Exposed

"They should have nightmares about it.

"They should be given no encouragement whatsoever to believe they can launch a nuclear weapon at someone's reputation and escape unscathed."

Andrea Peyser, in the same paper, recounts a piece that was controversial at the time:

"This story so neatly fit the radical agenda of our 'newspaper of record,' The New York Times, that the paper disgustingly advanced the hoax on its front page, long after other media outlets had backed off.

"In a case of 'all the lies fit to print,' the paper on Aug. 25 affected an air of Timesian authority in a damning article, spoon-fed by DA Nifong. It tried to put to rest some of the alarming inconsistencies in the accuser's story about the night she was 'attacked.'

" 'While there are big weaknesses in Mr. Nifong's case, there is also a body of evidence to support his decision to take the matter to a jury,' quoth the Times. And, 'The full files, reviewed by The New York Times, contain evidence stronger than that highlighted by the defense.'

"Will the Times make reparations now?"

Well, the Imus radio show is now history, at least on CBS. Les Moonves axed the program late yesterday, a day after NBC's Steve Capus killed the cable simulcast. In both cases, we report here, rising anger among the networks' own employees seems to have tipped the scale. And there's no doubting that outrage over the awful Rutgers crack morphed into a larger national furor over indecent broadcasting that made it all but impossible for Imus to survive.

Glenn Reynolds: "I've never liked Imus, and his comments were disgraceful, but this seems like it's been a feeding frenzy. And, really, who cares what Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson think about proper public demeanor?"

Time's James Poniewozik, while criticizing the racial remark, frames the broader question:

"A reasonable person could ask, What was the big deal? And I don't mean the lots-of-black-rappers-say-'hos' argument, though we'll get to that. Rather, I mean, what celebrity isn't slurring some group nowadays?

"I exaggerate slightly. But our culture has experienced an almost psychotic outburst of -isms in the past year. Michael Richards and [the N-word]. Isaiah Washington and [the F-word for gays]. Senator George Allen and 'macaca.' Mel Gibson and '[blanking] Jews.'