The Don Imus Travesty


Hey guys. I thought this might be an interesting topic to debate.

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Yesterday, to no one's surprise, shock jock Don Imus was fired from his radio program by CBS, a day after he was fired from his tv simulcast by NBC. But was the firing justified?

I'm no fan of Don Imus, but in my opinion, his suspension and subsequent firing were nothing more than a high-tech lynching.

It wasn't just wrong. It was hypocritical.

Okay, so Imus called the Rutgers women's basketball team a bunch of "nappy headed ho's."

If CBS and NBC were truly as offended and outraged by his comments as they claimed, why didn't they fire Imus immediately?

No. It wasn't until scores of corporate sponsors started pulling their ads that CBS and NBC took such drastic action.

Theirs wasn't a moral decision, it was a financial one. And that's where the hypocrisy comes in.

While I'm not condoning what Imus said, by any means. He has said much worse over the years, without getting so much as a slap on the wrist.

There is also a double standard here that has bothered me for years.

Why is it that black people can use the "N" word so freely, but when other races use it, blacks have an exponential meltdown?

You can't have it both ways.

The N word is offensive. No one should be allowed to use it without severe consequences.

If it's offensive when one group of people use it, then it should be offensive when anyone uses it.

Here's another example of the hypocrisy of this whole situation.

Aren't ministers supposed to forgive your sins and mistakes?

Where was the forgiveness for Don Imus, from Rev. Jesse Jackson and Rev. Al Sharpton?

Imus apologized over and over again and showed true remorse.

But instead of showing compassion, Sharpton and Jackson refused to throw a drowning man a life jacket.

Once again, here's where the hypocrisy comes in.

Rev. Jesse Jackson referred to Jews as "Hymies" and to New York City as "Hymietown" in January 1984 during a conversation with a black Washington Post reporter, Milton Coleman. Jackson had assumed the references would not be printed because of his racial bond with Coleman, but several weeks later Coleman permitted the slurs to be included far down in an article by another Post reporter on Jackson's rocky relations with American Jews.

Finally, Jackson doused the fires in late February with an emotional speech admitting guilt and seeking atonement before national Jewish leaders in a Manchester, New Hampshire synagogue.

In 1987, a 15 year old black girl named Tawana Brawley, was found smeared with feces, lying in a garbage bag, her clothing torn and burned and with various slurs and epithets written on her body in charcoal. Brawley claimed that she had been assaulted and raped by six white men, some of them police officers, in the town of Wappingers Falls, New York.

Attorneys Alton H. Maddox and C. Vernon Mason joined Sharpton in support of Brawley. A grand jury was convened; after seven months of examining police and medical records, the jury determined that Brawley lied about being assaulted by the police. Sharpton, Maddox and Mason accused the Dutchess County prosecutor, Steven Pagones, of being one of the perpetrators of the alleged abduction and rape. The three were successfully sued for slander and ordered to pay $345,000 in damages.

So as you can see, Sharpton and Jackson are hardly angels themselves.

In the end, of course, financially, CBS and NBC had no choice but to fire Don Imus. He had simply become too toxic.

But make no mistake, morality had nothing to do with it.

What do you guys think?

Do you agree or disagree with Imus' firing? Why?



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Dale King is the owner of the new Internet marketing website, Guruknowledge.org

Exactly, Jessie Jackson did say that and Al Sharpton has a shady past. These guys get a free pass because it'd seem unethical or wrong for the media to attack civil rights leaders. there tends to be some hypocrisy with that, but in any case, they deserve credit for everything they are doing right today.

now as for Imus, yea, it was strictly a business decision. if it was based on morals, he would have been fired right away.

i don't have a major problem with cbs making that business decision. in the end the 15 mill revenue he pulled wasn't worth it.

interestingly enough, someone before imus called the women "hardcore hoes" (in the context that they were tough, because of their tats) which prompted imus' infamous follow-up.

i think the nappy-headed or whatever he said was what really touched a nerve, because it brought race into the picture. Do I feel bad for Imus? na, it just means he's not capable of working for a CBS, BUT, it's not like he can't do radio elsewhere, on a smaller scale, for a company that doesn't need to worry about their image as much as cbs.

Radio DJs can be pretty weird people.

Great post, Dale. I don't see anything to debate here at all.

Sharpton and Jackson are both publicity whores and poverty pimps that jump at any chance to gain some limelight. They routinely blackmail and extort money from corporations at the threat of negative publicity.

As for Imus, he's just an idiot and has been for a long time.

I personally believe that the only reason this story has reached this point is due to the fact that the media, starving for something to talk about other than the war in Iraq, or people in the white house doing illegal acts in front of the public and not getting in trouble for them, took upon this story and seized it!

I, as a black male, am still trying to wrap my head around this whole deal though.

The term nappy describes a condition of curly hair.

