Slashdot Mirror
Blogger Spurs US Radio Host's Firing
jas_public writes "The Wall Street Journal reports on the controversial events which ultimately led to the firing of radio shock jock Don Imus. 'At 6:14 a.m. on Wednesday, April 4, relatively few people were tuned into the "Imus in the Morning Show" ... Ryan Chiachiere was. A 26-year-old researcher in Washington, D.C., for liberal watchdog organization Media Matters for America, he was assigned to monitor Mr. Imus's program. Mr. Chiachiere clipped the video, alerted his bosses and started working on a blog post for the organization's Web site.' The article breaks down how that viral video clip and word of mouth outrage reached the ears of the presidents of CBS and MSNBC, ultimately leading to Imus' dismissal."
I suspect, if Imus was only on the radio, hardly anyone would have known about it.
-- www.globaltics.net
Political discussion for a new world
In an off the cuff remark, Imus calls the Rutgers girls "nappy headed hos". Moral outrage, Al and Jesse crank up their publicity machine, Imus gets fired.
Meanwhile, rapper DMX uses lyrics such as "what these bitches want from a nigga", and "I fuck with these hoes from a distance", and we hear cash registers.
Just as racist, just as misogynistic, just as insensitive.
And this was a liberal watchdog group? Gimme a break. I thought the left at least gave lip service to freedom of speech.
This is certainly something that we, as a country, should not be proud of. It is a horrible sign of the times we live in that we have so-called watchdog groups hiring people to monitor radio and television broadcasts for "offensive" material for the sole purpose of attempting to rally their censorship team to fire the person who had the audacity to let loose an insensitive remark. What happened to the mentality of "I hate everything you stand for and have to say but I'll defend to the death your right to say it."? Unfortunately this issue is endemic in the United States today. There are very large segments of the population of a wide range of ethnicities that cross party lines who simply are looking for any excuse to be offended and recoil in mock outrage; they are tearing this country apart at the seams.
There is a lesson to be learned from all of this. When the PC police comes after you for denigrating people of the wrong race, gender, etc ... show some spine! Apologies and visits with Al Sharpton, et al did nothing to prevent him from spiralling into unemployment. Now he is a loser in everyone's eyes. If he had said something like "I refuse to apologize! Looking back it was kind of a dumb thing to say but I say dumb things sometimes, so deal with it! Any harm on these girls is the doing of the media, not me, since they weren't listening to my show," well he'd still have a lot of enemies but he'd at least have the respect of the subset of Americans who believes you can call somebody with nappy hair "nappy-headed" without having committed some kind of capital crime.
It seems like every day there are two or three stories on Slashdot that try to hype up the importance of "blogging". Why, just because someone put a really retarded sounding name on the concept of writing web pages, is blogging such a hyped thing?
It reminds me of the early days of Slashdot, when *anything* having to do with Linux was featured in big bold headlines like it was a miracle. This has toned down a little bit over the years but even today the hype factor for Linux on this site is a bit annoying (and I am a huge fan of Linux, it's the reason I started reading Slashdot back in '97 - despite the hyping of everything Linux, it was a good place to get news when such news sources were scarce).
I can't shake the feeling that people who don't really understand "them Internets" hear a word that has no meaning - "blog" - and assume that it just must be something really cool and important. Because really, it isn't. I nearly hurled at the idiocy of it all the first time I heard the word "blogosphere".
I have often wondered if these people (the shock jocks) are having us on. The trick for them is to say something outrageous enough to keep the focus on themselves and keep their audiences entertained/whatever without getting fired or thrown in jail. The sad thing is that some people seem to take people like Ann Coulter seriously.
We have a hockey commentator named Don Cherry. All I have to do is put on my Don Cherry voice and I can say anything no matter how politically incorrect. So, maybe we give these people some kind of license. Maybe most people see them as buffoons just for our entertainment. I do worry about how many people take them seriously though.
I think Don Imus should get credit for his own firing. Reporters spurred it on but it was Imus's comments that lead to the firing. I just think it's rediculous how shocked everyone was. The guy in the past never hid his racist views. The network yanked his chain in recent years but he finally reverted to his old style of commentary. The shocking thing wasn't he got fired it was how he lasted this long.
And my mom said I could never make a living watching TV and e-mailing complaints.
Call me a nappies-headed hose and I would be
Spend a sunny weekend in Bahgdad and tell me how this is important. How about an all-expense-paid 15 months in Afghanistan?
if it did.. they'd have to have a HUGE job fair to replace their entire staff.
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Please say it ain't so. Get of the Don Imus nonsense already.
"Thanks for all the money you paid to us. We've used it to buy off ISO among other things" -Microsoft
So, black rappers, black people, and other such and such groups are going to use some offensive slang ant it wont be counted as offensive, but when a white person uses them it will be SO bad an offense that it will cause them to be fired.
see, im a humanist. many of you morons in those watchdog groups do not know about danton, erasmus, rousseau, french revolution and what brought human civilization to this point in the scale of civility, but i do.
im also kinda a hippie. i dont condone divisions, labelings, agression and such.
i am also liberal. i want any group to live as they please as long as they dont become harmful.
so with all these qualifications, to the watchdog that caused this shit and the other watchdog groups who are supposedly maintain a vigile for civility, i tell this on that matter :
FUCK YOU.
morons. this is the point where your or any minorities' sensitivities and rights end.
you like any other group of the society are NOT allowed to discriminate. If some black person CAN use the a slang, a white man or an indian can ALSO use that slang. Carve these words into your heads.
from now on, i also will be using that slang, not because i particularly need to, but only for idiots like you, in your grand stupidity and ignorance, have offended ME and my freedoms as a human being, and i dont condone any group, black or white, to have more freedoms than me. if you dont like what you see below, you will have to stop black people saying those before ever having a chance of stopping me.
so, fuck of bitches, stop being a hoe and straighten up your black/white ass before some other guyz in the hood sorts those out with da' baskets.
Read radical news here
For the three people left on the planet who aren't familiar with USA slang, what was racist about those remarks? "Nappy Headed Hos" The WSJ assumes we know.
He dislikes the word "blogging" and the importance put on it. This story could just as easily have been "man posts about Imus on his website," but instead it says "blog" so it's newsworthy.
If you criticise someone in your own group with emotive language you can get away with it. If you go after somebody else in a group you have nothing to do with the same sort of language is a deadly insult. This is also in the land that went bezerk over a nipple so extreme reactions can be expected - see what I mean - I've just put the readers on the USA on the defensive.
I wonder at what stage in his life this guy said, "Yes, dammit! I want to spend my life snitching on right-wing radio talk show hosts!"
I know no nation outside the us that has a separate dialect for people of african descent.
"ebonics" is rooted in racist practices (forced submission to white schemas of "black inferiority", denial of education, the list goes on and on).
it is at the same time promoted by and derided in mainstream america, with the obvious ulterior motive of promoting separatism.
weather it either supplants "normal" dialect, or is killed off, it should be eliminated as a separate dialect.
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As much as I dislike Imus for his inability to speak (he's sort of like the DJ version of Bob Dylan) and the unimaginativeness of his show, I can't help but feel for the guy here. I don't think he exercised the greatest judgement in the statement he made, but you know what? Who gives a crap? People open mouth and insert foot every day. Honestly, he's probably said a lot worse things with a lot fewer negative repercussions. I think they're hanging the guy for what's really a non-issue.
