Andy Rooney Gets Pass for Racial Slur About Hispanic Baseball Players

So, did you hear that Andy Rooney made a racial slur last week about baseball players all being named "Rodriguez?"

You didn't?

Well, how could you, for it appears that virtually nobody reported it.

To bring you up to speed, the CBS "60 Minutes" commentator wrote a column about America's national pastime last Thursday, and stated the following (emphasis added):

My disinterest in baseball as a kid has lasted all my life. I'm still not interested in the game. I don't watch it on television or follow it in the newspaper. I know all about Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, but today's baseball stars are all guys named Rodriguez to me. They're apparently very good but they haven't caught my interest.

Now, just imagine if a conservative media personality like Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity had said or written such an epithet. Do you think you would have heard about it?

Yet, compared to all the anger surrounding recent statements made by Don Imus about the Rutgers women's basketball team, the New York Times just accepted Rooney's apology without much ado. This seems even more absurd as the highest paid baseball player in the world, coincidentally named Rodriguez, is a New York Yankee (emphasis added):

"Yeah, I probably shouldn't have said it," Mr. Rooney, 88, said when reached by telephone on Friday afternoon. He added that although he regretted the comment, he doubted he would apologize for it in a subsequent column. "It's a name that seems common in baseball now. I certainly didn't think of it in any derogatory sense."

He added, "That's what I do for a living, I write columns and have opinions, and some of them are pretty stupid."

Hmmm. It seems similar to what Imus used to do for a living as well. In fact, making irreverent comments was even in Imus's contract, but that didn't stop liberal groups from forcing CBS - who also happens to employ Rooney - to fire him.

Why the difference in treatment and outrage?