Black people can have nappy hair, AS WELL as anyone from ANY RACE, prone to having very curly hair (hell, my friend Eric can grow an afro, and he is white!)

How is that a racial term?

Very few people are talking about the fact that he called them ho's -- i.e. slut which would make this a sexist bit.

Nope, let's focus on the racially charged "nappy" part.

Not mention Imus has said worse than THAT on the air.

The main reason this TRULY pisses me off is because people are focusing on the comments of a two-bit has been shock jock, instead of trying to go out and start learning how to make money.

Instead they just complain about how the middle class is under siege (it is BTW, but if you can't beat the powers that be, out earn them).

And another thing -- HOW IN THE HELL WAS AL SHARPTON ELECTED AS THE VOICE OF THE AFRICAN AMERICAN COMMUNITY!

ARRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHH!

Lemme go make some more money so I can stop being so pissed...

Al Sharpton wasn't elected. He was self-annointed and self-appointed.

Dale King

Travesty: An exaggerated or grotesque imitation.

I'm not certain I'd call this a "travesty".

It wasn't unjust. A corporate idiot got fired for going beyond the bounds of allowable corporate idiocy.

I don't see that CBS has anything to apologize for. They made a business decision. Yes, they clothed it in moral language, but if you want to call out CBS for that kind of hypocrisy, I doubt you'll find many members of the NYSE who aren't hypocrites.

If they had fired Imus immediately, they would have looked like they were just caving to political pressure. Instead they took a few days to do a little reflection, talk to their employees and sponsors and then made their decision to cave to political/economic pressure.

If we want to call Jackson and Sharpton hypocrites, we've had ample evidence for that before this incident. It didn't take the Imus case to bring that to light.

CBS is under no obligation to forgive anyone. The Reverends Al and Jesse may be, but that's between them and whatever consciences they have.

The end result was both predictable and fair.

Another definition for travesty is "farce."

The way this whole thing went down was a complete farce.

Imus has said much worse over the years, without getting so much as a slap on the wrist.

You can't let your pit bull run wild around the neighborhood, and then act shocked when it bites someone.

The fact of the matter is, CBS should have corralled Imus years ago.

They didn't, and as a result, they are as much to blame for this travesty as anyone.

Dale King

You know, Dale, I was being a bit nit-picky and you saw through that. I can't really argue with the above, except for here, where I thought you may have overstated your case...

What CBS did was wrong, only in the sense that it was hypocritical. Other than that, I just don't see much to get worked up about. IMO they could've waited until after he spoke to the individuals he'd wronged, but they chose not to do so. That was a purely economic decision to stop the bleeding.

Imus was deprived of neither life, nor liberty, just a job. Nothing wrong as far as I can see.

I find Jackson's and Sharpton's stances much more troubling. But you and I seem to be in agreement on that.

A.

What troubled me was when one of the women on the basketball team said, "I'm scarred for life..." What? What happened to personal responsibility? Welcome to the North American "victim mentality", black, white or otherwise, the victim mentality is tearing us apart. My question to her would be, are you going to let Don Imus (who IS apparently an idiot) have that much power over you? Give me a break.

Also, EVERYONE in this case is a hypocrite. CBS, MSNBC et al ALL crank out entertainment product (movies, television, music) that on so many levels and in so many ways is considered offensive. Do like I do and SWITCH IT OFF if you don't like something. I bet you dollars to donuts these gals didn't even know who Don Imus was until someone told them about his transgression.

Geez Louise....

Having said all that...given the situation, CBS and MSNBC had no choice. No matter what they have going on anywhere else, this is what people are focusing on, so yeah...they did the right thing and I bet Imus would probably agree with them. But just wait, Imus will get another show, somewhere. Guys like that just don't disappear.

Dale,

Um, Travesty...Lynching? Way over the top, imo.

I don't see the hypocrisy in MSNBC or CBS decision to fire Imus. I think it's a bit naive to expect morals over $$$ when it comes to corporate America. It's always been about the money with big business, so why expect something different in this situation?

Don Imus is to blame for this. Not Sharpton, Jackson, the media or blacks. He said what he said, and now he's paying the piper.

Don Imus once called a Jewish man a “booger eating, beanie wearing Jew boy.” Now imagine if 9 of the 11 Rutgers woman’s basketball team were Jewish and Imus called them “money hungry sluts.” I’m pretty sure there would have been an outrage in the Jewish community, ultimately resulting in his firing. You are focusing in on the black issue and missing the big picture. This guy’s mouth finally got him into something he couldn’t get out of.

The fact that some blacks use the “N” word has nothing to do with Imus calling those scholar athletes “nappy headed hoes.” That’s a very weak copout.

The day after Imus made those comments, he said people needed to calm down and that it wasn't a big deal. He didn't apologize until he realized the impact.