So some girls at Rutgers got their feelings hurt. I hate to tell them, but it's not going to be the last time in their lives that happens. In the grand scheme of things? If this is the worst insult they ever have had in their short lives, and if this is the worst insult they ever get... they're going to be the luckiest people on earth. I was called worse by the time I was six.
If only the politically correct crowd would wake up and realize how offensive THEY are. Using the "correct" terminology doesn't make you not a racist. When you start thinking of euphemisms that are "appropriate" to use for every race, class, gender, disability, or quirk real or imagined, you're spending waay too much time categorizing and much less time seeing the person as a whole.
An open letter to Al Sharpton
Al Sharpton, you are idiot, a stupid clown who deserves to be called by the title n****r. Oh and incase you were wondering it has nothing to do with the color of your skin, the characteristics of your hair or anything else superficial like that. It has everything to do with your repeated demonstration of idiocy. Most people are able to grasp simple civics lessons. Most public figurers are over the course of decades able to figure out how the American system works.
This is America Al, the country where people have a right to express ideas whether they are popular or not, I agree Imus made an unfair generalization. I bet most people agree with that. The thing is he as a write to express his thoughts. You and the rest of this nation have the responsibility to evaluate them and dismiss them if you find them to be without merit.
Tell me Al, why is it that you are allowed to run your mouth but other people can't? I am sure that the people Imus was referring too had their feeling hurt. What about when you say awful things. Like when you and Jackson accused him of intentionally flooding New Orleans. That would be a monstrous crime. As hated as he is by so many he is not a monster and with no real evidence that is a horrible thing to say. What about his feelings, why do you have a write to hurt people when nobody else does?
You have made many baseless charges against a political party I associate myself with thought the years. Often you accuse us of being bigoted racist oppressors. The fact is most of us are not. I consider it a hurtful and unfair generalization. I don't personally feel any less insulted by it then I suppose the girls Imus was talking about might feel about what he said. Still I am not out there trying to stop you from spreading your lies. I am not trying to take your mike away. I don't go out and protest loudly for news agencies to stop carrying your hate filled sound bytes.
When confronted with your lies I respond calmly and intelligently to them. I work to convince people of their false hood by my own actions and presentation of concrete examples from history showing them to be wrong. Above all I respect peoples freedom to say and think whatever they like.
Go ahead and continue to make my case;
Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
Not that I am a fan of Imus nor am I defending him. But I am very much disturbed that a paid blogger hounded Imus and "created" this much outrage. This does not bode well for the net, the on line communities. How many in the blogosphere are really saying what they believe in? How many are paid spouting off the views of their paymasters? How many such paid hatchet people are creating multiple handles and ids to inflate the numbers, so to speak? I hope every true, not paid posters in /. would come to see this blogger as a threat, unless, of course, he has stated and disclosed clearly he was paid to blog.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
The man makes a racist comment on a syndicated talk show and someone heard it. No shock there. This person was recording the show and passed on portions that were of interest to other people. Like Slashdot, Digg, and other information aggregators and disseminators. People took particular offense to the issue which, given a long history of slavery, segregation, and discrimination didn't sit too well. Then the invisible hand of the free market came down upon the companies that were making millions from this talk show and said that it was completely unacceptable. Rather than lose more money, the companies cut their losses.
A few casually racist words on the air may not seem like much but it does imply that racism is okay. It reinforces the idea in the minds of the public and it tacitly condones actions like this: http://www.texasnaacp.org/jasper.htm. Brewer testified Berry then pulled a logging chain out of his truck bed and tied it to Byrd's limp body.
"I said personally, 'You're not going to drag this man like you did that mailbox?'" Brewer said. "And he said, 'I know where we're taking him.'"
Berry backed up over Byrd's body, then drove along the dark roads.
"I told Shawn again, 'Pull over and take the man off ' the chain, Brewer testified. "He said, 'We're almost there. Don't worry.'"
They stopped in front of a predominantly black church, where the remainders of Byrd's body were left.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RF9BjB7Bzr0
See what you think. As always, context is everything.
but taxation is universal.
if they attempted to make taxation only for white people, because black people were previously disenfranchised for hundreds of years, you'd have a fit, and rightfully so.
he's not complaining about the right to use racist language, he's complaining about the double standard in which black people are allowed to use such derogatory language, but as soon as a white person uses it the room stops, and people pick up their torches and pitchforks to burn the witch.
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> 'At 6:14 a.m. on Wednesday, April 4, relatively few people were tuned into the ... Ryan Chiachiere was. A 26-year-old researcher in
> "Imus in the Morning Show"
> Washington, D.C., for liberal watchdog organization Media Matters for America,
> he was assigned to monitor Mr. Imus's program. Mr. Chiachiere clipped the video,
> alerted his bosses and started working on a blog post for the organization's Web
> site.' The article breaks down how that viral video clip and word of mouth outrage
> reached the ears of the presidents of CBS and MSNBC, ultimately leading to Imus' dismissal."
Ummmm, hooray?
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
After the radical and rabid years of the forceful rigging of every media by the Moral Watchdogs of the Right, "Focus on the Family" et al., stomping everything that doesn't match their party rhetoric into the dirt, savaging the freedom of speech for decades, getting not just individuals fired but whole companies shut down, one, single, solitary Rightie Radio host steps down when he was obviously a few weeks from retirement anyway, and oh-how-you-all-yell now at the injustice.
Color you blue.
Yes, mob rage obliterating free speech *is* a bad thing. Good point. We'll remind you of that when the wholesale slaughter of the free media which you happen not to agree with continues tomorrow.
I'm hearing a lot about this story from the perspective of Imus being singled out for saying "nappy headed ho", whereas others (insert random Hip Hop artist here) are not "fired" for saying similar things. This meme appears to be diverting much attention and energy from the both the actual cause of the outrage, and, conveniently for those politicians concerned, from an steaming pile of accumulating scandals in the US executive branch.
IMHO, the actual cause of the outrage is that Imus made an unprovoked derogatory slur on national media against a -specific- group of women, simply because they were female and black. This was basically a public sucker punch against an innocent group of actual, real life young women with parents, relatives and friends.
Can anyone here reasonably say that if a popular, well known personality, on national TV and radio, called your wife or daughter or good friend a (insert race specific stereotype) (insert culture specific derogatory slang for whore), you wouldn't want to defend them at least by complaining to their employer? What if this crap was directed against your team, business, or place of worship?
Somehow this is getting played into making folks look like they're supporting censorship, and it appears to be some sort of insidious dividing tactic that splits folks into the false dichotomy of "if you don't support commercialized hate speech, you support big brother censorship". Man, we are so getting played here.
I'm don't understand what you're saying here. We should force people to speak "white" English? What kind of white English? The New England variant? Midwestern? Southern? I vote for Midwestern, myself.
I'm of the opinion that the separate dialect exists because of poor schooling facilities for blacks until just recently, especially in the South. I think its still in use and will continue to be in use as a way of distinguishing themselves among the masses. Indeed, as I think you're trying to say, some people promote AAVE (ebonics) as a distinct language that should be taught as standard in some areas where it is widely spoken. Some even go as far to say teaching black youth standard American English is robbing them of their culture.
I hope you can clarify as I don't know if I'm agreeing with you or not.
attacked seems a little strong. I haven't seen the video, but I read the transcript and was like, jeez. He prolly should apologize for the slip but getting *fired?!
