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Sunday, May 13, 2007

Is this the end of shock jockery?

When CBS fired Don Imus, we heard a lot of agonized analysis about how there was something distinctly different about shock jockery that comes in the form of ridiculing specific individuals who were innocent, young, female, and attempting to enjoy a glorious moment in their lives that they'd worked very hard to achieve. But there's no such exquisite particularity in the post-Imus domino effect
"The Dog House with JV and Elvis," hosted by Jeff Vandergrift and Dan Lay, "will no longer be broadcast," CBS Radio spokeswoman Karen Mateo said Saturday...

Vandergrift and Lay broadcast a call to a Chinese restaurant in which the caller, in an exaggerated accent, placed an order for "shrimp flied lice," claimed he was a student of kung fu, and compared menu items to employees' body parts.

The initial airing of the call went unnoticed, but a rebroadcast after Imus's firing prompted an outcry from Asian-American groups. Vandergrift and Lay were initially suspended without pay, but Asian-Americans quickly demanded the same penalty applied to the much higher-profile Imus.

"This is a victory not only for the Asian-American community, but for all communities who find themselves constant targets of racist and sexist programming," said Jeanette Wang, an executive with the Organization of Chinese Americans.
Now, it seems, the company must demonstrate to each interest group that it matters as much as the last one that was able to extract a firing. You can listen to the prank call here. I can see firing them for being lame and bad. Maybe we've reached the end of shock jockery.

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