember Larry Kruger, Felipe Alou, and KNBR brass a year or so ago. This cycle of putting, for lack of a better word, assholes on the air, instituting technology for censorship of speech, and then backtracking when something profane hits talk radio, will NOT end - not as long as ratings and advertising dollars and media corporations continue to be driven by the bottom line, and the herd mentality that a blowhard is the best talk radio host. Look at craigslist - can you think of a business operating the way they do? The corporate world could give a damn, but as you know, they do not. Meanwhile we all spend too many of hours of our lives discussing whether what happened to Imus is "ethical" or not.

I think that firing Don Imus should only have been pre-empted by not hiring him, he seems like the most unpleasant guy on the planet. (I admit, I've never really listened to him and know as much about him from Howard Stern's early conflict with him in the late 80's, NBC years.) While the networks spent a week deciding what they should do about him, I read that multiple employees came out speaking against him, basically backing up the Rutger's women's team claims that the man is offensive, pure and simple.

What I'd like to see is more corporate responsibility that does not come in the form of FCC fines that go ... where exactly? There is no accountability for how these corp's do business and it is a scourge on this country that goes beyond race, music, or media. There won't ever be competition in this arena because the media corporations don't face any, ever! They have control, we just get to complain, or as you say, "ponder" about it.

(by the way, I still owe you a DVD - "Hip Hop in Sproul Plaza 1984")
-jim"