http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/fn/4710173.html

This is BS.

Hip Hop artists say the same thing Imus said in their lyrics... and comedians like Chris Rock, Carlos Mencia, Dave Chapelle, etc. etc. make racial jokes all the time, yet thats OK.

Money, baby, money; that's what it all boils down to.

"Losing Imus will be a financial hit to CBS Radio, which also suffered when Howard Stern departed for satellite radio. The program earns about $15 million in annual revenue for CBS, which owns Imus' home radio station WFAN-AM and manages Westwood One, the company that syndicates the show nationally. One potential replacement: the sports show "Mike & the Mad Dog," which airs afternoons on WFAN.

Sponsors that pulled out of Imus' show included American Express Co., Sprint Nextel Corp., Staples Inc., Procter & Gamble Co. and General Motors Corp. Imus made a point Thursday to thank one sponsor, Bigelow Tea, for sticking by him.

The list of his potential guests began to shrink, too."

I think Imus's firing was long overdue... not for his comments but because he's old, out-of-touch and a purveyor of bad radio. CBS probably saw this as a way to get rid of him on a technicality, altho' it's interesting the decision was made AFTER the advertisers pulled-out. Follow the money trail....

There is a very subtle difference in the approach to the racial joke that appears to matter a whole lot more than I thought it would.

Chris Rock will tell a racist joke, but doing so, he makes you feel bad about enjoying it at the same time. There is usually some greater message attached, that provides some context as well. Kind of a sophisticated bittersweet form of advocacy.

What Imus did was less than that. There is no greater message making it just bitter.

Spot-on commentary from Jason Whitlock (KC Star), a great columnist and radio guest. He was on Colin's show and Jim Rome this morning:

Imus isn’t the real bad guy - http://www.kansascity.com/182/story/66339.html

A powerful article! A need read...for all...sets the matter straight!

Interesting article. Points about Imus saying nothing that had not been said in rap and the need for the black community to start protesting the images perpetrated by its biggest stars are really important. Article was really saying Imus isn't the ONLY bad guy.

But the article was also a very well executed hatchet job on Imus. Whitlock admits a bad history with Imus and "his tiny friend Mike Lupica", then peppers the article with things like "irrelevant bad shock jock" "already insignificant" "washed up shock jock" and "Old white man with bad radio show." I guess he showed Imus. Damn him with insignificance. Clear case of an ax to grind.

Yeah those could be interpreted as cheap, petty shots, but also what is engaging about this article and this guy--emotional, passionate, thoughtful, and intelligent.

Well, now is all right with the world. The last vestiage of bigotry and racism has been removed from the public airwaves. We are all now politically correct and assimilated.

Also beginning May 1st, to further do away with any diversity the only ice cream available will be a tasteless, mocha colored marketed as Universally Accepted Frozen Dessert.

CONFORM OR PERISH!

Ice cream will be safe from monotony as long as B&J keep making Stephen Colbert's Ameri-cone Dream!

Does this mean stations will have to quit playing Joan Baez's "The night they drove old Dixie down"?

After all she makes a favorable comment about Gen Robert E Lee in it.

Bring back the one thousand and one strings play everything....

Weather, I'm offended by the weather. I demand all stations stop giving weather reports.

I just watched the orginal Imus clip on You Tube and I think CBS did the right thing by pulling that racist SOB off the air.
He said that (because the team is mostly black) they were rough-looking, had tattoos AND "those are some nappy-headed ho's, there."
All black people aren't welfare mamas on crack, as Imus seems to believe. The Rutgers women include a pianist and law school and med students, not to mention athletes at the top of their game. But all Imus saw was their race. And that's what makes him a racist.
I don't care if his show has always been about making fun of people. He sounded like a freaking KKK member and that's not acceptable.
Yes, unfortunately it IS different when a white person calls a black person a ho or a nigger, because white people used to HANG black people. That's why it's different.

Sparklewave, simply referring to one's race doesn't automatically make one a racist. You are wrong judge someone as a racist based simply on a few offensive comments. I'd say your stereotype about "all black people" being "welfare mamas on crack" - not something Imus said - might say something about your own attitudes regarding black people.

Have you ever seen rough-looking WHITE women with tatoos? I certainly have (in Portland, they are everywhere), and I can see how someone could call them "hos" to be offensive, even if they were white. Don't get me wrong, that IS an offensive comment that Imus made. I simply contend that his offensive comment has been blown way out of proportion and it was more petty and stupid than hateful or racist.

Andrew

One angle to these remarks that nobody has brought up is the location of the Rutgers campuses. Rutgers has three campuses:

* Camden, NJ -- Of cities with a population over 65,000, this is the poorest municipality with 44% of its citizens living under the poverty line (median income $18,007) Sources: Wikipedia, ABC News 20/20

* Newark, NJ -- This city has also struggled with poverty; 28.4% of its citizens live under the poverty line (median income $26,913) Source: Wikipedia

* New Brunswick, NJ -- 27% of its citizens live below the poverty line (median income $36,080)

Those figures are pretty bad compared to, say, Hillsboro, where only 9.2% of the population is below the poverty line (median income $51,737) or even Portland, where 13.1% of the population is below the poverty line (median income $40,146).

Could it be possible that Imus's remarks were originally intended to make fun of poor urban people, but the dialogue quickly deteriorated into mockery of poor Black people, specifically? Here's a transcript (quoted from the Media Matters website):

IMUS: So, I watched the basketball game last night between -- a little bit of Rutgers and Tennessee, the women's final.

ROSENBERG: Yeah, Tennessee won last night -- seventh championship for [Tennessee coach] Pat Summitt, I-Man. They beat Rutgers by 13 points.

