Imus is Done
Don Imus was cut loose from CBS today in the culmination of his week-long battle with his critics. Now I may be alone in this, but don’t think this was quite a fair state of affairs. I am no Imus fan, but a personality that I am a fan of, Bill Maher, was treated to the same sort of media frenzy a few years back. This is a new form of blacklisting. Create “grassroots” attacks on people that disagree with you and have their sponsors pull support. It is all very “free-market” but it makes me mad.
The Christian right really perfected this technique and they have used it like a cudgel. Now any special interest with an ax to grind can create this sort of maelstrom of anger and indignation to achieve their ends. I would love to set some breaks on this, like we have on the stock market. If there is a huge drop of some percentage in some time, we stop trading. At some point in these situations, we should stop for a few days and take a few deep breaths.
Tags: Media Watchdog
First of all Imus sucked he should have been fired for sucking. As to the rest, you make a good point but I have to disagree.
I thought about the Bill Maher thing too and there is a difference. Like the dixie chicks, Maher was “blacklisted” for expressing an upopular view. People with upopular views need to be protected.
Imus is a racists and it caught up with him over the course of twenty years. In a pluralistic society we don’t view raciscm as just another unpopular lifestyle choice. At least we shouldn’t.
As an aside; Adrian Scott, one of my grandfather’s cousin, was a screen writer and a member of the “Hollywood Ten.” He was blacklisted for holding the unpopular view that workers should have some rights – so the blacklist thing hits close to home.
Yeah, and the stockholders should give back the millions they made off the 5000 similar comments Imus uttered in his career.
My first thought was that Chris Rock would have gotten a laugh with the same line with no fallout, and Imus’s crime was being white.
But a quick Google shows a whole bunch of people had the same thought before me. I haven’t heard enough Imus to say he is a racist or not, but based on that one comment, that’s not enough to brand somebody a racist.
Ah the old…but if this was Chris Rock defense along with the poor downtrodden white man lament.
Well done.
I am not an Imus fan. He made a dumb statement that can lead one to believe that he is a racist. Fine. But we are all racists to some extent. I have donated time, money and effort to supporting minority rights, but I also tell jokes that are sometimes off-color (to coin a phrase). If telling jokes was my stock and trade, I am certain that I would be in trouble.
It could be that after we think about it for a few days, we still want to fire Imus. But I would have been perfectly happy for him to serve his 2 week suspension and then decide his fate.
First they came for the wealthy radio personalities, and nobody spoke up. Then they came for the bloggers…
Good riddance.
These ladies had a real Cinderella season, combined with the fact that female athletes don’t get the same leeway as their male counterparts and this fool chooses this way to denigrate their achievement? Imus should count himself lucky that it was just the public calling for his head. God help him if these ladies’ fathers decide to get into the act. (Mine would have made Imus wish he never heard of the radio.)
But before someone weighs in with the sophormoric rappers do it too defense, let’s all remember that Imus’ programs on MSNBC and on CBS radio were bleeding advertisers. Both of these organizations turned him loose because his program was no longer financially viable and certainly neither organization could afford advertisers to expand their actions here.
Well I don’t buy the slippery slope argument at all, but geek makes a fair point about the feeding frenzy aspect to these types of stories.
One question for the geek. If you were a Glaxo-Smith-Kline (sp?) marketing exe, would you have pulled the sponsorship?
No wonder the News Journal edits the suspect’s race out of crime reports. It’s not worth the hassle.
Imus needs to move over to satellite much as Howard Stern did – I was never certain why he was on “main stream” media anyway to be honest. He was always borderline, but kept it one step before offensive to keep his slot on the air. He finally crossed the line, so it appears. Though I despise the racism implicit in his remarks (accidental or inentional), I’m glad there is still a forum where free speech reigns supreme.
the racism implicit in his remarks
It’s “statutory racism.” The same words from a person in a different class are allowed.
I might be the only one, but I hope this story stays in the news and more people are called to task for their racist comments.
My hopes for more exposure, however, rest on an important question:
Is the problem racism? Or is the problem a white man said something about black people?
Unfortunately the answer seems to be the latter. Many of those decrying Imus as racist are terrible hypocrits. I won’t waste my time on opportunists like Sharpton and Jackson.
My concern is the disgusting racism that goes on every single day on local and national radio stations. One need only listen to any of the hip hop stations for an hour or so.
Just look at the media’s treatment of American Idol’s Sanjaya. The same people blasting Imus, have ZERO problem stereotyping and dehumanizing Sanjaya because of his Indian heritage. The same goes for other Asians. We have come to the point where most of us know that it is improper to stereotype the way black people talk, eat, live, but we have not learned those same lessons when it comes to other races.