My turnips listen for the soft cry of your love
The article breaks down how that viral video clip and word of mouth outrage reached the ears of the presidents of CBS and MSNBC, ultimately leading to Imus' dismissal.
The word of mouth outrage reached the ears of mainstream media, which in turn spread to the ears of the average American, which in turn made MSNBC and CBS's advertisers, which lead to them pulling their ad dollars from both networks, which in turn lead to a loss of revenue, which at this point the problem finally reached the ears of the presidents of CBS and MSNBC.
See? Simple.
"To surrender to ignorance and call it God has always been premature, and it remains premature today." -Isaac Asimov
But I bet Don Imus wouldn't call an NFL line man ugly even if the dude looked like Sloth from the Goonies. It was a cheap shot, probably didn't merit being fired, but when the money dries up...they're not going to keep his show going. Many of his sponsors jumped ship and there were very few who came on board.
Business decission
Blar.
Imus, middle-aged white guy, abused his privileged position in a stupid (not funny) attack on people who really "don't deserve it" (quote from Imus's own words).
OF COURSE IT MATTERS WHO YOU ARE!
Can you imagine language like this from President Bush? The Pope? How about a teacher? At the other extreme, we expect rappers to come out with hurtful foul language, and just look at the result: some people seem to think that that makes it ok for Imus. The law applies equally, at least in principle, but standards don't. We adjust our language and manners according to context, and pointlessly tearing down young relatively vulnerable people on public airwaves doesn't meet the standards Imus should have met, even for a shock jock.
In most times, most places, by most people, liars are considered contemptible. - Ursula Le Guin
When conservatives raised hell in 2004 regarding Ted Rall's racist depiction of Condoleezza Rice in one of his cartoons, the reaction was curious. The issue was largely ignored by most of the media, and the conservative commentators, websites and blogs that did rail against it were pretty much told to just shut up. Rall's cartoons are still carried by his syndicate and many newspapers.
Someone posted comments earlier about the alleged irony that a "liberal watchdog group" pulled the trigger on the Imus fiasco. But the real scary thing is the working of one sentence in the story:
A 26-year-old researcher in Washington, D.C., for liberal watchdog organization Media Matters for America, he was assigned to monitor Mr. Imus's program.
Wow. "...assigned to monitor Mr. Imus..."
Now, since my liberal friends and foes are always screaming about the alleged erosion of their constitutional rights, and some believe it's necessary to make specious claims, such as comparing George Bush and Hitler, doesn't it concern anyone that this "liberal media group" is "assigning" their staff to "monitor" radio personalities? Do you not have a picture of a room full of people, hunched over their desks with headsets on, pen in hand, jotting down any comments they perceive to be offensive to someone? Then reporting to some self-proclaimed arbiter of political and social correctness for action?
I have to wonder what else they plan to "monitor" if their like-minded compatriots ever regain full political power.
Joe Dougherty, Florida, USA
The words I thought I brought, I left behind. So, never mind.
So, there's a popular (weekend or Sunday mordning) host on ABC's Radio National
- Ian Macnamara (sp?), a.k.a. "Macca" by nam- still on the air... long after play-
ing & aparently praising a song deemed to encourage race-hatred (in this case,
against Australian Aboriginal people, who are described in the song simply as
"Men without shoes"... The song asks "What do we do with these men without shoes,
and later suggests shooting them... as - historically - happened to indigenous
people in the Australian state of Tasmania... The song hadn't actually been re-
leased in commercial form, but was played from a broadcaster's "cart[ridge]"...
which Macca was reportedly sent from the group who recorded it, possibly in
Queensland...?)
In the above (past) case, the host ("Macca") was reportedly "given training on
the inappropriateness of his playing that kind of song on-air... but he's been
going on-air ever since; and Australian ABC continues to publish his books...
while Australia continues to "peddle" them from their post offices, across the
country...
More recently, a well-known local (to Sydney) "talk jock" of a radio host was
deemed to have helped call for people to go to Crenella, and participate, vio-
lently, in the Crenella Riots, in recent memory.
Both the "talk jock" and his radio station have been held responsible for the
race-hatred calls broadcast by the "'jock"... we'll see if anything, by way of
punishment, ever comes to either of the [legally] responsible parties.
(We got station tapes of Macca's praise for the racist song he chose to play
on-air, and the media has brought to light parts of the racist words in the
more recent case...)
So far, AFAIK, no one has resigned or been taken off-air in either case...
Imus has been labled as a "Shock Jock" for years. He and Stern have made a living off of trying to piss off/offend as many as possible, that's their job! So he fires up the wrong group and gets fired? So many people have gotten so over sensitive about everything nobody can tell a joke without getting in trouble. Face it in the U.S. these days white men are the only group your alowed to make fun of without getting stomped. This whole dishonest Politicaly Correct thing has gotten ridiculous. Maybe most folks need to quit taking themselves so seriously?
Professional Politicians are not the solution, they ARE the problem.
MSNBC, CBS, and any companies which pubically backed out of advertising on his show before it was cancelled are now on my personal list of companies with whom I will not associate with. And yes, I have written them letters and hope they get the message that giving into PC whiners will cost them business as well.
Barring something really important, I will not watch MSNBC or CBS for six months. Lesser punishments have been dealt to P&G, Sprint, GM, and Staples. I am sure there were more but those are the ones I saw somewhere.
Sure, Imus is a loud-mouth idiot who says all sorts of ridiculous things. He offends just about everybody at some point. I am so sick of certain communities screaming bloody murder when THEY are offended that I now WANT them to be offended as often and thoroughly as possible. They need to learn to get over it.
.. Isn't really about racism or free speech, It's about this victim culture that we live in now where absolutely everybody reserves the right to be offended by absolutely anything and as a result expect action to be taken.
In the big picture, what he said wasn't all that bad. In bad taste, Insensitive? Sure, If you want. But the uproar following it is simply people stamping their feet for no other reason than they can.
God Be Gone
Ludacris, Danny Glover, The Dixie Chicks, and Bill Maier (sp) are just a few minority or liberals that have been punished for saying things that right wingers didn't like over the last few years.
But don't let that get in the way of your victim streak.
Dissolve... Resolve... Evolve...
It's more like he pissed off one too many groups one too many times and got fired. The FCC has been fining Imus for years, and it's getting expensive for CBS. Advertisers were getting afraid of being associated with him, and pulled their slots.
So let's be clear: he wasn't fired because he was offensive. He was fired because he was no longer profitable.
As someone who used to work for Media Matters, I can tell you there is a whole lot wrong with this writeup in the WSJ.
For starters, there is nothing approaching blogging involved. Media Matters has hired a number of prominent bloggers to work with them, but an organization with offices on K Street in Washington DC, with a staff of about 50, is a far stretch from what folks think of when they think of a blogger. The researchers write their articles to a very precise formula, and then the editorial staff "correct" them and the process goes back and forth quite a number of times before anything is published. Not exactly what the image of the term blogger conjures up, but Media Matters sure likes when people make that mistake.
What's happening here is not Media Matters discovering this horrible outrage and then alerting the rest of the world to it - what's happening is Media Matters trying to take credit for Imus's firing because they monitored his show. They monitor dozens of shows per day, and pick up every off color comment like this and document it over and over again.
