Most people by now have heard about the brouhaha involving Don Imus, the well-known shock jock formerly on CBS Radio. Mr. Imus, who I consider an interesting character in redemption: he once was a drug addict and alcoholic, was caught with his hand in the cookie jar April 4 discussing the NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship between Tennessee and Rutgers. I don’t need to repeat the line here for it has been said far too many times since that fateful day nine days ago. However, as we all are now aware, CBS let the long-time radio host go after a great deal of soul searching by company management, including CEO Les Moonves.

The Imus dismissal got me thinking about ethical investing and the position CBS took here. If I’m an ethical investor, what are my thoughts on CBS? Are they now worthy of my investment because they stood up to racism, despite the fact many of their radio stations play music with lyrics much worse? Should they move higher in the ethical investment rankings? I say call Domini Social Investments and ask them this very question. I can guarantee you they won’t have an answer.

Money managers who handle ethical investments today have become very adept at producing returns while adhering to the guidelines set forth in their investment mandates. It’s not an easy thing to do. The problem in the Imus situation is separating the ethical from the grandstanders or the politically correct. CBS only got rid of Imus when the advertisers rose in unison to boycott the show, a mere eight days later. Both CBS and their advertisers took an awfully long time to get indignant on the matter.

If I’m an ethical investor today, regardless of the company’s fundamentals, I’d be scratching them off my list for two reasons: 1) taking so long to make a decision and 2) for making the decision only after their advertisers made them.