Thursday, April 18, 2024
Miles from the Mainstream
D. R. ZUKERMAN, proprietor
Our Freedom Test

APRIL 18, 2007 --

To paraphrase Ben Franklin, ours will remain a free society only if we can keep it that way.

For LPR the only thing that makes sense in the Imus Imbroglio is that the Founding Fathers along with Abe Lincoln have made a bet to see whether we still cherish liberty.

At this time, LPR believes, the bet is being won by those who have no confidence in our commitment to
freedom.

Developments, on the Imus front, are too astounding for words, at present. It is enough just to try and keep up with all the verbal backstabbing.

LPR saw a report, Saturday, that the Imus time slot, on New York's WFAN, will be covered by the dynamic sport-report duo of Mike [Francesa] and the [Chris] Mad Dog [Russo].

LPR regrets that Mike and Mad Dog, having rebuked the suits for firing Imus, did not tell them that they would not zenker. (Google this name: Arnold Zenker.)

What if the broadcasting executives, who fired Imus before their suspension of him started, found that no one would cross the line at the door to what had been the Imus studio?

What if the broadcasting world responded to the firing the way the longshoremen, in
"On the Waterfront" responded to the beating given to Terry Malloy: refusing to go to work if Terry couldn't?

Unless -- Mike and Mad Dog will undermine the firing by spending their time in the Imus slot taking phone calls: from Charles McCord, from Bernard, from Lou, from Rob, from Deirdre, from Wyatt (asking if he could speak with his father), from General Patton, from Richard Nixon, and from the I-man himself.

LPR asks all the people who have scuttled the free speech clause of the First Amendment to read Chief Justice Rehnquist's opinion in Hustler v. Rev.
Falwell.

If you have not read the course materials, aren't you likely to fail the test?