Now, if you buy the stereotyped liberal "whiner" point of view, this is indicative of the whole media being a bunch of foul-mouthed bigots. And said bigots having a whole lot of staying power for not getting shit-canned more often. But if you think about it for a second, it's really just Media Matters shooting a spray of bullets, pointing out every time anyone says anything off color, and then taking credit when people get outraged about it because they documented it "first".
The unfortunate thing is that lots of well meaning and powerful leftist funders give Media Matters money because they fail to see this subterfuge, or maybe because they are "whining liberals" themselves.
It's really more indicative of a more general problem in Washington DC - folks there think that everything that happens in our democracy can be traced back to some pressure group inside the beltway. They don't believe in this thing called "grassroots". I wish I could say they are fools, but reluctantly I must admit that they are frighteningly close to correct in many cases - but not this one.
There is no free speech on the radio, or on TV. There never has been. There is only a limited amount of bandwidth, and the US government regulates its use. It leases out that bandwidth at an absurdly low rate in exchange for it being used nominally for the public good. In the US Government's opinion that means no swearing and being careful about whom you insult.
Imus is perfectly free to say all of this in his living room, on a soap box in the park, and just about anywhere else. That's the first amendment. He's not free to broadcast it on the air. That's regulating the air waves.
It's time for you all to worry less about (heavens to betsy!) Political Correctness and start lobbying to take back the air waves. They go to a very limited set of very rich corporations who reap enormous profits, especially when they push the FCC's regulations as far as they will go. These airwaves are a lot more valuable than that.
Use them for Internet access, which IS a true free speech zone. Connect it to landlines and you can reach the whole world with your offensive crap. Everybody, not just some overpaid asshole.
Do you HONESTLY think that any of them or their relatives actually listened to the show? On top of that, do you think that any of those girls haven't ever been called something worse and just brushed it off? Granted, it's strong language, but there was probably worse that was said to them during basketball games they were in, in which they retaliated with something even more vulgar.
This is all to purpetuate the hate, to be the better good, to make the other look bad.
Racism isn't a huge problem like year ago. Actually, it probably wouldn't even be as bad as it is nowadays, if the "anti-racism" racists didn't feed the fuel by making a big deal out of things like this. Granted, racism exists, but the hate toward the bigots who point fingers at tiny issues FUEL the racism itself.
WHY? Because you have people like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson who need to fuel it. If there wasn't some type of racism to flame about, they wouldn't have a job. Honestly, do we need 10 paid "anti-racists" racist bigots to get together and gang up on another race because someone used a word or phrase that they, themselves have probably used 300 times before?
I just wish people would start being better than the issue itself and looking at those who fuel it and start it, like the rest of us who look at the KKK as stupid, or Neo-Nazi groups. They're ignorant, and we've got to put ourselves above them, and blow them off. They're like kids, they'll keep doing ignorant things until you ignore them.
Back on subject, Imus being fired was a bunch of issues thrown together:
1. Racism garbage perpetuation blown out of proportion.
2. Politics.
3. His ratings were dropping, they have new prospects, he didn't get along with the higher-up's, this made it easier.
If you remember... Howard Stern dropped the "N" bomb NUMEROUS times on air, and nobody thought anything of it. WHY? Because he's not a political icon and nobody takes him seriously.
"Please, shut up. Just when I think you can't say anything more stupid, you speak again." -Archie Bunker.
So you are saying that charity work should protect one from the consequences of bad behavior.
Yeah, right.
How can you blame the girls for overplaying the victim role? Wasn't it their restrained response that made Imus look doubly bad?
I'm sorry that you were called worse than a whore by the time you were six(!), but that doesn't make senseless bullying acceptable.
In most times, most places, by most people, liars are considered contemptible. - Ursula Le Guin
So, we found the guy who is responsible for all of this crap. I've seen nothing about the war for about 2 weeks now, all because this blogger made a mountian out of a molehill. Well, thanks guy, you're a real winner.
Speaking of important news stories, does anyone know who Anna's babydaddy is? I MUST KNOW!
Living in Japan, I hadn't had a chance to see this yet, but now that I do . . . he got fired over that? It's so obviously an offhand remark, and besides, "nappy-headed" doesn't even make sense to me unless he's saying they fall asleep a lot. If the targets of the comment found it insulting, then an apology is certainly in order, but that ought to be the end of it.
On the other hand, he's got a crazy-ass accent the airwaves could sure do without. (Oops, am I going to get my Slashdot account fired for that?)
nt
just another attack on free speech in this country of mass hysteria!
The Don Imus issue has nothing to do with free speech. It has to do with a business making a business decision.
Free speech means that you can say that George Bush (or if you have a time machine, try it under Clinton's term if you're a Bush fan) is a crook and his cabinet is filled with incompetent idiots and not be dragged to jail for your comments. Try doing that in China. I don't think it'll take you long over there to appreciate what free speech means. Free speech means the government cannot prosecute you for expressing opinions, such as criticizing them. Sure, there are some exceptions, such as threats, libel, and yelling "fire" in the wrong place, but the important fact is you have the power to verbally attack those in power, which was pretty revolutionary for its time.
As others have pointed out Don is paid, by advertisers, to entertain the viewers. His customers decided they don't want someone of his reputation promoting their products. His employers don't provide charity airtime, they pay him to get advertisers. Don lost them money and had to go, in the mind of his producers. The anti-Imus movement was orchestrated by the private sector, not any government agency. What Imus said is irrelevant. You have no free speech rights in the private sector. The bottom line is that he pissed of his customers.
We can debate about the racist hypocrisy that a person can say whatever they want about their own race. However, this has nothing to do with Imus. He was employed, at will, and terminated by the will of his employer. There was no injustice here. Had he lost his sponsors due to boring his audience, he would have had the same fate.
Had his advertisers not cared about his racist views, he could do the show one whatever topic he wanted. He could host a KKK rally hour as long as he found willing partners to pay him. Free speech is well and alive. This issue is simply a matter of the consumer pushing back and telling "the media" what they do not want to hear on the airwaves.
...you wait for the song to stop. Imus has been dancing for awhile and he's always gotten to safety after the song stopped before. Even he realizes this, where apparently most people on slashdot don't.
I don't particularly care one way or the other about Don Imus getting fired. He's said a lot of offensive stuff in the past. Media Matters was just the spark on this, letting the rest of the world that doesn't care much about Imus know about it. The fire was the revolt within both the advertisers and the broadcasters that decided they didn't want to deal with Don Imus and the crap he generates any more. That's their perogative.
It's not censorship. Nothing stops Don Imus from finding another platform to continue saying whatever he wants, as long as people can be convinced to pay for it. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, respectfully, didn't get the kind of win they seem to think they did. No one but them got fed up with "the culture". This was consumer pressure, both from the consumers of ad time on the networks he broadcast on, and a threatened boycott by normal people. Frankly it's an example of how things ought to work when people want change. Market forces. The true meaning of voting with your wallet.
Claiming Media Matters directly had anything to do with this other than showing people who didn't see/hear the show the video is ludicrous. Media Matters has spent TONS of time complaining about all kinds of people and they've had zero effect, because not nearly enough real people cared until now.
The execs didn't give a fuck about the (overdone) outrage. The only reason they fired him was because their sponsors were threatening to pull advertising dollars; that's it. Now maybe the sponsors were influenced by the outrage or whatever, but the execs were influenced ONLY by money; if you believe anything else you're a fool.
