Well, it happened.
Don Imus is history. Effective immediately. Adios alligator face!
Oh, how the mighty have fallen.
As I pointed out yesterday, this wasn't the first time Imus metamorphosed into David Duke over the airwaves. But it certainly turned out to be the last.
“From the outset, I believe all of us have been deeply upset and revulsed by the statements that were made on our air about the young women who represented Rutgers University in the NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship with such class, energy and talent,” said CBS President and Chief Executive Officer Leslie Moonves, in announcing the decision. “Those who have spoken with us the last few days represent people of goodwill from all segments of our society – all races, economic groups, men and women alike. In our meetings with concerned groups, there has been much discussion of the effect language like this has on our young people, particularly young women of color trying to make their way in this society. That consideration has weighed most heavily on our minds as we made our decision, as have the many emails, phone calls and personal discussions we have had with our colleagues across the CBS Corporation and our many other constituencies.”
So why now? And as I've asked before, why not anyone else? Not that I'll mourn Imus' radio career. Actually, I don't really care for him. But Premiere Radio certainly didn't flinch when Rush Limbaugh and Glen Beck repeatedly said much worse. TRN didn't with Michael Savage (though MSNBC, to their credit, did). They also signed Mancow last year, who has a long history of this sort of thing. And Jones Radio Networks didn't can Neal Boortz when he went after Cynthia McKinney with some of the most mean-spirited, racist and sexist rhetoric to ever go over a radio microphone. Will we see a changing of the tide? It should be interesting to see these right-wing blowhards shaking in their shoes over the next few weeks. Looks like the beasts have been tamed.
It's funny that the media has made little mention of this tidbit. As far as I know, the only TV newsperson to do it was MSNBC's Keith Olbermann on last night's "Countdown" broadcast, grilling Jesse Jackson about this very thing. And the conservative commentators? Yeah, right! FOX 'News' was calling for Imus' head earlier in the week, while they have and still give ample face time to the vile rhetoric of Ann Coulter and her ilk. And for a real laugh, Brian Maloney, the Radio Tranquilizer, took a page right out of the FOX playbook, trying to paint Imus as a liberal, and whining and complaining in his usual candyass conservative way about how those evil lefties are trying to paint him as a conservative. Talk about ten pounds of shit in a five pound bag! Well, as I said yesterday, Imus is certainly neither. He's not a conservative, and he's certainly not a liberal. He's a narcissist. It's all about him. The only side he's chosen is his own. I really don't understand people, on both the left and the right, who feel anyone has to be one or the other. Food for thought - most people in this country are in the middle.
So anyways, what we are seeing now resembles a repeat of that whole 2004 Super Bowl "Wardrobe Malfunction" fiasco. As you may recall, the media flipped out over that one, since the sight of a female breast must obviously mean the decline of Western Civilization as we know it. The FCC went on the warpath after that one, obviously smelling some potentially huge revenues that could be obtained by suing the crap out of the giant media conglomerates. More importantly, the aforementioned companies went into panic mode. Clear Channel dropped Howard Stern from all of their owned stations that were airing him. They quickly canned their own in-house shock jock, Bubba The Love Sponge. And the House of Representatives got in on the act, raising FCC fines for these kinds of infractions from $27,500 all the way up to $500,000 per violation. Ouch! All this for flashing a little tit during a game paid for by various commercials featuring an assortment of magic penis potions, a crotch-biting dog and a farting horse. Oh, and CBS that year rejected ads from MoveOn.org and PETA based on content. Go figure.
So, will this whole Imus bruhaha garner the same fallout? Will the FCC start going after Limbaugh' handlers? Will heads roll at the media conglomerates? Will Congress start lashing out at this stuff? Well, we shall see. And as I hinted at yesterday, perhaps if we just choose to ignore all these assclowns, they'll all just slink away to the sewers from which they were spawned.
But regardless, Janet Jackson's tits are far, far, far less offensive than anything that ever came out of Don Imus' mouth.
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Don Imus' "Wardrobe Malfunction"
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Eureka, CA 
9 comments:
Funny, I recall writing about that myself just last night (Janet's tittie).
Got a link? I'd love to read it.
Why am I so obsessed about Janet Jackson's hooters?
>>trying to paint Imus as a liberal,
oh sure, lots of conservative hosts pal around with John Kerry & Mike
Barnicle, have all the mainstream media (especially NBC) folks on, roundly criticize Bush and the war...OK, maybe he's no liberal by your standards but is he a right winger?
Conservative columnist Howie Carr
on Imus: "Until his idiotic flameout, Don Imus was the nearest thing the liberals ever had to a success story in talk radio. He worshipped John Kerry. He fawned over Maureen Dowd. He cursed the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. After Saddam was executed, Imus joked with a local plagiarist about how Dick Cheney would handle himself on the gallows."
Yeah, a real right-winger :)
Raccoon, reread the article. Nowhere in it did I say Imus is a right-winger. In fact, I said that he is neither. I have stated this in two articles.
And yes, it is very possible to not be one or the other. I realize the cult of Maloney has brainwashed you into thinking otherwise, but here is where you come for your dose of reality, right? Furthermore, I am able to realize that there are some people that just can't be pigeonholed by political labels.
Oh, BTW: He voted for Bush in '00 and initially supported the war. He often has on may Republican politicians, as well as Democrats.
This is an historic day. The rabidly right wing New York Post has printed an editorial that I agree with!
April 13, 2007 -- CBS did the right thing yesterday in pulling the plug on Don Imus' radio show, following an outcry over racial remarks he made about the Rutgers women's basketball team.
The move came one day after MSNBC's decision to stop simulcasting Imus' program.
Yes, such drastic action raises legitimate free-speech concerns. Imus, after all, is being silenced for words, however repugnant, spoken on what is largely a comedy show. In general, wouldn't society be better off if people were less sensitive?
Still, Imus crossed the line.
And this wasn't the first time. As Post sports columnist Phil Mushnick has been writing for years, Imus is a longtime, equal-opportunity offender.
Until now, few have called him on it. Instead, he's been protected by the coterie of top-name politicians and mainstream journalists who've flocked to his microphone - many of whom hypocritically have now been calling for his head.
No doubt, Imus is remorseful. But it's a little late for that: In the genre of provocative comedy where he chose to practice, pushing the rhetorical envelope is a must. This time, it seems, he pushed too far.
Why this time in particular?
Because this time Imus wasn't targeting the rich, famous or powerful. Rather, he was slurring a group of women too young to have grown sufficiently thick skin to withstand his caustic remarks.
That is, he should have picked on somebody his own size. As CBS President Les Moonves put it, "There has been much discussion of the effect language like this has on our young people, particularly young women of color trying to make their way in this society."
Calling them "ho's" - a term derived from "whore" and popularized by rap music - was unforgivable.
How ironic that Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson should have emerged as leaders of the anti-Imus forces. Given the number of second, third and fourth chances they've been granted after their past remarks and actions that were far more outrageous and insulting, their current sanctimony reeks of hypocrisy.
As when Sharpton denounced the "white interloper" who owned Freddy's Fashion Mart in Harlem - which was later torched by one of The Rev's followers, killing seven people.
Nor can either be expected to devote as much sustained time, energy and pressure to ensuring that similar language is removed from rap culture, where it is no less degrading and socially corrosive.
Islamists have long called America decadent. What better evidence of that than the demeaning, hateful language heard on radio from folks like Imus and in the world of mainstream rap?
In the end, it's sad to see Don Imus go out this way, given all the good work he's done over the years - especially on behalf of charities.
But words have consequences.
Imus' remarks were meant to hurt, even if uttered in the name of dubious entertainment.
Now they've come back to hurt him.
This
LA Times article says that the Democrats have lost a powerful soapbox with the loss of Imus,
including his popularity among
"independent white men". Not everyone agrees though, and some, like Hillary, shied away from being on the show due to his longtime ridicule of her. But more than a few Dem. politicians have lost a way to get their message out
now that the I-man has been fired...
You may have a right to free speech, but you do not have a right to have someone pay you millions of dollars a year and provide you with both a radio and TV outlet as a platform.
The issue here isn't sexism OR racism, as I see it, especially since Imus has been doing this crap for years. The issue here is that these young women are college students who play basketball. They are not public figures, and they did not, unlike the politicians and pundits who fawned all over Imus, seek his attention. If you want to kiss that particular ring, being insulted is part of the package. These young women didn't ask for it, and it was reprehensible for him to pluck them out of the sports pages and insult them for his own amusement.
Raccoon, I realize you're in total spin mode now in trying to convince the world that Imus is a stealth liberal, but there's been plenty of GOP politicians that have been on Imus' show.
Feed that bullshit to someone more gullible.
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