RSSMore Fall Out From the Don Imus Comments … MSNBC drops Radio Show Simulcast
I guess we can look forward to more prison documentary shows in place of the morning Don 
Imus radio simulcast. First Imus was suspended, now it has gotten worse. MSNBC has decided to drop the syndicated talk shows radio simulcast under the pressure from Don Imus’ ill advised comments regarding the Rutgers woman’s basketball team. Could some one answer me one question? With all this attention given to Imus and his stupid comments against the young black woman of the Scarlet Knights, where is the same outcry against the rap industry that does the same if not worse every day?
NEW YORK (AP) – MSNBC said Wednesday it will drop its simulcast of the “Imus in the Morning” radio program, responding to growing outrage about the radio host’s racial slur against the Rutgers women’s basketball team.
“This decision comes as a result of an ongoing review process, which initially included the announcement of a suspension. It also takes into account many conversations with our own employees,” NBC news said in a statement.
MSNBC’s action came after a growing list of sponsors—including American Express Co., Sprint Nextel Corp., Staples Inc., Procter & Gamble Co., and General Motors Corp.—said they were pulling ads from Imus’ show for the indefinite future.
Two things are for certain; one, Don Imus’ comments were way out of line and ridiculous especially when targeting a group of individuals that were far from public figures. Going after a group of young female, college basketball players who’s only fault in life was that they fell one game short in an incredible run in the NCAA basketball tournament. That hardly makes them a public target for ridicule. They presented themselves well in their press conference, more than one can say for Don Imus’ mean, insensative and ridiculous comments.
The 10 members of the Rutgers team spoke publicly for the first time Tuesday about the on-air comments, made the day after the team lost the NCAA championship game to Tennessee. Some of them wiped away tears as their coach, C. Vivian Stringer, criticized Imus for “racist and sexist remarks that are deplorable, despicable, abominable and unconscionable.”
The other is could we please have some commonality in the going after Don Imus’ head? His comments were rude, sexist and racist. However, so are those of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, the two self appointed black leaders who have made more than their fair share of ignorant, racist and falsely accusatory comments over the years. More than that, where does everyone think the term “hoes” and “bitches” came from that so commonly makes references to women? The answer would be rap. So where are the “thought” police in going after the source? You mean to tell me that MSNBC, their parent company and all the sponsors that vilify Don Imus have no connections to any music artists that promote rap music?
Vivian Stringer, the Rutgers woman’s basketball coach made a statement that Imus’ comments “are deplorable, despicable, abominable and unconscionable.” Agreed. However, does Vivian Stringer and the Rutger’s girls feel the same about black rap artists who say the same comments if not worse in their lyrics? I hope known of the Rutgers team has any songs down-loaded on their ipods from Snoop Dog, Luacris and the rest. The point being, don’t just make it appear that Don Imus is the only one who should be penalized for making a stupid comment, their is an entire music industry that make millions off these same comments and even worse lyrics about black women every day. Where is that out cry?
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41 Responses to “More Fall Out From the Don Imus Comments … MSNBC drops Radio Show Simulcast”
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Some one really needs to explain where is the hue and cry against the rap artists and labels.
There is a cottage industry out there that denigrates women. They are praised, Imus is for all intent purpose fired.
Where exactly do people think the terms “hoes and bitches” came from? White America? I think not.
How about some responsibility from the black leaders against their own in the music industry?
R
Frankly, we are fast becoming the epitome of a Jerry Springer society. It seems to have become more important to have an audience and notoriety when confronting conflict than it is to attain resolve and mutual respect. That model seems to serve the needs of the exploited and those who seek to exploit; reinforcing all that relegates objectivity to the outhouse while making the frailty and imperfection of the human condition a spectacle that harkens back to the Coliseum.
This situation isn’t and shouldn’t be about whether liberals or conservatives, this race or that race, hip hop or honky-tonk, one group or another, are more offensive and therefore more responsible for all that is wrong with America. I am not capable of judging the whole of Don Imus nor am I capable of crafting a recipe to fix all of America…and neither are the countless pundits and partisans who have sought to frame it so.
I’m not a religious person…but I often find kinship with the imagery surrounding the portrayal of one called Jesus and his teachings of understanding and forgiveness. For all the banter I hear about the Bible and Christian values, it certainly seems to me that we are fast abandoning what many view as the sacred “tablets” in favor of the sacrosanct tabloids. If I’m right, all I can say is heaven help us.
Read more about the dynamics that lead a situation to become larger than the sum of its parts…here:
http://www.thoughttheater.com/2007/04/imus_bias_devils_heaven.php
You cant be a white person and make a comment like that!! Thats a great way to kill your career..Look at Jimmy The Greek!!
