Imus' response to the ADL's complaint?

"Leave me alone, Jesus, God," he told his audience Tuesday. "Go after people who are actually doing something wrong."

We're inclined to agree that the speech police seem to have entirely too much time on their hands these days. Still, it's hard not to notice that conservative hosts rarely get the same benefit of the doubt.

The most celebrated case involves top New York talker Bob Grant. In 1996, after news broke that Commerce Secretary Ron Brown's plane had crashed in Yugoslavia, Grant joked to his WABC audience: "I have a hunch that [Brown is] the lone survivor - but I'm a pessimist at heart."

The forces of political correctness mobilized overnight and in two short weeks, New York City's most popular talk radio host was shown the door. [WOR soon snapped Grant up.]

Just last fall, conservative Milwaukee talker Mark Bellings was suspended from his broadcast within days of uttering the word "wetback."

But a few weeks later in the same city, when liberal host John Sylvester labeled Condoleezza Rice an "Aunt Jemima," the reaction was much more muted. There were no suspensions and Sylvester only apologized after saying he feared he had insulted the real Aunt Jemima with the comparison.

Dr. Rice was also the target of Bush-bashing Florida talker Neil Rogers, who in 2003 repeatedly aired a "parody" which described America's highest ranking African American woman as "a black-haired answer mammy" who "parks the whiteys' cars" and "cleans all the White House bathrooms."

Not only wasn't Rogers suspended, he never personally apologized, although the owners of his station did offer regrets in a little noticed press release.

Even big stars aren't immune from the politically correct double standard.

The press went wild in 2003 when Rush Limbaugh - then covering football for ESPN - dared to suggest that black quarterback Donovan McNabb wasn't all he was cracked up to be.

CBS anchorman Dan Rather, on the other hand, got a complete pass from the media a year before when he explained that his network bosses "got a case of the Buckwheats" before yielding to pressure and forcing him to cover the Gary Condit story.

Rather's interviewer at the time? Don Imus.

Editor's note: