The answer is yes and no.  There are some interesting similarities and parallels and yet there are some interesting contradictions and differences.

Obviously they both are media celebrities who have spoken some offensive things on their respective shows.  But that is where the similarities end.

Imus was an old white guy who made a stupid joke about some black women athletes, and he has a reputation for making some harsh and offensive remarks.  But his previous indiscretions have all been passed over, only after the Nappy remark did any organized effort to punish him emerge, from the liberals.  A campaign to have him fired was launched by Sharpton and Jackson.  And they succeeded.  Despite his apology to the women in question, he has been sacked.

Rosie is a white lesbian woman who has mocked the Chinese, slandered our leaders, offered support to the terrorists, espoused loony conspiracy theories, called people homophobes and far too many other little indiscretions all on her show, and has rarely offered anything remotely like an apology.  She for her part has not suffered any measurable chastisement, nor has The View, ABC, Disney or anyone else directly addressed her remarks.

What bothers me is how many liberals defend her, and accuse me of trying to suppress her free speech, yet those same liberals cheerfully called for Imus to be fired.  That is the core of the hypocrisy.  Both of them have offended people but Imus offended someone with a higher victim rating.  Rosie offended some nameless Chinese people and some white people.  Who cares?

What the people calling for Imus’s head do not realize is that they have opened a Pandora’s box.  The message is clear that you can be “Imus-ed” if you offend too many people.  By their very actions they have energized the StopRosie.com campaign and others of similar design.  All those who defend Rosie do so now at the risk of being seen as a hypocrite if they in turn defend their attack on Imus.

Conservatives run a similar risk however.  I heard many defending Imus, not as a conservative, but as a defense of free speech, but some of those have had harsh things to say about Rosie.  Again, care should be taken.  You must take a consistent position.

Should Imus have been fired?  I cannot say whether he *should* have, but I honestly expected it.  I think the manner in which it happened however, shows that it was a clear matter of the network and the sponsors panicking before the Sharpton/Jackson mob.  No such mob exists on the right so I doubt Rosie will suffer a similar fate soon.

I wonder is we can get her to call someone a nappy…never mind.

But then again the 200+ comments I have had on the StopRosie.com petition blog I wrote almost universally are in favor of it, so maybe so.

As I posted earlier, anyone in their place of employment runs a risk of being a liability to the employer when they overstep themselves in word and deed, and that is essentially what happened to Imus.   He got canned when his employer decided the cost was too great.  Rosie faces a similar risk,  In her case her worst enemy will be her arrogance.

So in the end my outrage is not directed at him being sacked, it is the fact that the people attacking him defend Rosie as a paragon of free speech, and frankly that type of obvious hypocrisy is sick.

Are they the same?  Essentially yes.  But they will not be treated the same.  Rosie has a higher Victim Rating.

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