Yeah it’s reverse racism, every race can say whatever horrible things they want to say about anyone except if you’re white.
BTW, I am not in any way shape or form condoning racism, rather merely pointing out that there is a double standard.
The double standard will become clear when the black ‘exec’ at CBS that canned Imus doesn’t ban rappers from all CBS outlets. I love to watch the racist trying to squirm out of this one. Maybe the FCC will ban them and cost them billions of dollars which they can blame on the Revrunds $harpton and Je$$ie. Just what church are they Revrunds of, again? Oh, I remember, the church of the first national bank.
Maybe because I’m not black, but I’m more offended by him calling young women athletes, attending college ‘hos than the nappy hair part.
I do think that we should have freedom of speech in the U.S. but the sad fact of the matter is that we don’t, so as the people before him (I’m thinking Fuzzy Zoeller + Howard Cosell and yes Jimmy the Greek) he should be fired, unless we put an end to stiffling freedom of speech. Afterall, it is 2007.
Apparently Imus had quite a history of making offensive comments, judging from an article I read. Never saw his show, nor would I care to.
But if pure offensiveness is the issue, what about people like Howard Stern? Or the idiot Rosie O’Donnell and her blather about a conspiracy theory at the World Trade Center?
Not to mention countless others in our society ….
The comments in question were not on the level of those who say, for example, that blacks (or whites, or Asians, or chess players) are biologically or intellectually inferior, a la the Ku Klux Klan. This sort of thing is just nonsense.
I guess I’m saying that what bothers me the most is why, once again, the offhand comments of some celebrity are arousing such attention. What makes someone so newsworthy just because he’s on TV?
Having said that, I think the comments are way out of line.
But apparently he’s done the same on many occasions before.
If that’s the case, it’s interesting that only now does NBC feel moved to act.
I’m also not saying that what Imus said is acceptable either cause I don’t think it is.
Okay getting off my soapbox.
Not TV, I guess, radio. Basic point still stands.
Free Speech in it’s glory times…
Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton are the top promoters of do as I say not as I do….
1 – I was just having that exact same debate with
a friend last night.
They call them those names in rap records all the time,
and it is supposed to be okay because they are
black, and Imus is white.
I don’t think so. Both cases are wrong!
I can’t tell you how much $$$ has been made of the
ghetto booty type rap records that denigrate women,
and spit out every racial epithet under the sun.
It is INSANE to promote it, yet they do. Albeit,
rap record sales have been in MAJOR DECLINE these past
few years directly because of these issues, plus
the violence images.
RAP SALES are actually in a state
of emergency these days.
I always say ”in my own humble opinion ”
because I am proud to be an American ans am proud to be abel to speak out on just anything that I care too .
First let me say that Imus was over the line.
Heck he was like that when he was in Cleveland 30 years ago .
The networks knew about it and THAT is why they took him to NY NY for the much larger market.
Bur when the Black community leaders and believe me
when it comes to Jackson and Sharpton “I use that title very loosely ” saying that ONLY blacks may talk that way to other blacks there is where I draw the line . STOP PERIOD.
This is America where we ALL can say and speak as we choose , not two different sections that each can make up their own rules as it fits the situation at the time .
Look at the Tawana Brawley case In NY a few years back
When it was discovered that the story was planted and made up by her own people where was even an apology from Sharpton then ? Wasn’t one .
Jackson and Sharpton are using this to gain more Air time for themselves and taking a very poor use of a comment and
keeping it in the news for a MUCH longer Time then it should have been Imus should have been suspended, yes he should apologize (which he did ) But to keep this an ongoing thing to placate the Black community NOPE NADA
Not this time and for the sponsors who ran for the door
just wait till the Black community targets them any one remember the “SAMBOS ( Now Dennys ) restaurant or the Cracker Barrel fiasco ?
Due to a few Dunderheads those establishments almost lost it all .
People were retrained and more Blacks were hired in supervisory positions.
But when a majority of the so called NEW Hires found out that managing a shift at a high volume restaurant is not really that fun nor easy task many many of then dropped out and quit .
This all comes up once in awhile and in a few weeks something else will change and then we will all talk about that for awhile .
One exception being the Natalee Holloway story about the missing woman in Aruba The SM net work did not and will not allow that to be put in the closet and all but forgotten
and for that I am Proud to be a SM .
DON IMUS MUST BE FIRED.
