"If we are to live in fear of words, well, we might as well just throw the constitution away."

So says Frank Zappa in this YouTube video during a discussion of his Tipper Gore era fight against government censorship.

Zappa (a classic himself) invokes a pre-constitutional classic:

"Sticks and Stones will break my bones, but words will never hurt me."

A no brainer, right?

Not according to CBS. Here's Richard Miniter:

....Imus was a known quality. He had been a shock jock for decades. In fact he was paid to be edgy.

It wasn't the advertisers or the executives, or even Al Sharpton, that cost Imus his job. It was political correctness at CBS in New York. Perry Michael Simon, the news/talk editor of All Access, pointed out that CBS employees handed out a book called "Words Can Hurt" and circulated a petition to end Imus' CBS career. Next they brought in agent provocateur, David Brock and a blogger who has been documenting Imus excesses for over a decade.

The war to reinstate the so-called "Fairness Doctrine" (which would monitor words in order to require certain other words to be broadcast) is like Tipper Gore's war against rock lyrics she didn't like, which is like the attempt (by people who don't like a network no one makes them listen to) to bully advertisers .

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Then as now, Zappa gets it right.