To me, you lose your right to cry racism when you are equally racist. Many people are not really concerned about racism as a societal problem. Rather, they just know that they can further their own agenda by playing the victim.
Imus deserved to be fired. So to does anyone that disparages an entire race.
We should use this opportunity to root out all racism, not just comments directed at blacks.
BC said: “We should use this opportunity to root out all racism, not just comments directed at blacks.”
There is an element of this business that is about a pushback on the “coarsening” of the public discourse. I would hope that this is an opportunity to put the talking heads on notice that the kind of behavior that gets your teenager grounded for a few weeks is not acceptable as a method to pretend to discuss real ideas. Keep a broader focus and you pushback on all of it — racism, homophobia, misogyny — and that is work I’d happily signup for.
How many of you have ever taken idiots like Limbaugh, Imus, Colter, Sharpton, The Greaseman, etc. at all seriously? If they want to make buffons of themselves on public media, so what? (Although I’m still amazed at the amount of people that take seriously the blather these people spew.)
racism, homophobia, misogyny
You are calling for an end to all conservative talk radio. Those are just tools in the tool box of even mainstream high profile conservative radio hosts. Rush Limbaugh called Barack Obama a “Half-rican American” for heaven’s sake.
Jason – I may have pulled my advertising. But the question I ask is whether the advertising was pulled because of the comments made or the furor raised by the phone and letter campaign? I would probably not do it under the circumstances that GSK did it this time, but I may have done it eventually, after some reasoned thought and careful evaluation of the comments. If I was GSK, I wouldn’t have sponsored him in the first place…
“First of all Imus sucked he should have been fired for sucking.”
Amen to that.
“I thought about the Bill Maher thing too and there is a difference.”
You know, I always thought that whole thing was bizarre. I haven’t gone and dug up the transcript, but Maher said that lobbing missiles from offshore was cowardly, right? How exactly did that get transposed to his calling our troops cowards? It seems to me he was calling Clinton the coward, not those following his orders, and if so he was right on the money. Looks like the VRWC got that one wrong.
Maher said that you could not call the 9-11 hijackers “cowards.” Since, thought horrible, taking over a plane and crashing it into a building was clearly not cowardly.
People went nuts.
Jason–
You are right about Rush Limbaugh and many conservative radio hosts.
Are you willing to also look in the mirror and criticize liberal hosts who stereotype Americans who live in rural areas?
Are you willing to apologize for prominent Black liberals who will call any black american with conservative leanings an “uncle tom”?
Are you willing to also apologize for liberal commentators who stereotype anyone who is religious?
Or does this fit into your concept of “objective truth.”
Please stop using acronyms. They confuse me.
criticize liberal hosts who stereotype Americans who live in rural areas?
Like who? Al who just said that downstate “good old boys” reminded him of the movie deliverance?
Are you willing to apologize for prominent Black liberals who will call any black American with conservative leanings an “uncle tom”?
Again who?
Are you willing to also apologize for liberal commentators who stereotype anyone who is religious?
I’ve never heard anyone berate the religious. The hypocrites and liars yes. Religious, not so much.
This headline from LA Times (online) this morning: “Democratic politicians lose a soapbox with Imus”
“His show gave many of them a way to reach a national audience of white males — a crucial voting bloc.”
“…over the years, Democrats such as (Harold) Ford came to count on Imus for the kind of sympathetic treatment that Republicans got from Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity.”
Huh, didn’t know he was one of yours. Will Chris Dodd now have to withdraw his candidacy, having made his official announcement on the Imus show?
Phuuuleez.
Chris Dodd, Harold Ford and Joe Lieberman lose a soap box. Big whoop.
Mr. Owl:
Who? Who? Who?
So you are saying my examples don’t exist? I made my comments based on past experience and, unfortunately, don’t have time to point you to specific instances at this time.
So, you’ve never heard a black liberal with media exposure either call Colin Powell or Condelezza Rice an “uncle tom” or say they weren’t really black?
And you’ve never heard anyone say that religious people are “weak-minded” and need a crutch?
I’ve never heard anyone berate the religious. The hypocrites and liars yes. Religious, not so much.
How many people make that distinction? It seems to me that all religious people are just lumped into one group. Just consider how some liberals portray anyone who objects to abortion due to their religion. They are portrayed as bible-thumping knuckle draggers.
It is intellectual-laziness to stereotype people and I believe a lot more people are guilty of it than you seem willing to admit.