As convoluted as it may sound, it would seem or at least have the appearance that Whites are held to a higher standard than Blacks or Latinos for that matter. A White making a disparaging statement as Imus did has his or her feet held to the fire while the Black making a similar statement is excused. I consider that patronizing(decades since I used THAT term but for me it is apropros)the minority by the proverbial “pat on the head and wink and nod”.
I understand that rappers enrich themselves (and those that showcase them)by freely debasing and demeaning Black women(all women for that matter). That’s not a double standard as much as it may appear to be, it is an immoral means of agrandising oneself.
I just wish that Blacks were held to that higher standard that society places on whites. It just looks bad as there is no advantage to degrade yourself or what you are because the “other side” can’t, you know what I mean?
Anyway, the fight for morality really isn’t nor should it be limited to just one group or race of people, and this is what it is really about.
The bigger question is just why did Imus call these young female athletes such a thing? That was dumber than dirt and now he is paying a price for the stupidity. I wonder if his pal Joe Tacopina will come to his defense. Nah, even Taco Joe is smart enough to realize that would be a career killer!
What hacks me off is how lame MSNBC is….first they suspend him, okay-they they fire him due to sponsor and Jackson pressure. How lame is that? Jesse Jackson is an adulterer who fathered an out of wedlock child-but he sure loves to go around throwing stones at others! If he was the reverend at my church he would be fired!Lets see if him and Sharpton apologize to the Duke players….and BTW-you are right on-more prison shows at MSNBC!
Coudn’t agree more with asking, “What about the rap artists?” However, because someone doesn’t have the guts to deal with that situation is no reason to give Imus a “pass” on his remarks. Use that as a beginning to clean up the airwaves.
FREEDOM OF SPEECH DOES NOT APPLY TO WHITES
I am not an Imus Fan.. I’ve watched the show a few times and saw JoeT(gag) on it with him, and I don’t defend what he said, but to ruin a whole man’s career over a stupid mistake is nuts. Jesse Jackson who went out all the time during Clinton’s fiasco with Monica and said he prayed with him and for him and we must forgive him.. only to find out Jesse Jackson was guilty of the same thing and had a child. I remember too Al Sharpton, whom I don’t like at all, and the Tawana Brawley phoney rape charges fiasco.. Two ministers who are always preaching forgiveness when it applies to their agendas. IMO. I applaud Mr. Imus and his wife’s adventure with the ranch they run for terminally ill children.
Turn on MTV sometime and watch the videos of rap music and the way they portray women and the language they use refering to females. That’s ok? Women in general many times are portrayed that way in entertainment, sadly.
Time to start boycotting CBS and MSNBC and NBC news. I mean if they can fire Imus for a bone headed, stupid comment which clearly was wrong and he should be punished, not fired, then its time to punish the rest of the bone heads.
Boycott Rosie and other ABC showsfor the stupid things she says, turn OFF THE View.
Boycott Comedy Central for Mind of Mencia (Very funny show in my opinion) however he dengrates latinos by calling them names.
Boycott Jesse Jackson for calling NYC Hymie town.
Boycott Rev Al (Another colorful and funny person in my opinion) for dragging us through the farce of Tawany Brawley or whatever her name was. (The fake rape case)
Boycott all RAP artists and stop buying and playing music. Write letters to all radio stations announcing the boycott because they denegrate women with their song lyrics played daily.
Send a message to the ALL the BONE HEAD media outlets and wanna bee’s out there that we are NOT going to take their FAKE POLITICAL CORRECTNESS crap that they enforce on some but not all.
Its time to WAKE UP AMERICA and be heard!
Sorry, Maggie, but I wouldn’t watch those jerks unless I was paid to do it, and then it better be an amount I would consider fair.
Their standards are way too low for me to bother with. But thanks anyway. BTW, I like MC HAMMER(hammer-time!)
All that talk that the young kids do today runs against everything that we, the older generation, tried to do for them a long time ago. We supported equal rights. We supported equal housing. We supported the “Dream” and we support it today.
I have a teenager and she’s got friends of every color. One day, I heard a couple of her guy friends calling each other the “N” word and I kicked them out of my house. They tried to give me some lame excuse about it not meaning anything, they asked me to forgive them, but I didn’t buy it. It is not only rediculous, but it’s disrespectful to use that kind of language, no matter what color you are and I will be the first one to say so. I told them that their parents didn’t suffer through their trials and tribulations so that their kids could throw that kind of language around like it didn’t mean anything. It means something to me and I don’t like it. They left, embarrassed, but they never talked like that in my house, ever again.
We all do what we can and we start at home.
I agree with comment #1 Things need to change.
Skyboxx:
They are all ready under boycott at my house.
