First!

This week, a sports talk host at some bum-freak radio station in Indiana caught flak for suggesting that Michigan State coach Mark D'Antonio suffered his heart attack because he beat Notre Dame, which is apparently God's Team.

Whatever.

Also, GO SPARTANS!

This stupid-ass DJ isn't the first idiot of the airwaves. Lots of broadcasters have gotten in trouble for saying stupid, um, stuff: Don Imus, Steve Lyons, Jimmy The Greek, Howard Cosell, etc., etc. – and that's just in sports.

Whenever media folk get in trouble for saying something that tweaks or freaks people out and then leads to reprimand or termination, somebody always defends them by saying, “Hey, it's a free country!”

Thankfully, that's so right. But, also, so what?

Before we go any further, let's confront The First Amendment to The Constitution of The United States of America:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. http://www.usconstitution.net/const.html#Am1

For many of you, that may be the first time in your life that you have actually read The First Amendment. That's cool; I don't judge. But I do think you should take the time now to read it again. Like, right now!

I'll wait.

You know what that says? It says that I can jump up from my cubicle and shout, “My boss is a freaking idiot!” – and my government cannot arrest and imprison me. God bless America!

You know what it doesn't say? That my boss can't fire my crazy, insubordinate ass.

For the record, just in case my boss ever reads this, I do not think he is a freaking idiot. See, I am intelligent enough to know the consequences of my saying that he is – which is why I would never say such a thing near my cubicle or on this blog or on ESPN.

Please do not misunderstand me. I want to hear voices of provocation and dissent, and I want those voices to get the widest possible audience. And I definitely want those voices to use The First Amendment to its fullest extent under the law. But those voices have never come from The Corporate Media. And they never will.

Yeah, it sucks. Deal with it.

So, if a richly-paid broadcasting professional is too stupid or too arrogant to know how a workplace works, if a broadcasting professional is too stupid or too arrogant to understand how The Media – his profession! – works, if a broadcasting professional is too stupid or too arrogant to understand how Society works, and if a richly-paid broadcasting professional is too stupid or too arrogant to understand how The Marketplace works, then this stupid and arrogant asshole deserves to be fired simply for being so freaking stupid and arrogant!

But it ain't about The First Amendment.