How many of you have ever taken idiots like Limbaugh, Imus, Colter, Sharpton, The Greaseman, etc. at all seriously? If they want to make buffons of themselves on public media, so what?
*
this instance they stepped off of the public figures/fair-game and onto teen-aged college kids who were just trying to do well and work hard in their sport and life.
Not.fair.game.
Okay Nancy, what about the dogpiling of the 3 Duke lacrosse players? I’d say labeling someone a rapist far exceeds what Imus said. Oh wait, they’re just “rich, privileged white boys.”
No matter how many Duke lacross players get accused of rape, no matter how many times Mike Mathews calls me his ho, no matter how many times a conservative African-American gets called an uncle tom, no matter how many times a Christian gets unjustly lumped in with Pat Robertson, no matter how man times Al Mascitti implies that some people from Sussex County are backwards the fact remains.
Don Imus was wrong to say what he said. Don Imus called the Rutgers Basketball team a bunch of nappy headed hos.
“Don Imus was wrong to say what he said. Don Imus called the Rutgers Basketball team a bunch of…”
I think everybody who has weighed in on this issue has agreed with that sentiment. However, the real question at hand is, do we have a responsibility to gather the townspeople with torches and pitchforks and storm the castle everytime a public figure slips up and says something idiotic and offensive?
“Do we have a responsibility to gather the townspeople with torches and pitchforks…”
Funny, I think that’s Jesse Jackson’s actual job description. At least Sharpton has a day job.
It is a sad day day when pompous, humorless, self-promoting p.c. thought police can screach a guy off the airwaves in a ridiculously-irrelevant feeding frenzy like we have all witnessed this last week. But, I guess the Sharptons and O’Reilly’s of the world are having their day. I hope it is just one.
Imus is no angel, but he certainly is no devil. I watched his MSNBC show enough early mornings to know immediately that his comment was an absurd remark and a bad attempt at a bad joke, but hardly racist – even accidentally.
I have heard much worse banter from he and his crew (again, not racist, though certainly tasteless)…namely tearing each other to shreds. They would mercilessly rip Imus apart about literally every of his foibles and failings, with him laughing harder than anyone.
I also recall Imus lavishing praise (some deserved, some not) on many African-American politicians/leaders, and not just Harold Ford. If he happened to rip any of them (very very rarely), it was usually in ways most people probably would agree with, but were afraid to say themselves for fear of being witch-hunted.
Imus’s show required a hefty grain-of-salt and, at times, a pretty expansive sense of humor. But when it was funny, it was hilarious…and all in good fun. Imus played the cranky curmudgeon to a tee, and would let himself be brutalized by his wacky cast of characters.
But he also brought national attention to heretofore neglected issues, like autism. And he savaged the Bush administration, the war, and especially Dick Cheney in ways that no national broadcast figure on a news network could EVER get away with. For that alone, he won me over as a fan.
Sure he played favorites, and unfortunately that was his downfall. The people he didn’t favor and would, at times, beat up with cranky commentary obviously had the long knives ready for any slip-up to lynch him about.
If there was one thing I have seen in Imus’s face this past week it has been true bewilderment – as in a man who is truly not a racist but has been made a sacrificial lamb for race-centric faux outrage and absurdly-disingenuous hysteria. Sad.
I am with Bill Maher on this one. It is one thing to blast a man’s buffoonish, even (selectively) offensive, stupid remark. It is another to ‘disappear’ him for it.
If a decades-known shock-jock, whose stock-in-trade for 35 years has been being an outrageously edgy jokester, can be ridden out of town on a rail, I have to wonder : who’s next?
God help us all if the world has come to such a dour, humorless place with such pseudo-serious nonsense as this whole affair. There is enough nastiness, violence, brutal garbage, and just plain indifference filling our world already.
Those who can make others laugh, even at risk of offending some hyper-sensitive hypocrites or hysterical political-correctors, should not be crucified for going astray in a moment of idiocy.
Sad.
screach a guy off the airwaves
Hey, watch the G word, buddy – are you calling Imus a traitor now?
Joke.
My point is that “hos” no longer means what the PC screechers are pretending it means.
Hah!
‘Scuse me : I meant “screach a biological entity off the airwaves”.
Is that precise enough, without invoking gender, genus, species, etc?
So minerals and gases get a free pass?!
Typical.
….yes, the whole periodic table.
anon asks: “However, the real question at hand is, do we have a responsibility to gather the townspeople with torches and pitchforks and storm the castle everytime a public figure slips up and says something idiotic and offensive?”
