HELIOLITH

Shock jock humor is to Talula as horror movies are to Michael. I don’t understand the point. I realize a lot of people listen to radio asswipes like Don Imus and Howard Stern, and that a lot of the people who listen actually agree that he’s a putz. But I fail to see the excitemment or entertainment value in making offensive comments (most recent trite bigotry targeting Rutgers women’s basketball team) just to get a rise out of people. It seems like he doesn’t even necessarily believe in what he says; he’s just saying it to get people talking and to up his ratings. Booor-ing, if you ask me. I wish everyone would just stop paying attention to him so he’d shut up. Free speech does not mean that the rest of the community can’t send a message that we don’t want to listen. Al Roker rightly doesn’t want to share the airwaves with Imus anymore. The network gave him a slap on the wrist by suspending him for two weeks, and Imus apologized, but everyone will forget about it, including him, as soon as he comes back and revs up again. The network should go the way of the sponsors, among them American Express Co., Sprint Nextel Corp., Staples Inc., Procter & Gamble Co., and General Motors Corp., who have indefinitely pulled out, sending a message that associating with Don Imus is bad for business.