Reply #176: MSNBC cancels Imus; will Newsweek fire Howard Fineman?

[Nuisance Man]

Now that MSNBC has pulled the plug on talkshow host Don Imus for his overtly bigoted remarks, will Newsweek yank away Howard Fineman’s editorship for his overtly bigoted logic?

Five days after Imus opened his mouth and let the ugliness inside show for the umpteenth time, Newsweek editor Howard Fineman appeared on Imus’ show, like all the other willing abettors who came before, and with a tone of a lecturing grade school teacher offered pearls of wisdom to the besieged casual racist and smiling misogynist. Fineman had this interesting observation:

The environment, politically, has changed. And some of the stuff that you used to do, you probably can’t do anymore…. You just can’t. Because the times have changed. I mean, just looking specifically at the African-American situation. I mean, hello, Barack Obama’s got twice the number of contributors as anybody else in the race. And the kind of — some of the kind of humor that you used to do you can’t do anymore.

Note that Fineman doesn’t say you can’t get away with as much racism any more because people are more sensitive, more easily offended, more likely to complain, and so on. No. Fineman says you can’t get away with as much racism as before because people aren’t as racist. Why else would he bring up Obama’s contributors? People don’t give money to Barney Frank because they’re offended by homophobia. The only possible relevance of the money given to Obama is that a lot of white people are now capable of being so energized by a black man, they’re actually willing to give him some of their hard earned cash. God damn it, that makes life tough for poor, hardworking folks who like to spew racist filth every time they open their mouths. Even if they’re actually rich and get paid to gab.

In other words, Fineman — not me — but Fineman is acknowledging that Don Imus’ ability to get away with this kind of stuff before depended on the fact that the social climate used to be more racist.

But Fineman's logic gets even worse...