You mean the same Jessie Jackson who made the "Hymietown" comment, and who siphoned off Rainbow Coalition funds to pay off his mistress?
Or, do you mean the Al Sharpton who championed the cause of Tawana Brawley even though it was clear early on she was lying?
Or do you mean the Sharpton and Jackson who championed the "ho" in Duke who clearly falsely accused a bunch of kids of rape to cover the fact that she was just involved in a gang bang?
Imus is an idiot, but Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton are the scum of society. If there was a rocket to outer space, they would deserve to be on it and away from human beings.
Still gets paid. He really has not needed to work for YEARS.
:P
50 million for 5 years, you can bet they will pay that one off
in a heartbeat. Imus has good lawyers
Truly Insightful!
Are you saying that liberals aren't sugar and spice and everything nice? You, sir, are in desperate need of help. Please report to your nearest reprogramming center immediately.
But seriously, that is pretty fucked up regardless of politics.
You know what? "Freedom of speech" doesn't mean freedom from consequences. When you say something, you're not absolved from the feeling the results of your actions. You can feel free to use racial epithets in your everyday speech, or write Christ-based pornography, but don't expect people not to get outraged.
There is no "chilling effect" here. A very rich white guy used very poor judgment in verbally attacking some innocent women for nothing other than the fact that they were black women. He lost his job but gets to look forward to a comfortable retirement and lucrative speaking gigs. It would be different if he had been speaking some truth to power, but instead it was just a slur from a guy with a history of slurs.
Yeah, we can have a discourse about the awful misogyny in rap lyrics. That's a separate argument, though. And don't pretend that Sharpton hasn't stood up against violent rap lyrics. Google is your friend.
She sat at the window watching the evening invade the avenue.
I'm don't understand what you're saying here. We should force people to speak "white" English? What kind of white English? The New England variant? Midwestern? Southern? I vote for Midwestern, myself.
I think we should all calm down here and have a pop. Er, a Coke. You know, a soda.
blogosphere publishes you
How do you even try to compare the actions of one mentally ill individual dragging a person to death behind a truck to WORDS that are uttered in an attempt to make someone seem hip or edgy? I await your reply. Imus calling someone a nappy headed ho is NOT the same as murder, sorry.
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
My nonsense detector is going off with this latest Imus thing. I suspect that the media powers that be are about 1/3 concerned about what they superficially claim to be concerned with, that is the 'offensiveness and inappropriateness of the remarks', and about 2/3's concerned about getting out of the huge contract that they signed with Imus.
They can't be making money off his show or they wouldn't have fired him. Plain and simple. Now that he has been 'fired for cause', there has to be some clause in his multi-million dollar contract that allows the radio corporation to get out of paying him. In America, you can usually find out what is happening in the background by following the money.
I'm quite sure that after a month or two, Imus will be back on the air. Most likely through a satellite radio service like Howard Stern is. He'll be paid somewhat less than what he was on broadcast and a lot less than Mr. Stern (whose contract is choking the satellite radio company that signed him). But he'll be back.
The other poster was right, Imus was fired because Euro-Americans are not allowed to say anything non-reverential about anyone who isn't Euro-American. African Americans can say anything about anyone, no matter how violent, libelous, or insane, just as long as they have a synthetic electronic drum beat in the background, use a loud angry voice, and frame their speech inside childish inane rhymes.
Don't take these people seriously. Remember, we control the technology, and therefore we ultimately control the people who depend upon technology.
I could have just left it at his originial apologoy of, "Bad choice of words, sorry" or whatever he said at 6am when no one was listening anyway.
What really got me was when he decided to go on Sharpton's radio show. My reaction to that was, "Oh no! Haven't you learned anything? Don't feed the trolls!"
But, of course, he did feed them and lost his job for it. What a dumbass.
Hey Imus: YHBT. HTH. HAND.
"Avoid employing unlucky people - throw half of the pile of CVs in the bin without reading them." -- David Brent
"Media Matters posted the video and transcript on its Web site and sent an email blast to several hundred reporters, as it does nearly every day." A big push even though the media didn't respond instantly, not really the lone blogger scenario. I wouldn't consider any of these big sites blogs anymore in the old sense of the word, blog now only means the output format of a site.
Imus is still free to call someone a "nappy headed ho" all he wants to.
And if someone punches him out - which they probably will if he says it to their face - he can press charges and win.
But companies are not forced by law to keep him on the air. Advertisers are not forced by law to keep supporting his show. That's called freedom of choice.
When you live by the market, you die by the market.
--- Grow a pair, liberals... stop letting the Republicans bully you!
"Black people"? I'm black. My family and friends are black. We will not tolerate the use of those words in out presence. I think you meant to say "some black people."
Rappers? Yep, many do use those words. And believe it or not, both Al and Jesse, as well as many other influential blacks like Oprah, Rosa Parks, Bill Cosby and Chuck D have been been going after misogynistic and violent lyrics for some time
So why is this stuff so pervasive in rap music? This movie address the question, and the answer is simple: because it sells. Kirk Franklin and Yolanda Adams can produce all kinds of uplifting music, but as long as Eminem and 50 Cent sell 10 million albums, people are going to make music in that vein - and by the way, once a rap album crosses the 750,000 sales mark, it's not just black people buying it.
Just like in the Imus case: follow the money. The same people who are suing grandmothers are also the ones facilitating the production, marketing and distribution.
I have listened to Imus on a semi-regular basis since 1995 when I found his show on the now defunct KPIX 95.7 in the SF Bay Area. I was initially drawn by his parodies of Ted Kennedy, Bill Clinton, and Richard Nixon. The sports break segments with Mike Breen were utterly hilarious. Often the humor was Breen singing songs wishing the death of Imus in various forms.
The more I listened I found Imus' real skill was as an interviewer. His style subtly brings out personality in people whose public face is very buttoned up. He brings out edginess and humor in public political and entertainment figures. The show could get a little harsh and maybe insensitive, but that was not the theme.
Another thing is Imus really thinks for himself. It is impossible to pin him to a left/right ideology. He jokes that he's the only registered Republican in Westport, Connecticut. Some of his favorite people are James Carville, Harold Ford, and Frank Rich.
Other Regular guests included: - John McCain - Tom Aspell (hard ass reporter who hangs out in the middle of wars) - a bunch of Newsweek writers - Mike Lupica (sports writer and novelist) - Doris Kearns Goodwin (presidential historian) - Boomer Esiason (sports) - Mary Matalin - Pat Buchanan - Phil Sims (sports) - Christopher Dodd - Jim Cramer (interesting guy when interviewed by Imus) - David Gregory (NBC Washington correspondent - hilarious rapport with Imus) - Tom Brokaw - Michael Beschloss (presidential historian) - Kinky Friedman - and dozens more. This is off the top of my head.
He also has authors and musicians on the show. That's when I usually tune out as it's typically country music, and I find book talk boring unless it's newsworthy.
Over the years the show had lost much of its edginess, especially as the MSNBC simulcast became more well-known. For that reason, I became a less loyal listener, but I still listened occasionally for the nuggets of humor and good interviews. I hate the term "shock jock" (almost as much as I hate "mashup"). He is not shocking. He gets a little off color and insulting. Often, it's self effacing; sometimes it's directed at others. Hillary Clinton and Dick Cheney are big targets for insults. It's not shocking though.
Based on my 12 years of listening but not knowing much about him outside the radio show, I understand Imus as the following: reclusive, funny, grumpy, smart, harsh, philanthropic, liberal, conservative.
