Los Angeles City Council Decides They're Not Big Fans of Freedom of Speech

Having apparently solved all of the problems facing the city of Angels, the Los Angeles City Council passed a resolution on Thursday calling for more 'diversity' in talk radio and calling on management of local TV and radio stations to limit any comments construed as racist or sexist on public airwaves.

The City Council has approved a resolution calling on local TV and radio stations to limit any “racist” and “sexist” comments on their broadcasts.

The City Council voted 13-2 to pass the resolution with a motion urging “the management of radio and television stations in Los Angeles to do everything in their power to ensure that their on-air hosts do not use and promote racist and sexist slurs over public airwaves in the City of Los Angeles”.

The resolution was introduced earlier this month by councilwoman Jan Perry after local talk-show hosts John Kobylt and Ken Chiampou referred to Whitney Houston as a 'crack ho' during a February show on KFI 640 AM.

The resolution- which is largely nonbinding- reportedly gained momentum after nationally syndicated talk show host Rush Limbaugh referred to a Georgetown coed who testified before a February hearing in the House of Representatives that she spent thousands of dollars anually on birth control as a 'slut'. Limbaugh's comments led to calls of a boycott of his show's sponsors, primarily from well funded left wing groups branding themselves as 'media watchdogs'. Limbaugh's show also airs in Los Angeles on KFI.

Random Mid-Week Sports Ramblings

NFL Comissioner Roger Goodell had this to say about Rush Limbaugh's bid to purchase the St. Louis Rams:

“I’ve said many times before, we’re all held to a high standard here and I think divisive comments are not what the NFL is all about, [snip] I would not want to see those comments coming from people who are in a responsible position in the NFL, absolutely not.”

If this is all about keeping Limbaugh out of the spotlight because he's such a controversial person, then what exactly is Keith Olberman doing on NBC's Sunday Night telecast? Yes- I know the 0lby isn't buying an NFL team, but it's not exactly like he's locked away in some obscure deserted sound stage that nobody would ever find in a million years [like his MSNBC show- NANESB!].

I think a much more valid argument against a broadcast media-type in the front office or owner's suite of an NFL franchise would be the perpetual clusterf*ck that was the Detroit Lions under Matt Millen. They're still feeling the pain from that one in Motor City, with only the occasional Stanley Cup or NBA Title to soothe the hurt.

Among the speculative replacements for the will-he-stay-or-will-he-go? Jonathan Papelbon mentioned in various sports columns on Sunday; Billy Wagner.

OOPS!

Look- I love having someone like Paps in the bullpen for a number of reasons (not the least of which is that he came up through the Sox farm teams) and it was painful to see him give up that single to Guerrero on Sunday. There's nothing I can say to sugar-coat it- Paps cost us Game 3 of the ALDS this year. Having said that, it wasn't Papelbon's fault the Red Sox were only able to score one run off of eight hits combined in games 1 & 2 of the ALDS.

So for all the geniuses who have hopped on the 'Dump Papelbon' bandwagon, who exactly is supposed to come in and close the 9th? An incarcerated Ugeth Urbina? The ghost of Keith Foulke....wait, what? He's still alive? Bard? Move Bowden to the pen? Who's out there as a free agent? Huston Street? Joe Nathan?

Those of you inclined to play GM, I'd like to hear your thoughts and trade-propsals on the matter.