Why not? It is the marketplace of ideas and some ideas and speech are certainly going to be worthy of storming the castle. And Imus made a career of idiotic statements and having idiotic sidekicks. One of his sidekicks got fired for a stupid insult directed towards Kylie Minogue. Why shouldn’t the same standards apply to the ringleader himself?
….I am an elementist.
Tyler Nixon:
Do you tell racist jokes? If so, do you feel bad about it, like deep down you know its wrong?
Would you tell these same racist jokes around whatever group the joke refers to? If not, why not? Is it because you fear they have no sense of humor? Are they some of your “politically correctors?” Or is it because you don’t want to offend them? Only insecure cowards try to get a cheap laugh by disparaging an entire race of people.
I am no fan of political correctness, but it is simply not too much to ask for people not to call others: nappy headed hos, jiggaboos, niggers, kikes, fags, etc. That is human decency not political correctness.
Have you ever dated someone from a different race? How would you respond if a family member said something racial that hurt the feelings of the person you were dating? Would you defend the racist family member by saying, “oh,he’s just old or that’s how he was brought up.” Or, would you have the guts to stand up and say racism is not appropriate in this day and age.
How can you say his remarks were not racist, not even accidentally? He was trying to make a joke, but he did so in a racist way. Call them ugly, they were. Call them big-boned and tatooed, they were. But don’t call them nappy headed hos or jiggaboos and wannabes. Whether or not he has heard those terms elsewhere is absolutely no defense.
Why on earth are people arguing for the status quo??? It is not a valid defense to say Imus shouldn’t be fired because he has said worse. We should constantly be trying to make this world a better place, one where people are judged by the substance of their character and not their skin color; one where people’s skin color is as pertinent as their eye color. As long as people like you keep apologizing for the status quo, we will be stuck in this current rut. Unfortunately it seems that most of black america and their leaders have abandoned Dr. King’s dream of race not being an issue, but that doesn’t mean the intelligent people of the world should not continue to strive for better.
Sharpton and Jackson’s involvement is unfortunate at best, but to attribute the response to Imus’s comments to just a few in the media is inaccurate. I am a conservative leaning nobody in the state of delaware who can recognize racism when i see it and would be willing to stand up and get the Imuses of the world off of the air. Imus was fired because there are millions upon millions of people just like me who want better for the world.
This is not a matter of free speech. He was free to say it and THE MARKETPLACE OF IDEAS soundly rejected what he had to say. That is free speech at its finest. Calling a women’s basketball team a bunch of nappy headed hos and jiggaboos has absolutely no value to our world. The government cannot and must not outlaw such speech, but that does not mean that there are no consequences for one’s speech.
He was not entitled to his job anymore than I would have a right to have a national radio show. If you are right that his face showed him to be bewildered, then he is a complete idiot.
It is interesting how the offensive terms used by Imus have been repeated ad nauseam by his accusers and everyone else.
If they are so offensive they should not even be repeated, EVER…BY ANYONE…BLACK PEOPLE SHOULD GET NO PASS ON IT EITHER.
And if they can be repeated, simply based on some made-up shifting context, then that exonerates Imus in the first place. His context was absurd humor, not racism. That is yours and others tweak. He did not say it to hurt or offend, any more than you just did. Stop trying to have it both ways.
Don’t give me this cumbayah “I want a better world” nonsense, either. We all do. Imus, for example, has certainly done more single-handedly for VETERANS than fat Al Sharpton could ever do or ever would with all his blathering slef-righteous BS, bc. (I am not being prejudiced against obsese big mouths, by the way, lest you think I am trying to destroy the world.)
Frankly, you have offended me with all the disgusting, unnecessary repetitions of those words above that you seem compelled to put in print. Am I going to hunt you down or point a pitch fork at you? Don’t count on it. You want to use those terms, feel free. I understand the context, even if I am offended by your use of them.
People like Sharpton are dividing the world by race, not uniting it. Don’t think for a second that he is not the prime mover and advantage-taker of white corporate “guilt” in all this. Same modus operandi of all the ones who have betrayed Dr. King’s noble legacy for their personal aggrandizement. You can’t write Sharpton out of thus situation. He had a vendetta with Imus and cowed everyone into following his jackass idiocy, which I think is worse than anything Imus has ever done, period.
As far as judging by character not skin color, have you ever heard : “judge not lest ye be judged”. I want a world where judgment is the balance scale of justice not a sword of retribution. I don’t know Don Imus’s heart, and neither do you, and neither does Al Sharpton. I know Sharpton is a damn hypocrite though, whereas Imus certainly is not.
