Ron,

I think your point about free speech would be OK if there were equal time given to all points of view. There is a heavy bias in favor of racism, sexism,etc. on all the major AM outlets. However, to fire Imus would be an example to others that this nasty stuff is not allowable on major media when it's definitively "hate speech", which it was. This kind of stuff crosses the line into "yelling fire in a crowded theater". People are hurt by this kind of talk and it's "not just sticks and stones that can break your bones."

"Cheap little rhyme to cheap little tune,
Is sometimes as dangerous as a sliver of a moon.
Cheap little tune to cheap little rhyme
Can cut a man's throat, sometime."
---Langston Hughes