NEW RULE: RACISM IS PROTECTED SPEECH

(Via RawStory)

Salon has an interesting article about the wingnut fringe's reaction to the Imus scandal and I was especially taken with this passage:

Cliff Kincaid, of the conservative media watchdog Accuracy in Media, said the Imus firing had been a revelation. "It wasn't exactly clear to me how [liberals] intended to bring back the Fairness Doctrine, but I think now with the Imus affair, we know ... [And it's a] short leap from firing Imus to going after Rush Limbaugh."

[snip]

Kincaid drew a similar distinction in an interview with Salon, saying he favored the FCC's monitoring of broadcasts for sexual indecency, but that he would not support similar measures against racist speech.

"Then you're getting into political speech," Kincaid said, "and what one defines as, quote, 'racism.' How do you define the term? I don't want the FCC to define that."

We know Limbaugh lost his gig at ESPN because of a racist remark and MediaMatters has an impressive list of his other racist remarks, so we can see why the Far Right is afraid that Fats may lose his job, and therefore his influence.