I did away with the T.V. a long time ago.
Parents: If you want to watch your children’s
judgement and morals end up in the toilet, put
them in front of a T.V. a few hours everyday…
And… Kay Zee Ess: I like M.C. Hammer, too.
Music is an art, an expression; and is something
to be enjoyed. It encompasses everything that is
creative, even our own thinking. It is proven
that children that are taught to create music are
more likely to succeed in their education. I, for
one, believe that to be true. Express yourself…
Did somebody say
MC HAMMER? =)
http://tinyurl.com/gddzf
I was refering to the rap industry that portrays women as sleaze in videos and uses words like “bitches and ho’s” to talk about women in their songs, I’ve never heard MC Hammer do that in his music and am a fan of his also. I watched a show on Oprah one day a few years ago about and she had to bleep about every other word of the songs on her show.
Can anyone tell me just what “nappy headed” means?
Whatever a nappy head is, did any of the girls involved have one?
“…mean, insensitive and ridiculous comments.”
Hhhm… does this mean we can also fire politicians and ex-spouses?
CENSORSHIP…..NEXT NANCY PELOSI REWRITING THE CONSTITUTION SO THAT LEGASLATIVE GVRMT COULD OVERIDE EXECUTIVE.
Was Don Imus fired because he was white?
No… I think he was fired because he’s a fool.
It’s hardly censorship. He can say whatever he
wants, for the rest of his life; he’s just not
going to get paid for it.
Miss U:
Things said in “bad taste” aren’t THAT funny.
Was Don Imus fired because he was white?
Comment by Miss-Underestimated | April 13, 2007, 9:41 am
You betcha..
Yeah, Right.
I feel like I’m in a time-warp, reading from one of those
small circulatory newspapers that were being published
during the 1950′s and 1960′s… in rural Mississippi!
Our kids don’t need to fall under these kinds of racially
motivated attacks, no matter what kind of music they listen
to.
Scared Monkeys… Why do you publish such garbage?
If Imus was black would he have been fired?
He made his apologies, he met with the girls team and coach to make good, but he still was fired….why?
Patti
I don’t think what he said was funny either, he made his apologies, he even met with Sharpton, much more than Cynthia McKinney’s bodyguards calling ppl crackers and making remarks about Jewish ppl?
Imus would be made a better example of what not to say thru good doings rather than firing. Just like ppl say shut off the radio or MTV when the violence of women and demeaning names goes on. My choice is to not buy it and not watch it.
Scared Monkeys… Why do you publish such garbage?
FREEDOM TO SPEAK
FYI IMUS was considered a SHOCK JOCK.
btw THE TEAM FORGAVE IMUS
#33 – You betcha! The things that were said were vicious
and cruel. And the fact that they were said about a young group of college kids that had just lost the final of a national competition… makes it even worse.
#34 – He’s a man, not a child. If he doesn’t know that it’s wrong to say those kinds of things over national radio, then he didn’t belong there in the first place. In the case of using a racial slur to attack someone… you can never take it back. He may be sorry, but is he, truly, sorry for the right reasons?
Just like the kid that used the “N” word in my house. He was sorry. He said it didn’t mean anything. But, I have to keep my house clean. There is no room for racial hatred in my house. Maybe MSNBC feels the same way as I did. I kicked him out, anyway. It wasn’t about what he said, it was only one word… it was about what it stood for.
The problems arising in society with dbl standards. When any one group of ppl, race, ethenticy, gender, religion, etc, is held accountable and another is not.
This is where the rub is coming from. If you make it a standard, then make it a standard.
Dear Miss UE,
It’s obvious what Patti is and what she stands for. I choose to ignore her uninformed commentary as it is MY freedom of choice to do so.
I find in interesting she finds it OK to insult our belief system, but has no problem upholding another (her own).
Patti…did you go to the Al Sharpton school of self-righteousness???
Brenda
No. I think there is racial hatred and bias in our society, right under the surface. And the problems arise when someone, like Mr. Imus, unleashes its’ fury.
I never graduated from Al Sharpton’s school of self-righteousness, but I do know the difference between right and wrong. If that washed out, old geezer had called my daughter a nappy-headed whore (ho), I would have hit him over the head with my purse and all the apologies in the world would not have been able to revive him. I’d do that for my children, and I would expect you to do the same.
Thanks to those that are truly informed, he got that and a whole lot more.
Please, feel free, Brenda,
This is your forum…
Tell us what YOU stand for…
Don Imus looks like Howdy Doody’s Meth-Amphetamine Lab exploded! Bless his one lung havin’ heart.