NFL should take a pass on rushing to judgment
Today's subject is Duke lacrosse, NFL football and justice, but this might be harder than I thought since the e-mail reaction to my Don Imus column shows so many people don't understand the concept of appropriate punishment.
It's not complex. At Thursday's Lakers-Clippers game I asked local and national broadcasters Jim Hill, John Ireland, Jim Gray, Kevin Harlan and Doug Collins if they would expect to keep their jobs if they ever made on-air comments similar to Imus' racial- and gender-biased remarks about the Rutgers women's basketball team. The unanimous answer: of course not.
If I wrote or said such offensive statements they wouldn't make it past my newspaper editors or TV producers. But if they somehow did, I'd be gone. There are certain things you just don't say about other people in mass media -- even Imus knows better than to use the "n-word" on the air.
Some people tried to cloud the issue by bringing up the misogynist or race-baiting words of comics, reverends and rappers. (Rappers glorify guns, too, so would Imus be excused if he shot someone?) This isn't about them. This is about Imus and his specific targeting of these college students.
This isn't about freedom of speech. The 1st Amendment applies to government actions, and I didn't see federal agents arresting Imus. He's welcome to start a blog if he wants to keep belittling other people. This is about holding broadcasters, corporate ownership and their sponsors accountable for defamatory remarks that set our culture back.
Why this instance and why this moment? Who knows? Why did Rosa Parks pick Dec. 1, 1955, to decide she wasn't going to move to the back of the bus? Sometimes enough is enough. This was one of those turning points.
So now we turn to another milestone moment this week, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell's yearlong suspension of Adam "Pacman" Jones and half-season suspension of Chris Henry for their numerous run-ins with the law.
It was notable not only for its precedent but for its caveat. The NFL's new conduct policy calls for aggressive discipline "even when the conduct itself has not yet resulted in a conviction of a crime."
In other words, no presumption of innocence. That especially comes into play with Jones, who has become the face of NFL players gone wild. Although police have recommended he be charged in connection with a Las Vegas strip club altercation in February, he has not yet been charged. Nor has he been formally connected by police to a shooting outside the club later.
