The American Spectator

p> IMUS IN THE MOURNING br> Re: Ben Stein’s Sharpton in the Morning : /p>

I remember discovering Imus in my teen years during the early Seventies, when he first came to New York. His shtick then consisted mostly of skits, such as parodies of Southern radio preachers and crank calls (he once famously phoned an exotic car dealer in Indianapolis on the weekend of the 500 and tried to rent a Ferrari with its headlights taped for the afternoon), sandwiched in between the Top 40 tunes that were the bread-and-butter of his station. I listened on and off over the years when I lived in the NYC metro area, but quit about fifteen years ago while driving to work and suddenly realizing that listening to people loudly arguing and insulting each other was not the way I wanted to start my day. It’s the same reason I don’t listen to Howard Stern or Al Franken or Opie and Anthony or most rappers, or watch the various “comedy” specials that litter the cable airwaves. Life is short and filled with travail, anger, invective, and incivility, so much so that actively seeking such out as “entertainment” strikes me as masochistic and self-loathing.

Thanks to Ben Stein for his anecdote about the blowhard and evil hypocrite Sharpton — I’d never heard that particular gem about Linda Fairstein. Despite my other feelings about Imus, I always thought he was intelligent and a savvy broadcaster. As an old radio hand myself, I’ve known since day one that the person with the mike always gets the last word, and that he thought he could accomplish anything by appearing on Sharpton’s hatefest was sheer idiocy.

p>A last word about Sharpton. Imus hurt peoples’ feelings with his foul and intemperate remarks. Sharpton ruined Stephen Pagones’s life and directly led to the death of Yankel Rosenbaum and the seven employees of Freddy’s Fashion Mart through his repeated racist and anti-Semitic screaming. Imus may have the tears of the Rutgers basketball squad on his hands; Sharpton has the blood of innocents on his. br> — Peter J. Lyden, III br> Rumson, New Jersey /p>

Ben Stein, the elegant writer states “…pitifully face-lifted Nancy Pelosi (I would bet a lot she’s had a breast job, too—can you imagine that we have a Speaker of the House, third in line for the White House, so vain and superficial that at her age she has her breasts done?…”

MEEEEOOOOWWW, Ben!