His comment wasn't nice. He apologized (a little too much) and made a point to meet the Rutgers team in person. My takeaway from this whole episode is summed up in four words - blown out of proportion - with the operative word being "proportion." It was a good radio show, and I'm sorry to see it go.
hundreds of blog posts about his plagiarism
e nt=news&q=todd-goldman&ie=UTF8
= todd-goldman&btnG=Search
http://blogsearch.google.com/blogsearch?hl=en&cli
And nary a one in the news media
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=&ie=UTF-8&q
Maybe bloggers aren't so powerful after all?
-- Boycott Shell
He should have been fired long ago. If the Internet can be used to hold people accountable for the kinds of filth they are spewing in the media, that's great. Ex-Senator Allen also had to learn that there are certain attitudes and behaviors you just can't get away with anymore.
And make no mistake about it: the outrage over Imus and Allen didn't arise because they were politically incorrect once or made a mistake, the outrage reflects that people are fed up with what they perceive to be a fundamental part of those people's character.
The Rutgers womens basketball players purposefully won every game up until the final, and then threw the game for the sole purpose of getting Imus to talk about it, put his foot in his mouth and then use that against him.
It was truly a giant conspiracy.
from my point of view, all that happened was that a shock jock got tripped up by his own words, happens all the time (stern, those guys who had people have sex in st. patricks cathedral, etc.)
but you look at some of the posts here, and its as if they see secret machinations and a larger agenda at work here
huh? seems like paranoid schizophrenia on your part if you ask me
i mean if you REALLY want to think about backroom deals and shady forces, think about this:
imus just got a huge shot of free PR. there is no such thing as bad PR. anything that gets your name in the news is good for your bottom line. just look at oj simpson. there is no such thing as noteriety, in so far as noteriety hurts your income. it only increases your fame. and more fame, means more money
so now, imus will jump to satellite, or some other radio station, and probably make more money, with a rejuvenized base now interested in him for new reasons: "fuck the pc police!"
he was getting tired and old, and less people were listening to him. but now, in the end, with his name all over the paper and the 11 oclock news, in the end, imus wins: more fame
and i think it was all a "secret backroom deal" because he was jealous of stern's success on satellite... he was fired on purpose! (yeah, right)
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Perhaps he should check into rehab. That seems to make everything better.
So by your stupid syllogism, either we should clean up rap music, and I guess the entire population of disaffected youth and corrupt businesses behind it. Or we should have more of this kind of talk in our news and op/ed. God forbid the jackass host of the radio show gets fired! This isn't a first amendment problem, getting called basically a traitor for speaking out against an incompetent administration is a first amendment problem. People attributing PC watchdogs to the first amendment are dumbing the first amendment down. A LOT! This is someone getting fire from his job for being a jackass in a broadcast, and is more than old enough to know better. Sure he's been a jackass in the past, and other people are jackasses too. But why should that exonerate him. Besides, from what I heard the decision to fire him was ultimately down to many other employees at MSNBC and CBS that appealed to management that they didn't want to work at a place that catered to a jackass. So basically it was a him, or us type of thing. BTW - I don't pay attention to Imus or college basketball, and I don't really care about Imus or college basketball.
OK, so Imus was on the phone with Sid Rosenberg at the time he made his comment. Rosenberg was the first person to call them "hoes": where is the backlash/moral outrage directed at him? Was his comment somehow less derogatory, because of its failure to include "nappy-headed"?
(your sig) Read 'The Mac is not a Typewriter'. Two spaces bit the dust when monospaced type was increasingly replaced with proportional type set by computer. Kerning, the space between letters, became variable and an extra space after a period was deemed unnecessary.
I hope your letter identified the ADVERTISERS you will not be purchasing from.
A letter really needs to go to those folks.
Anyone have a list?
Sorry, but he did nothing wrong.
What he said was rude and insulting, but not wrong.
Sometimes you just need some thick skin and ignore the idiots.
We wasn't stopping anyone from doing anything, he wasn't oppressing anyone, he was saying something many people don't agree with, and how people handle that is the real test of the constitution
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Rappers aren't radio/tv hosts on NBC and CBS. It's a different audience and a different job. Imus has to attract a broad spectrum of guests, listeners, and advertisers for NBC and CBS. Music labels tend to give musicians more freedom because they are artists not broadcasters and they can be profitable even when attracting a much smaller spectrum. Fifty million people hear Imus but Ludacris only sells 5 million CDs and only clean versions of his songs are on radio. Those cleans versions would not have the words "nappy headed hos" in them. So your argument is careless and stupid.
Imus got fired for trying to do what howard stern does so well.
the difference now, is that stern can say whatever he wants.
They're using their grammar skills there.
But if everyone didn't lose their minds over it, so you had to hear about it every day, would you really give two shits? There are a lot of random assholes in the world. Maybe Imus is one of them, and maybe he was just being an asshole. But why the hell would you care? Just call him an asshole and move on. We don't need a huge media campaign and fucking Al and Jesse to come out just because someone called someone else a ho. More importantly, and what I'm surprised no one has really brought up, is whether all this is good for ending/removing racism and discrimination. Wouldn't it be better to give mildly racist language less, rather than more power? Go call a white guy a honky, and he'll just look at you funny. I think we'll be winning when black people do the same thing to the n word, not when we pass a constitutional amendment banning its usage.
Relax I just want some peanuts.
I'm sorry but this whole Imus thing got WAY out of hand. Yeah the guy may have said some stupid things but you know what he has the 1st Amendment right to do so. If you don't like what he is saying TURN THE FRIGGEN CHANNEL! You don't have to listen to it it's YOUR right. I don't like the racist things Al Sharpon and Jesse Jackson say about white people so I just don't listen to their frivoulus drivel their just as stuipd as Imus IMHO. I served 15 1/2 years in the U.S. Military and my family has since the Revolutionary war. We all fought and served to get and protect the rights we have. I don't agree with what Imus said but I'll defend his RIGHT to say it. This is not friggen Nazi Germany or Communist Russia! If you start telling people they can't say bitch or ho then it WILL go deeper to where now you can't say other things as well. Were would it stop. Instead you should try to reach people and -talk- to them and show them that maybe what they are saying isn't really nice, show them that calling a women a ho or bitch is not nice, that it is not a good thing to call a black person a N* or a hispanic person a W*B* etc... Don't burn them for it. But since these groups saw it fit to burn Imus at the steak then I think they HAD BETTER be going after the black rappers that are saying the EXACT same crap and worse. If they don't then EVERYONE will know they are using double standards and someone or A LOT of someones should call them all out on NATIONAL T.V. cable and other wise as well as radio. But as soon as you try to "filter" the rappers guess what they will yell FIRST AMENNDMENT! Sorry! If it wasn't good for Imus it isn't good for ANYBODY! Is that what we want????? Really? I'm sure the government would LOVE it. They took away your 4th Amendment rights with the Patriot Act and the Average American could give a shit, they are too stupid for their own good to know they LOST it. What else have we lost with our current president and government? Oh yea they are now TAPPING your phones ILLIGALLY! Where is the public outcry over that? Oh but we wil BITCH and MOAN about someone saying nappy ho! Give me frigen break!
The Truth is a Virus!!!
Both what you said and what the parent post said is true. What Imus said was despicable and stupid. He got what he deserved.
