Imus under the gun

[Tiassa]

Source: CNN.com
Link: http://www.cnn.com/2004/LAW/12/01/people.imus.reut/index.html
Title: "Fired nanny sues radio host Don Imus"
Date: December 1, 2004

Don Imus is, if you will pardon a bad pun, "under the gun":

Before leaving on the trip, Mallette said Wyatt told her he kept cap guns at the ranch and was allowed to play with them when supervised. Mallette promised to bring her paper-cap gun so they could play "cowboys" at the ranch.

Once there, she and the boy went hiking and Mallette wore a 1 1/2-inch pocket knife sheathed in a leather harness on her belt.

The complaint, which seeks "compensatory and punitive damages in an amount to be determined at trial," alleges that later that night, the nanny received a "hysterical" call from Imus' wife concerning the pocket knife and paper-cap gun. Mallette said she was later angrily confronted by the couple before being told she was fired and to leave the ranch.

CNN.com

Imus allegedly hit the air on November 29, 2003, claiming that he had been "forced to disarm his nanny", and described her as a "violent, armed and dangerous criminal", and went on to call her a terrorist.

It is this broadcast at the center of the suit.

Has Don Imus transgressed the comfortable boundaries of the First Amendment? I mean, after all, Howard Stern's fans claim that advocating criminal behavior (e.g. rape) is acceptable speech. So what about slander?

Perhaps Imus should go back to writing books about false messiahs. After all, he could include his autobiography in all that.
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Notes:

Reuters. "Fired nanny sues radio host Don Imus". CNN.com, December 1, 2004. See http://www.cnn.com/2004/LAW/12/01/people.imus.reut/index.html​