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 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.
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
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.
VLC FOR MAC IS DYING! IF YOU DEVELOP, PLEASE SAVE IT!!
This is also in the land that went bezerk over a nipple
This is the land where the media went berzerk over a nipple...
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.
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.
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, for one, welcome our new free speech overlords, Jesse 'hymietown' Jackson and Al "Tawana Brawley" Sharpton.
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
It would be interesting to follow the transmission of the memes on the whole "thug life" culture. I'm betting that it's not coming from the NAACP. Is it from pop culture, such as movies and music? Take a step up the ladder and see who owns and runs the studios, labels, distributors, and stores. I'm betting that it's not the artists and it's not the guy with the baggy pants, G-Unit shirt, and a swagger.
Is it okay for these pop icons, and their fans, to be using such language? I would imagine that many groups for black civil rights would say that it isn't, that glorifying thugs and hos is not helping black people gain equal social footing.
Or I could judge a visible group solely by the words, actions, and affectations of its most visible and accessible members.
Yep, context is everything. Calling one group of predominantly black women cute is far less newsworthy than calling another group of predominantly black women nappy headed ho's.
Once again, we the people have allowed Sharpton, Jackson, et. al. to ruin someone for mere words.
Remember "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me"?
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.
Nice coincidence that at the same time they speak out against Imus, the Duke lacrosse team is found innocent. Sharpton defended her, and Jackson gave her a scholarship. There was no evidence to point to their guilt, and they obviously made their claims of guilt based on skin color.
P.S. Nice touch firing him on the day of his annual fund raiser for sick children. If you want to donate despite the cancellation of the radiothon, you can call 877-877-6464, or donate online here. This information was provided by the Opie and Anthony radio show, which I happened to catch that morning.
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 "most of us" was not supposed to include you, but I doubt that's what you intended, so I'll go ahead and say you just outed yourself as not just a hate-spewer, but also a bigot.
I think there's nothing I can add to that.
butter the donkey
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.
...it just so happens that outside forces "convinced" his employers that his services were no longer needed.Now if we can just get "outside forces" to get Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton fired (oh, that's right, they don't actually "work", per se). The incredible double-standard in this country is just mind-boggling. I never payed attention to Imus before now, but after seeing (repeatedly) his remark and apologies played on the news I'd say that the suspension would have been a good reminder that free speech is not just a right, it's also a responsibility. Firing him, though, pissed me off for reasons that I can't say (because I'm of "Northern European" descent and not entitled to "those feelings")
I'm actually considering listening to whatever show he comes up with next, if for no other reason than spite. I've heard the Rev. Jackson and Sharpton say much more "racially insensitive" things than Imus did, but I suppose that, since it's only insensitive to "white" people, it's acceptable (or to be expected).
From my perspective, firing Imus is going to cause more racial tensions, not less. I know it doesn't suddenly make me all warm and fuzzy, that's for sure. It got me thinking about the people I work with. We only have one person (out of about 120 at my building) that immediately springs to mind as "black". I had to stop and think for a while before I could come up with who some of the rest were (Once I got to thinking about it, I started realizing just how racially diverse my coworkers are. Huh.). I guess I never really considered their race before - they were just co-workers and competent professionals doing their jobs. Like I said, only one person immediately sprang to mind as someone who seems to define themselves by their race. ...Sad.
"terrorism" and "pedophilia" are the root passwords to the Constitution
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.
everyone can't possess all freedoms at once. If everyone possesses all freedoms, only the strongest truly have any freedom. If I can kill you without any consequences from others, and you are weaker than me, you have only the freedoms I allow you to have. The idea of granting freedom by limiting it is really the idea of maximizing everyones' real freedoms by reaching the ideal compromise. Of course, no one can agree where this compromise should be drawn.
...sometimes, in order to hurt someone very badly, you have to tell that person terrible lies. - PA
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.
Its only mind boggling if you ignore the fact that not very long ago an apartheid system operated in the racist South.
The principle supporters of segregation were Democrats. When LBJ signed the civil rights act the segregationists quit the Democratic party and were welcomed with open arms by the Republican party. Except for Sen. Byrd who stopped being a racist.
And so as a result it is OK for the people who were oppressed under segregation to make comments that it is not OK for white people to say. Chris Rock can talk about 'Niggers' because nobody is going to make the mistake of thinking that he might be a closet sympathizer of the KKK.