However Al Sharpton and others deserve public outrage against them as well for being bigots of a different flavor. It's pretty obvious that in situations involving Blacks and Whites Sharpton always takes the side of the Blacks, facts be damned. So as much as he would like to claim the high road he's just another bigot and part of the problem not the solution.
The race isn't always to the swift... but that's the way to bet!
I have to say that I really don't understand your comment on that you don't allow using words 'black people' in your or your family's presence. To make my point is that you can replace the word black with French / German / Swedish / Finnish / Russian i.e. "French people", "German people" etc.. It's very common to address a group of people with a common word, and at least here in Europe nobody goes crazy if somebody makes a joke about other nationalities / cultures i.e. "Swedish are gay", "Finnish are alcoholics", "Russians are gangsters" etc.. Nobody is shouting that "no! not all Swedish are gay, only some!". If you are offended by somebody saying "black people" or blacks then I think you are little hyper sensitive. People always abstract their environment and especially when they describe it to each other.
On a note I can't even really understand why people in US call themselves or other as African-Americans, Anglo-Americans, Latins etc.. when in fact you are all Americans and some of you are white, some black, some speak Spanish and some of you are just indescribable. If we would use that same here in Europe, we would have to invent many fancy words: i.e. I have mostly Finnish but also Swedish, Russian and Ukrainian blood in my veins, so should I be Ugric-Scandinavian-Russian-Ukrainian-Finnish? What I think goes wrong in US is that words are over politicised. You really should stop being politically correct and say hello to the reality and not try to hide it.
Survey research tool for commercial and scientific use
Exactly. Contrary to many posts and comments on news programs over the last few days, this is NOT a First Amendment Issue. The First Amendment only addresses the action of government with respect to Free Speech, among other things. It has nothing to do with the actions or behaviors of individuals. As long as someone doesn't do anything illegal, such as sending threatening letters or physically assaulting someone for what they say, they are free to do whatever they want as a response to what someone says. In fact, this right is another First Amendment guarantee, the freedom of Association.
If I'm an advertiser, I'm not forced to advertise on programs that I find offensive. If I'm a viewer/listener, I'm not forced to view or listen to a program I find offensive. It was a business decision by the advertisers to pull their business with the media companies because they themselves or they believed their customers didn't want to associate with the host of the show. It was a business decision by the media companies to fire the host because they themselves didn't want to associate with the host, they believed their customers didn't want to associate with the host, or they made a financial decision based on the actions of the advertisers. In any case, it's all legal, and I'd suggest, perfectly ethical and moral.
The government is not limiting the Free Speech of Don Imus. Neither are the media companies, advertisers, or listeners/viewers. Don Imus is free to say whatever he wants, but he has no inalienable right to get paid to say whatever he wants on a media program. Just as we are guaranteed a Freedom of Association, we are guaranteed a freedom FROM association. We can not be forced to associate with those that we do not wish to (this does not extend to government forced segregation, which of course would be violating freedom of association). Likewise, the Second Amendment says that we are allowed to own firearms, but it does not force everyone to own a firearm (although there's a county in Georgia that I believe has a law on the books that says everyone must own a firearm; I don't believe it is enforced, nor Constitutional).
Well, first of all, not all people of African descent speak in ebonics. Not even close. It's more of a southern/inner city cultural thing. Even when someone does speak it, they are usually bi-dialectal (meaning they switch in and out of it based on who they are speaking to). Secondly, it does have its roots in slavery, segregation, etc. That doesn't mean that we should be ashamed of it. It is part of our country and we should be proud of it, despite of whatever roots it may have. Do you suggest we go to predominantly black districts and forbid them from speaking in their natural way, simply because it has its roots in racist policies? We can't change the past, we also shouldn't try and suppress it.
Do you suggest we go to the northeast and kill off the New England accent because it is different? Should we do the same thing with the Southern accent, etc. Why is it only an issue with ebonics? Wouldn't eliminating people's natural way of speaking and forcing them to speak in the mainstream "normal" way be just another forced submission to "white" culture?
"I Wish" was a #1 funk hit in January 1977. It hit the Billboard #1 spot. What is the very first line of the song?
Looking back on when I
Was a little nappy headed boy
Then my only worry
Was for christmas what would be my toy
Even though we sometimes
Would not get a thing
We were happy with the
Joy the day would bring
How old is Imus, 80?
Radio "personalities" are well-known to be trollers because that's one way to get response. And remember kids, it's doesn't matter what you say or do as long as it gets attention. Sound familiar? Sort of like, "there's no such thing as bad press". Those that suck off the advertising teat by being "controversial" need a swift kick in the arse.
DMX uses bad words and says rude things, so do some rock and metal (are they still called that?) bands. It's what they do.
Just because they do doesn't mean it is right for a radio host to call a bunch of girls those same sort of names. Radio hosts, just like the rest of us, are expected to show a level of respected to normal people, unless they deserve otherwise.
Just because a rapper uses such language (who - so happens to be black) does not mean its right to say that 'black people use this language about blacks so why shouldn't whites'.
You will forget this sig before you next see it
Aside from the two protected classes going against each other in this one, money is the one to look at w/ Duke. The three students who were able to get their lawyer to buy influence, the race issues were used by Duke to tarnish the accuser.
The moral of the story? You can say whatever you want and get away with it... if you're rich. Otherwise watch out for the high pay attorneys defending clients who go to exclusivist universities like Duke, for they will buy enough influence to win their case.
Fixed it for you.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
I really get tired of mentally lazy bozos who whine "double standard" every time their favorite "bad boy" gets caught with his pants down. First off, the "double standard" is in your weak little mind — rappers and other artists who rely on degrading language have been taking flack for years, much of it from the very black and liberal leaders you accuse of being blind to it. I suspect Al Gore might be President now if Tipper had been less vocal on the subject.
Second, if something is wrong, it's wrong. "Everybody does it" is an argument worthy of children. Stupid children.
Equality is there, or not.
If stuff like "context" is brought into the equation, then you can expect all sort of perverted twists and turns to it.
for example, there is forced military service here in turkey. i am not saying mandatory, i am saying forced. and this is for male citizens. to gain the rights of full citizenship, you have to fulfill it.
it basically means being away from anything you love for 6-1.5 years, and getting orders from people some of whom think you are inferior as you are a civilian.
in addition to that, after college, you cant find work outright, and even if you find work, you get 1/3 the salary any college graduate of your profession finds, if you have not done military service yet. only going away for 1.5 years, which also means giving a pause to your career 1.5 years, you can claim a full time, real place in a company. also, you need 2 years experience in the field in order to get a real position. which means, you HAVE to work in the place of shit for 2 years because you havent gone to military service, and then go for 1.5 years to military service (or 1 year), and ONLY then, at the earliest 3 years after graduating from college, you can FOR THE FIRST TIME get a REAL job in your field.
however, women do not undergo this. women do not have to go through military service either to gain full citizenship rights, or to start their career.
female college graduates outright start in solid positions in companies to work in their fields. When males of their age come from military service at the earliest (and after garnering 2 years experience prior to that), they are now 3 years ahead of them in their career, and naturally get higher positions earlier.
yet, STILL, there are bitches around who are doing propaganda for "positive discrimination" for women, to set up full equality in the country.
see. its a matter of "context" here too. they are women, for god's sakes. how can you expect them to undergo a full military duty, which might require that they fight in the mountains against pkk terrorists, and die, and in a country which traditionally sees women weak and protects them even.
yet, NO women activist is coming up and saying "women should do military service". none. they are happy that they dont have to do military service, but still want to get more benefits in social life, by getting more "positive" discrimination.
of course we are not counting in the fact that letting a female go through a door first, opening the doors for them, giving your place in the que to a woman, being "polite" and "gentleman" are being pushed as factors of "civility" - they are not a matter of equality at all !
this is what happens when you introduce context.
this is just a simple pick as it is an all encompassing example. but, when bent on it, one can find much more terrorizing examples that can be put up under the guise of "equality", in the meanwhile being utterly discriminatory.
