It is too much to hope for, but wouldn't it be great if the Imus dust-up led to a growing reform of how we talk to each other in public? If, for instance, we saw a return to manners in general, and even on cable TV and among radio talk-show hosts?

Fat chance!

Don Imus has been a radio personality for a long time even though most Americans may never have heard of him before the latest flap. In fact most Americans didn't generally hear him at all. His morning radio program originating from New York was carried on about 90 stations and was estimated to reach about 1.6 million radio listeners per week. That meant about 298 million Americans did not hear him on the radio, though a few of those millions may have seen him on cable.

Imus had not been shy about calling people in public life or in broadcasting "twits," "idiots" and other names. Nobody cared until earlier this month, when he spat his verbal contempt at the women's basketball team of Rutgers University. Even then it took a while for his jibe to be amplified through the blogosphere before it blew up.

Imus and others in his line of work have been called "shock jocks," reflecting what they generally do. We can complain, but until now we might as well have been talking to a wall. The shock jocks stay in business and generally keep their jobs - with an occasional suspension and even a firing now and then if they offend a person or group whose protests get traction in the public arena - because some Americans like that kind of broadcasting. Not many. Certainly not most. But enough on a nationwide basis to make up a big audience.

The shock jocks would be gone tomorrow if nobody tuned them in. So if we're going to complain about about their talk, we should first complain to the people in the audience who enable them to carry on day after day.

Free speech is a wonderful thing, but it's hard to believe that the framers of the First Amendment had in mind some of the examples we can hear on the radio and watch on cable TV.

Some of Imus's defenders this past week pointed out that he hadn't said anything that rap and hip hop performers say or sing all the time. But crudity is crude no matter where it appears.

Music and videos featuring offensive language are hugely popular, suggesting that their contents have gained wide acceptance. If the Imus episode causes some of this stuff to be seen as offensive again, that would be good news.