A Teaching Moment - What I've learned

After seeing "Meet the Press" today, I heard the discussion panel refer to the Don Imus firing, hoping that the incident would be a "teaching moment". No doubt, the panelists are fervently hoping that this will ignite a national dialog about how the races can be more tolerant of one another, how we can become more gender sensitive and how we all need to be watchdogs against intolerance.

Here's what I've learned from the "teaching moment".

1. There's a reason why, in our justice system, we have a trial which determines guilt or innocence, then at a later time, the actual sentencing. The time between trial and sentencing allows the judge to consider the appropriate penalty within certain prescribed guidelines, after a calm, re-evaluation of all the facts, including the context of the offense, any prior history of offenses as well as consideration of the moral or immoral deeds of the defendant. In the Imus case, the trial and sentencing were conducted all at once, in the public court.

In fact, I recent poll I saw yesterday asking how people felt about the firing in response to Don Imus' comments, had about 45% of the respondents thinking that a two week suspension was the correct sentence, 25% agreed with the firings and the remainder thought that nothing should have been done.

Rightly or wrongly, I wonder whether the outcome would have changed had the Rutgers team meeting and announcement of apology acceptance had happened before Don Imus was "sentenced".

2. "Imus in the Morning" sponsors' actions should in no way be taken as as "moral indignation" to what was said. The Imus sponsors have a financial responsibility to their shareholders and a huge amount of choice as to where they place their advertising dollars. There was absolutely NO financial upside to continue to sponsor any controversial show. Their abandonment of Imus had little or nothing to do with Corporate moral outrage. Need proof? How long have most of these sponsors been supporting a show that regularly offended minorities, religions and even personal physical appearance? Most of them, for a long time.

3. The Media is very lazy. When it came to getting a response to the entire issue from the "Black perspective" the only two numbers on speed dial were Rev Sharpton and Rev Jessie Jackson. They appeared on every show, throughout the day for a week. Frankly, the discussion I heard was loud and vehement outrage and rhetoric - the usual shouting points.

By about day 9, I started to hear from other black journalists, preachers and community leaders (and the Rutgers team) who engaged in a much more productive discussion about the events that transpired, which helped me better understand the entire situation. Lesson learned here is to make sure that we (and the media) regularly dialog with a wide range of minority voices from throughout society to improve the quality (and hopefully outcome) of our discussions. Let's lose Sharpton's and Jackson's phone numbers for awhile.

As for whether we've learned a lasting lesson about intolerance, only time will tell.