Imus shitcanned by CBS for remarks

[Diamondjimi]

Imus hits the limit for offensive speech
A New Haven Register Editorial
04/15/2007
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We were fans of Don Imus — not the mean, petty, sophomoric and racially insensitive radio personality. The other one, the Don Imus who was politically irreverent, who provided a serious forum for historians and authors; the one who demanded answers to the blunt questions he asked politicians who regularly were his guests, including Connecticut’s two U.S. senators, Christopher J. Dodd and Joseph I. Lieberman. When he turned tasteless or juvenile, we turned him off.


We no longer have that choice. CBS fired him Thursday.

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His offense was calling the women of the Rutgers basketball team "nappy-headed ho's." Imagine the outrage here if Imus had directed his comment at the members of the women’s basketball team at the University of Connecticut.

Imus’ comment reflected a type of casual bigotry that causes lasting damage to people’s respect for each other and to individuals’ sense of self-worth.

Imus had been given license for years for this type of derisive, racially offensive comment. This time, however, cable television and the Internet picked it up and shared it with most Americans, who don’t listen to his program and are not his fans. They were rightly horrified.

Advertisers dropped away. MSNBC stopped its television broadcast of the program. CBS, which owns the program, had first planned to place him on a two-week, unpaid suspension. But, the controversy only seemed to intensify.

There is a huge quotient of hypocrisy here. No record company has canceled a gangsta rapper for using the same language that Imus was parroting. Many of those that have condemned Imus are the ones, like CBS, who have profited from his program or appeared on it without ever objecting to his straying beyond the bounds of civility.

Among the most outspoken advocates of Imus’ firing were the Revs. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson. If both men applied the same standard to themselves, they would have long ago left public life — Sharpton for his race baiting in the Tawana Brawley case and Jackson for his "hymie town" remark about New York City. In the past, Imus had taken delight in puncturing Sharpton’s racial posturing.

But, Imus’ gaffe was inexcusable. It is possible to be politically incorrect without trading in bigotry. It is a lesson Imus failed to learn before he lost his job.



©New Haven Register 2007

The Asshat



I personally can't stand this cantankerous old fuck.

Good riddance ,Douchebag !

[MERRYKISSMASS2U]

Other breaking news: Jimi Hendrix died!

[chi-town324]

who's Don Imus?

[Viking]

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz........................

[Terry]

Am personally glad he's gone.

Have listened to the dude for about a half dozen periods of a few weeks or so over the years, mostly because people I knew insisted he was great.

Last such period was last fall. Got to hear him and his crew lampoon Richard Nixon as being a crook and Bill Clinton as being a horndog. Yes, very timely comedy...

Between that and this guy licking his own asshole blathering about how wonderful he and his wife are for running the Imus Ranch (hey, if you're gonna do something for others, that's fucking great...seriously. But do it for the purpose of others, not so you can puff up your own ego), and having the same dozen politicians saying the same soundbites day after day, and Imus with his one stock question "What do you make of that?"....this is what passes for informed talk radio?

Made the switch to Bill Bennett and haven't looked back.

Far as what Imus said that got him the boot, he was only sorry in the end that he caught flak for it and there were consequences to it...aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhwhatthefuckever.

Was his punishment too severe? Maybe. But methinks it doesn't have QUITE the broad-reaching socioethnic ramifications all the talking heads are saying it does.

[Diamondjimi]

Originally posted by MERRYKISSMASS2U
Other breaking news: Jimi Hendrix died!

I guess I missed the other threads about this.

[SA ME WHO]

I was driving home from Columbus yesterday and in an attempt to find the Pens playoff game, I was scanning the AM dial and came across quite a few talk shows. One was hosted by a black gentleman (I got the impression he was a preacher or host of a religious-type program, just out of the way he was speaking.) and he was speaking about this subject.

He went on to say that many people had emailed his site asking the very same "How can Don Imus be vilified for making comments like these when gangsta rappers make the very same (and even worse) comments on nearly every album released for quite a few years now?".

His explanation was that when the term is used by someone who has similarly been targeted by such negative language (someone of the same color - he danced around using that word for a while but eventually said it), that it was acceptable. But when used as a term of oppresion or negativity by someone who is in a position to keep you from achieving (change your life) by the use of the word, then that was clearly unacceptable.

Keep in mind I'm writing this more than 24 hours after hearing this and I was only partially paying attention, but essentially, that was his message.

I don't know that it makes any sense whatsoever, but I've heard this reasoning used MANY times (in general and in specific situations I've witnessed). Never having been part of a group that's been "officially" discriminated against, I can't speak toward the feelings one would experience when someone used such language. But, I do find it tremendously hypocritical to use the reason that it's cool from someone else of the same color and bad when it comes from someone of another color.

[EAT MY ASSHOLE]

I myself was not a fan, and could never understand why his show was on MSNBC, but I think the only people who were not complete hypocrites in this whole matter are the members of the rutgers team and Don Imus himself.

The presidents of CBS and NBC News acting so indignant and righeous....BULLSHIT!!! You hired him, you know what his show is about (a shock jock saying something crude and offensive? Oh my!!), you put up with and rewarded it for YEARS, and then this?

And all these people who were once his REGULAR guests trying so hard to distance themselves from him and their association with the show...HYPOCRITES.

Imus himself...I always interpreted his shtick as just that. Burlesque. Nothing to be taken seriously. And lets face it: the entire world finds great humor in ridiculing those "other" than us. Dharma and Greg was just one big long joke about gay people. If i asked, I'm sure you could supply me with a jew joke. So what? The reaction to this was a bit more extreme than it deserved.

And Imus? His take? Straightforward honesty: "I've dished it out for years, " he said. "I guess it's my turn to take it."

[Terry]

The reason Imus was shitcanned had nothing to do with some virtuous realization on the part of CBS or MSNBC.

The major sponsors took a walk, and it wasn't until they said there wouldn't be any more advertising dollars being pumped into his show that the network heads pulled the plug.

The sponsors buckled to the negative publicity and backlash, figuring that they didn't want their products associated with Imus because it would get them tagged as racists, too.

All came down to perception and money.

All much to do about nothing of consequence. Does anyone think that censorship, corporate, governmental, public pressure or otherwise...you can stifle expression but not attitudes.