April 16, 2007
Chalk up another victory
Given the title of this blog, I can't help but showcase this column from Calgary Sun columnist Ian Robinson:
Something kind of cool happened in the case of shock jock Don Imus.
After calling the largely black Rutgers women's basketball team "nappy-headed hos," Imus got a slap in the mouth from the invisible hand.
Much preferable to the visible fist of the state, with its ridiculous hate-crime legislation.
...
If Imus had done what he did in Canada, earnest people with law degrees would have applied hate-crimes legislation to him, and five years from now, after huge bucks were siphoned from the public purse, he'd be convicted of something or other and fined.
What happened to Imus instead was this: A bunch of folks got annoyed with him. They wrote stern letters. Sponsors -- big sponsors like Procter and Gamble and General Motors -- abandoned ship like there weren't going to be enough lifeboats, and Imus got fired.
And it took less than a week.
And it was free.
Labels: free speech, invisible hand