Read radical news here
Why is it that a "watchdog" organization, whose purpose is solely to find stuff to nitpick, can wield this kind of "power" whenever they spot someone they don't like ? I'm looking forward to the day when a political group picks a fight with me over my loudly expressed rebellious/anarchic opinions. It seems everyone needs someone to mess with. Left-wingers calling Right-wingers offensive. Right-wingers calling left-wingers repressive. Black people calling white people racist. White people calling black people racist. I choose to keep it simple, I just hate everyone unless otherwise indicated. How's that ? It seems like we've pretended to come a long way since the age of raping and pillaging, when deep down we're still the same retarded bloodthirsty lawless racist sexist apes our ancestors were centuries ago. The main difference is we've grown too lazy and weak to fight with our fists, so now we just point fingers and call people names until it somehow ends up hurting. It didn't work in kindergarten, why would it work with modern adults ?
-Billco, Fnarg.com
... confusion that confuses humanism with stupidity.
see, when one yells "let lives be spared, let there be no war" when hitler is continually invading one country after another during the times leading up to world war two, that someone is not being a humanist, s/he is being a total idiot.
when someone is yelling "let ethnicities continue their ethnic practices/religion/whatever unhampered" and allowing any and all factions do as they please in any country, like the "humanists" in netherlands, belgium, on the radical islamist fractions/minorities setting up "islamic" colleges and preaching discrimination of men and women, sharia rule (which is a totalitarian rule) UNDER the disguise of democratic rights, they are not being humanists, they are being IDIOTS.
there are limits to liberties indeed. the rights to liberties end just at the point where any group or person or nation attempts to deprave other groups/persons/nations of their liberties.
being passive aggressive does not always work. the ONLY major incident that it worked was in gandhi's case. if it had been 50 years earlier, in times that communications and newspaper publishing had had not developed that much yet, british colonial forces would have cramped down gandhi and his supporters to hell and noone would know or care about it.
so, in order to protect liberties and equality, one might need to take solid action from time to time.
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There can be no conditionals or contexts in equality. NOTHING can justify some group being at liberty with something, and some other group not. Refer to the below comment :
o ld=1&commentsort=1&mode=thread&cid=18734559
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=230787&thresh
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For the continuance and well being of equalistic principles, some contradiction is needed :
o ld=1&commentsort=1&mode=thread&cid=18734653
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=230787&thresh
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My God! I can't believe he said that! His statement was so outrageous I had to look it up! Of course, it could have been worse. He could have said "Hymietown"...
Don't blame me, I didn't vote for either of them!
"ebonics" is rooted in racist practices (forced submission to white schemas of "black inferiority", denial of education, the list goes on and on).
Bullshit. Ebonics is an attempt to teach proper english to a bunch of people who speak a specific variant of english associated with poor education and violence. Surprise, surprise, it's mostly accurate. The whole point is that people judge you on the words you use, so using the right ones leads to success. Of course, some people will focus on the initial statement (which is true) that talking like an uneducated gangbanger won't get you far and characterize this as some sort of racist attitude. Give them the finger and offer the other guys a hand up.
it is at the same time promoted by and derided in mainstream america, with the obvious ulterior motive of promoting separatism.
Mostly promoted by black people with an interest in being separate and black. Let them be black and proud and poor if they want to. Associating education with being too white is the mark of an idiot. I have no pity.
weather it either supplants "normal" dialect, or is killed off, it should be eliminated as a separate dialect.
All dialects are separate. You can't really eliminate it by fiat, either - you have to let it expire. What will likely happen is that some of the ebonics bits will find their way into normal speech, and the rest will die a deserved death. 'Wif'? is 'th' so hard to say?
"We returned the General to El Salvador, or maybe Guatemala, it's difficult to tell from 10,000 feet"
So I'm confused by the "pop" language.
Should Shaha Riza be classified as a HO or a Whore?
What's really weird is that they stuck that random "fag" clip on the end of it. What the hell is their strategy there? Trying to create a pattern and make the first one look worse? Throwing out whatever bad words they scraped up that day and hoping one of them catches on fire?
I'm gay myself, and it doesn't really matter to me if some neanderthal sports coach said "fag" on television. Obviously I don't like it, but it doesn't matter. I am offended by some censorship organization taking that small insult to people like me and exploiting it for political gain, when all it really means to them is "that guy said a naughty word!"
that one was one of the most hit-the-spot comments ever made in this debate.
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can someone suggest a good university match for me?
well, as someone living in the south i think "southern" should be eliminated as quickly as possible, regardless of whichever of the others is chosen ; )
geeit out of mah wuhy, ah waunna feill up mah ess-yeew-vehy.
If this horrible atrocity had happened anywhere else but in the disgusting racist United States of AMERIKA, this evil white dude man would have gotten several years in jail!
..uhhh whatever.. PAYS FOR IT! We need to stop this genocidal rape of our brethren!
It's a joke that the US of A tolerate this racism!
I trust that the good women of this basketball team will be offered the necessary psychological counseling to get on with their lives.
And I hope that the rest of their lives (including their basketball careers, so necessary in the US of A) will not be affected by this horrendous episode. My heart goes out to them.
As for the aforementioned racist "sports" announcer, perhaps jail is not sufficient. Perhaps a gang of basketball players or even university students should break into the jail and LYNCH him! (after nappying HIS hair!)
THAT will teach any man to call women "Hos". Thank goodness we people of colour do not exhibit this disgusting "old white-man" behaviour!
Make sure this ugly representative of
.
- aqk
F U
Don't tell me, they're crediting the blogger for publicizing the story? Without him shit wouldn't have hit the fan? Bullshit. Give me a friggen break.
It was a public air-wave. More than one person heard it.
Imus is no conservative. Funny how everyone jumps to that conclusion.
Slashdot "libertarians": Small government for me, big government for those I disagree with. -1, I disagree with you
Popular rap music doesn't justify racism on the air.
If the popularity of a media consumable could do that... then the popularity of porn would mean that exposing himself to the camera would be okay. (aieee!)
Fortunately, this is not the case.
Well documented in the press.
They get a free pass because they are black. Blacks can do no wrong. They have free reign to be as racist as they want.
I, for one, welcome our ____liberal_watchdog____ overlords.
"Avoid employing unlucky people - throw half of the pile of CVs in the bin without reading them." -- David Brent
You can't be for the display of Janet Jackson's superbowl stunt and also for firing Don Imus.
I still assert that Rosa Parks is not going after anyone because she croaked a few years back. I now further assert that you don't know your English grammar very well.
"Avoid employing unlucky people - throw half of the pile of CVs in the bin without reading them." -- David Brent
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/denigrate/ attributes the word to Latin "to make black". So now the word "denigrating" will be declared a racist word that denigrates black people.