IMUS: That's some rough girls from Rutgers. Man, they got tattoos and --

McGUIRK: Some hard-core hos.

IMUS: That's some nappy-headed hos there. I'm gonna tell you that now, man, that's some -- woo. And the girls from Tennessee, they all look cute, you know, so, like -- kinda like -- I don't know.

McGUIRK: A Spike Lee thing.

So what Imus was really saying (I guess) was that the Rutgers girls looked really tough - tattoos and such - compared to the "cute" Tennessee girls. Out of curiosity, I looked up the Tennessee team's roster (called the "Lady Volunteers" - not a sexist label or anything) to see how "cute" they really were. You decide:

http://www.netitor.com/photos/schools/tennw/sports/w-baskbl/06-07action/06-07hea ds/team-photo1.jpg

Seven of the eleven Lady Volunteers are, in fact, black. So it doesn't sound like he was running down black girls in particular (unless by "cute" you think he meant "white" - but with 7/11, I doubt it). He was saying the Rutgers girls looked tough.

The more I hear about this, the more I think Imus has been treated extremely unfairly and that this is all a blow-up over nothing. Imus says offensive things; he even refers to his environmentally-friendly wife on the air as the "green ho". That doesn't mean his remarks about the Rutgers girls were hateful.

Andrew

Here's the Imus video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RF9BjB7Bzr0

I haven't listened to Leykis for a long time but I remember that he consistently said that he didn't like watching womens basketball because most all women basketball players were big lesbians.

Doesn't that mean he should be fired from the radio for making that pc derogatory remark???
Repeatedly?

Wow! I had not heard this in context before. Not sure it makes Imus come off any better, but it does show him in conversation, rather than "name calling". Not that it really matters at this point...

look at the KXL listener poll
www.kxl.com

I think the KXL listeners are onto something...

http://mediamatters.org/items/200704120010

I voted double standard, BTW.

Last Tuesday (4/10/07), The Oregonian's Renee Mitchell had a similar take on the Imus situation (this was before he got fired).

From the Metro section:
http://www.oregonlive.com/oregonian/stories/index.ssf?/base/news/117625294815924 0.xml&coll=7

interesting they were paying Imus 9 mill a year...the show was making 20 mill in revenue.
How much did that team get? Maybe another 4-5m?
His average share per market was under 2.00

Imus used to talk years ago about Howard Stern's ratings were far and above his (obviously before Stern went to satellite) - but he claimed that his show made more money than Stern's. I don't remember whether it was because Imus was on more stations, could charge high ad rates, or both.

Andrew

It could have to do with more spot units.

Media Matters is a liberal organization and therefore they will only criticize conservative types. Notice, they don't criticize any leftist talkers. I know you agree with them so you don't think any left wing talkers do anything wrong.

But they have their moments, too.
Many of the quotations mentioned in your link are taken out of context and don't attribute correctly the original source.
They only print what they want to get the reaction they are looking for.

I remember when I was in high school so long ago. We learned that everyone has prejudices. It is ok to listen to and read what someone has written but you have to firs ask yourself what is the nature and bias of the person writing it and then analyze what they wrote based on that information.

Jimbo, I'm wondering which of the Media Matters quotes from right-wing talkers in the above link you think were taken out of context or not attributed correctly? Because I think they are extremely careful about citing sources correctly and displaying long quotes on purpose to give context - and I haven't seen a case yet where they messed up. Examples please?

Because I'd say that if the quotes are accurate and in context, the bias is irrelevant. It's like discounting Clinton saying, "I didn't have sex with that woman" because you heard it on Fox.

Andrew

Where are the stories of non-conservative talkers saying this kind of stuff? I looked!

We went through this whole bias thing recently. The deliberations on that thread made the case for their being plenty of available news outlets for information that favors all sides getting to the people. So, you just can't brush that story away with a bias call.

Either:

those quotes can be easily refuted with additional context

,or

there are also plenty of similar quotes for non-conservative talkers that suggests a problem we have in general

,or

the Media Matters story is solid and there is a case for more discussion on applying the same standards to those mentioned in the story.

Which is it?

Is there any correlation between the phrase "nappy-headed ho" and the recent death of Don Ho?

Coincidence?! I think NOT.

I think if someone checked he might find that Imus has tiny bubbles.

IMDB lists Don Ho as still alive!

Mr Ho died this last weekend.
Saw his show in Hawaii several times, in the 70's he always made nice comments about servicemen.

Having listened to most of the hosts quoted on the Media Matters site, I think that it would not be out of character for them to make the statements quoted (disclaimer: I didn't read the full list because it is very long). I will confess that mostly, I enjoy listening to these guys, even though sometimes they say things that I consider over-the-top.

Mainly, I think the issue here is with the radio format that these guys operate in: they say outrageous and sarcastic things on purpose. I think that it is understood that many of the things said on these shows are things that should not be said at work (unless you want to pay a visit to HR) , at polite dinner parties, or around people that you don't know really well. Some of the quotes selected by Media Matters for their site gave me the impression that the Media Matters people are stiff and humorless, more than they struck me as inherently hateful statements.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18110453/site/newsweek/

They were out to get him, National Organization of Women and some other extremist groups.

"CBS Radio is suing a small radio station for airing reruns of Don Imus' program since his firing for sexist and racist comments about the Rutgers University women's college basketball team.

The lawsuit filed this past week in federal court in Riverside claims KCAA-AM and its license holder violated copyright protections. The suit seeks a temporary restraining order and $150,000 for each violation. A hearing is set for Tuesday."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070421/ap_en_tv/imus_reruns

CBS, Need Money? Sell some ads!