Free Speech

Recently there was a sports commentator who was fired for making a comment about carribean baseball players. Story Here. The guy was suspended for awhile first and all the media was bitching that the punishment wasn't harsh enough, and eventually the guy was fired. So I did a little google search for "comments" and "fired", and I came up with 5,490,000 results.
Let me make a quick point. I understand that almost all of the cases are between an employer and employee and not government or politically linked, but my point is the same.
I always thought that free speech was protected by the 1st ammendment. Actually it says "Congress shall make no law....,or abridging the freedom of speech." I suppose it is withing the corporations legal right to fire for any reason. It seems to me that more and more people are intolerant of other peoples opinions. While I might disagree with his comments, I don't think he should be punished. I think the guy was pissed because his team is doing poorly and was just blowing off some steam. That is beside the point. The point is that everyone is entitiled to his/her opinion and they should be able to voice that opinion without fear of repercussions. More and more political correctness is getting in the way of free speech. In theory I should be able to say whatever I want to regardless of who it may offend. I should be able to speak my mind openly. I believe these freedoms are being slowly eroded away, not only by corporate america, but also by our government.