Imus and the First Amendment

This is last week’s commentary from the First Amendment Center on the Imus nonsense (how I managed to miss this is beyond me). It seems the most sensible thing I’ve read, recognizing the First-Amendment rights both of the offenders and the offended:

(T)he most immediate answer to highly offensive speech is simply to stop enabling it. Change the channel, boycott the sponsor, or go to another Web site. We should do everything we can to protect the First Amendment right of people to offend, but we don’t have to pay for it.

Pretty much sums up my thoughts.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
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Author: hankkalet

Hank Kalet is a poet and freelance journalist. He is the economic needs reporter for NJ Spotlight, teaches journalism at Rutgers University and writing at Middlesex County College and Brookdale Community College. He writes a semi-monthly column for the Progressive Populist. He is a lifelong fan of the New York Mets and New York Knicks, drinks too much coffee and attends as many Bruce Springsteen concerts as his meager finances will allow. He lives in South Brunswick with his wife Annie. View all posts by hankkalet