When Trent Lott, George Allen and other white folk don't get the benefit of the doubt, precisely because there are still racists who think that its OK to treat black people as second class citizens. There are even still people who try to disenfranchise black people by making it harder for them to vote. Take a look at the elections in Florida where black people were systematically disenfranchised for having the same name as convicted felons. Take a look at Ohio where the corrupt Republican secretary of state deliberately distributed election equipment so that black people had to wait hours to vote while white people got to vote immediately.
It is pretty difficult to prove that the systematic measures used to disenfranchise blacks are deliberate. They are cloaked in the language of 'preventing voter fraud'. So society has to rely on proxy measures for likely racism. And that is why it is not acceptable for any white person who makes racist statements to have any role in the political process.
There is a double standard here, its called the race card and its the Republican party that has made a habit of playing it at every opportunity for the past forty years.
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Try http://dotcrimeManifesto.com/
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.
"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.
Uhmm. What I said was "We only have one person (out of about 120 at my building) that immediately springs to mind as "black"". I said nothing about them being the only "race-concious" person. We've got several people who spring to mind as "redneck", they flaunt their southern roots from their drawls, pickups and union jacks to their belt-buckles. If you had asked me if I worked with any rednecks, I'd be able to count them easily. We have 2 people who spring to mind as "Polish" (they're great people and I consider one of them my friend, but her polish accent is so thick you could cut it with a knife). If you had asked if I work with any Poles, I'd think of them. We have a *very* Puerto-Rican guy that who is iconic for playing the "Hey, I'm just a dumb Puerto-Rican..." and "What do joo know, white-boy...?" routine. That's what he's known for. It's his "shtick" (No offense intended to any Jews out there). If you had asked if I work with any Puerto-Ricans, I'd have said yes - but in this case if you asked how many, only one springs easily to mind, I'd have to really think about the others.
These are the people who draw obvious attention to their race, gender, orientation, or "subgroup". This is not necessarily a bad thing. It's just a fact. It's like that scene in City Slickers where the black dentists are talking to the other tourists and the younger dentist says "Yes, we're black AND we're dentists - don't make a issue out of it." and his father turns to him as says "Son, they're not making an issue of it. The only one making an issue of it here, is you."
I've been working for my company for more than 10 years and I swear, every time I have to go through the same, tired, "Race and Healing" seminar it drives me nuts. It seems we have an entire department who's only job is to point out how "different" we all are and how we (white people) can never fully understand just how oppressed everyone else is. Fuck! I never kept slaves. None of my ancestors did either. I dated a "person of color" when I was in college, english is my second language, I grew up in a non-American country and culture, and I'm married to a Polack. This doesn't make me a better person than anyone else. It just makes me who I am.
I'm tired of the insinuation by you ("...anyone who thinks that racism problem is a problem with blacks is ... well, pretty obviously white") that I must be racist because I'm white (or even that I am "white", as if my Dutch ancestry has no validity except to make me "white"). I'm tired of my employer making me sit through the same stupid seminar every year. Why do we have to go out of our way to point out how different we all are. And by different, they mean how "white people" are different from specific non-whites. Somehow they don't seem to include the Asians, Mexicans or Puerto-Ricans. I must be a total racist asshole, because I lose more and more respect for "minorities" every time I have to sit though that. The guy in the next office over does the same job I do, has the same education and certifications I do, gets paid the same amount I do, brings his dishes to the same office potlucks I do. How am I supposed to treat him? We get along great until that fucking class every year and then shit gets all uncomfortable for a while before we settle back to just being "friends, coworkers and competent professional who were hired to do a job". I know he hates it, even more so since he's not required to go.
It would almost make everything much easier to just fucking BE a racist. It seems to be what they want and expect from me.
"terrorism" and "pedophilia" are the root passwords to the Constitution
Perhaps he should check into rehab. That seems to make everything better.
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!
So, how does money buy you DNA evidence, turn the prosecutor in an overactive publicity seeker, and make your accuser keep changing her story? Please cite some specifics.
In this case, it looks like money kept innocent people out of jail -- If they were poor, they would be innocent people going to jail. That's the only difference. The lesson is that we should let the courts decide the truth rather than the media. It sounded like they were guilty, because it was a plausible story, and I figured they were guilty too. Then came the DNA evidence which failed to link any player on the team, changing stories by the accuser, and Nifong's obvious megalomania. Yet for much of the media, it was still full-steam ahead.