There is such a thing as righteous judgment versus false judgment. Those who sit in judgment of Imus, as we have seen, should pull the lumber yard out of their own eyes before pointing out the sliver in his.
Judge not, bc. Judge not.
“He was free to say it and THE MARKETPLACE OF IDEAS soundly rejected what he had to say”
Bosh. Flimshah.
The marketplace was wormy little corporate churmoisteners and herd mentality, not ideas. If this is about ideas, we are truly done as a culture.
Also, I have yet to see a poll of any sort ( some with over 300,000 respondents online) that is not at least 3/5 to 2/3 against Imus’s removal.
Talking heads, corporate worms, and loud mouths aside – I have more faith in that marketplace than your so-called “marketplace of ideas”.
“I am an elementist.”
Tyler, you’re so inert.
It is interesting how the offensive terms used by Imus have been repeated ad nauseam by his accusers and everyone else.
If they are so offensive they should not even be repeated, EVER…BY ANYONE…BLACK PEOPLE SHOULD GET NO PASS ON IT EITHER.
And if they can be repeated, simply based on some made-up shifting context, then that exonerates Imus in the first place. His context was absurd humor, not racism. That is yours and others tweak. He did not say it to hurt or offend, any more than you just did. Stop trying to have it both ways.
Wow. Just wow. You can’t see the difference between a discussion about the use of a term and the actual use of that term? I don’t think I can really respond to that. Frankly, you give me the impression that you are being very dishonest when you say my use of the above terms offended you. Only you will ever know if you are feigning offense to try to prove a point, but good luck if you think that is appropriate.
You can’t see the difference between a teacher talking to his or her class about the use of the word nigger in Huck Finn and that same teacher encouraging the school’s basketball team to go out and beat those jigaboos? Or are you making the absurd contention that Imus actually thought his comments through and was trying to make a comment on the use of the words? I hope i have misunderstood your point. I stand by my use of these ugly terms and I am confident others can appreciate the difference.
I do agree with you and several prominent black americans like Oprah and Bill Cosby that they need to cut this oppressive language out of the “black lexicon.”
But, two wrongs have never made a right. Nor does one’s good deeds, like helping veterans, give that person carte blanche to say racist things.
You are preaching to the choir about Sharpton and Jackson.
Also, your whole “judge not” argument is ridiculous. I am not judging his character, I am judging whether or not the man should have his own radio show, just like I would judge whether someone would make a good president. You are misconstruing or, worse, abusing Jesus’ message to think that we cannot make judgments about people and the world around us. Whether or not you think Jesus thought Judas would turn on him, Jesus certainly made a judgment about Judas that you seem to think is inappropriate.
If it ever happens that a John McCain or a Barrack Obama make a racist comment I will certainly judge their character and not vote for them; I will stand proud at pearly gates having done so.
It is the same way I would judge a convicted child molester by not allowing them to watch my children.
I don’t judge people, because I believe all people are inherently good, but some get mislead and succumb to temptation. So, you are barking up the wrong tree.
Woof. Woof.
Rick Jensen just now:
“Where is Al Sharpton’s apology? Why isn’t anyone calling on him to apologize?”
Did I miss something? Has Al Sharpton offended someone?
Being black is offensive to Rick.
Actually, being Sharpton is offensive to blacks.
The Reverend Al Sharpton’s Rap Sheet
http://www.larryelder.com/ascrimes.html
^ | Larry Elder
I am in agreement with Tyler that the use of the ethnic slurs bc listed are offensive in any context, even when they are just being stated for the sake of discussion. Certainly, some uses in the words are not as mean-spirited as others, but there is still no acceptable use. Seeing those words in print actually makes me physically ill. To utilize your line of thought, bc, would you ever repeat those slurs (even in a “discussion” context) in the presence of members of the groups to whom they refer? I should hope not.
Tyler, I had actually watched Imus’ show a few times on MSNBC in the morning and I agree with most of what you said. I think Jason Whitlock (a sportwriter from Kansas City) actually nailed this issue.
http://www.kansascity.com/182/story/66339.html
Well there it is. The sophomoric rappers do it too arguement.
Here is a nice timeline article from the WSJ on how Imus got cooked
Pay close attention to how CBS, NBC, and several of the advertisers also reached out for internal opinion in their decision-making process.
Some funny “Twinkle Toes” Sharpton moments.
(Who remembers Mort Downey, Jr.?)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdRYdtENKTw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7R1LJIVviI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiTLO2YiJKs
Being black is offensive to Rick.
Dude, c’mon. All you need is one person to think you’re serious.
If I can’t make a joke like that on an Imus thread, where can I make it? 🙂