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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."
Moral outrage
;-)
No. Mock indignation, so everyone can try to look "less racist" than everyone else.
Even his worst detractors don't seriously consider him a racist - Just another shock-jock using racially-charged language to make a buck.
Just as racist, just as misogynistic, just as insensitive.
C'mon, hasn't Chris Rock taught you anything? We show racial insensitivity. They (and it doesn't matter which "they" you refer to), as a repressed minority, subvert our vitriol to sardonically weaken our merciless blows.
Gimme a break. I thought the left at least gave lip service to freedom of speech
Nah, the right pretends to care about the bill of rights. The left pretends to care about "the children". Neither really does, of course, but let's get our pack-delusions straight here.
And FTR, I don't listen to his show (though I have left it perhaps three or four times while scanning channels, to listen to one of his guests)
No, this is the nanny-state "why can't we all get along" PC left that conservatives like to think is all that makes up the Democratic party.
This is manufactured outrage pure and simple. No one really thinks Imus had an intent to cause anyone grief. Al Sharpton and Jessie Jackson need their names to be in the headlines at all times because they're media whores; that's their job. And of course the white PC left had to be just as outraged to prove to everyone that they aren't racists.
Imus was was just making an observation that the Rutgers team was mostly black and looked like gang members due to their tattoos. He phrased it in a politically incorrect manner, which is what got him canned. I believe it was George Carlin who said that language is neutral. It is intent that makes something offensive or not. Imus's intent was to make the point that the Rutgers team was more butch than the Tennessee players in a humorous way.
Of course, as you say if black people use those words in a derogatory manner, society gives them a pass (in fact, popular black culture seems to encourage their use). Either words are ok for everyone to use or they are ok for no one to use. Double standards are bullshit, plain and simple.
I'm white. I'm liberal. I'm not a racist. I thought it was funny. Anyone who was seriously offended by his remarks needs to grow up.
As soon as I heard about the comments made by Imus, I told my friends he would be suspended or shitcanned and that his defenders would compare his remarks to hip-hop lyrics and blame the liberals for his troubles. As a 65 year old white guy, you don't get to appropriate the language of hip-hop. Throwing some hip-hop slang into your sentences does not make you sound hip and edgy, it just makes you sound like a jackass.
Bizarrely, Imus seems to have been expressing admiration for the Rugers team. Listen to a recording of what he said - it doesn't sound like he's trying to insult or show contempt.
"Clean up the air and treat the animals fair" - Captain Beefheart
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.
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.
Maybe, but you're not the one who's been discriminated against, verbally abused, beaten up and sometimes even murdered in cold blood, so who are you to talk?
Oh? As a white guy, I can safely walk through a black gang neighborhood in South Central Los Angeles?
Oh wait, I actually WAS beaten up and ripped off in my supposedly safe neighborhood and it wasn't even South Central! I thought that since I'm white and heterosexual, I'm immune from all that!
Sheesh, grow up and quit being a whiny victim. EVERYONE is hated by some group for some irrational reason.
Sometimes it's best to just let stupid people be stupid.
Uh, yep. That's about the size of it. If a black man walked up to me and said "Yo, honkey, what up?" No one would think anything of it. Remember: Only white people can be racist. Only men can be sexist. Only straight people can be narrow-minded ("homophobic"). Did you not get the memo?
As a straight, white, male I'm fucked. All my beliefs, feeling and motives are suspect and to be derided. I'm guilty of all of these offenses before I even open my mouth. I have to come up with lame justifications every day that "my best friends are crippled, black lesbians", just to "defend" myself.
The saddest part is, simply by posting this sarcastic rant, I've already convinced everyone that I'm all of these things, and worse. Add to that the fact that I'm a Christian that believes in evolution and I've pretty much hated by everyone.
On the plus side, I don't use Windows."terrorism" and "pedophilia" are the root passwords to the Constitution
Congratulations. You and Stephen Colbert are truly color blind. And it just so happens (George Carlin has a bit on "happens to be") that the only race-conscious person you can think of is black. It must be a problem with blacks, not whites. I agree that there are plenty of black racists. But anyone who thinks that racism problem is a problem with blacks is ... well, pretty obviously white (except for the one counter-example that someone's going to pull outta their ass) and just as obviously delusional. I also agree that it is sad if, as you say, a co-worker defines himelf or herself by race. But I suspect that you might be the one doing just as much of the defining in this case.
You're also overlooking the fairly public campaign (led by blacks) to get rappers and other public figures to stop using the "n word". I'm pretty sure Jesse and Al have come out in support of that effort, but that doesn't make me a fan of their politics. I just don't bother trying to make them the focus of racial problems in America. They wouldn't be as effective in what they do if racism were not a problem. Yes, they exploit that fact. But you just exploited the fact that they exploit the situation, to make your own inane point that there's a reverse racist in your work place, without whom everyone would be singing Kum Bay Yah.
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.