OT: A rant on the Imus issue.

Sport73 · Post by **Sport73** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 1:40 pm

http://blog.digitalsportspage.com/

Feanor · Post by **Feanor** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 1:46 pm

"nor should his firing be mourned other than by those who recognize that it’s another sign of a significant change in this country. A push toward tapping phones, video-taping everyone’s move, recording every conversation, monitoring every email, and using the power of oppression OR money to control the standards of ‘decency’ for the entire country."

The bow just snapped.

Post by **Jared** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 1:53 pm

The views expressed by contributors to the Digital Sportspage blog are not necessarily the views held by the management.

pk500 · Post by **pk500** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 2:09 pm

Couldn't agree more, Sport. Two serial racists -- Sharpton and Jackson -- spearheaded the firing of Don Imus in one of the ultimate ironies of race relations in this country.

Imus' comments were deplorable. But the man made a mistake. He has apologized profusely, and his apologies are sincere. He subjected himself to the inane interrogation of Sharpton on Sharpton's radio show. He met with the Rutgers' women's basketball team and their coach.

The man also does a TON of good work that has been completely overlooked because of a stupid slip of the tongue.

Plus Imus has taken shots at EVERYONE during his long tenure on radio. He rips men, women, rich, poor, white, blacks, Hispanics, everyone. It's part of the act; it's morning radio. Of course, most of the pundits and race relations "proponents" who are ripping Imus to shreds probably haven't heard more than five minutes of his show in their entire lives.

I've been a daily listener of Imus' show for the last seven years or so, and it's easily the most interesting, humorous morning show on radio.

Should the man be punished? Absolutely. Two weeks off the air and the scorn of a nation are enough. Imus has become a poster boy for racism in the U.S. and is being burned at the stake.

Al Sharpton can call Jews "white interlopers" and "diamond merchants," and Jesse Jackson can call New York "Hymietown," yet they're still "working" and have led the firing of a decent man who made a mistake.

And it's also ironic that comedians like Chris Rock and Dave Chappelle -- both of whom I love -- can crack jokes about blacks and whites and get away with it. But Imus makes a very stupid statement and is tarred and feathered.

CBS and MSNBC are weasels. Why didn't they fire Imus immediately? Why did they wait nearly a week? Don't buy this "internal review" bullsh*t. Both of them fired Imus because advertisers were scared off. No other reason. The brass couldn't give a sh*t about the views of their minority employees, especially since the brass at most of these companies is very white and very male.

And very classy of CBS to fire Imus after one day of his annual two-day pledge drive to benefit charity, which was scheduled LONG before this flap developed. At least Imus' wife was able to go on the air to finish the charity drive this morning.

Plus Barack Obama has lost any chance of getting my vote next November. Another f*cking political weasel. Last time I checked, Obama was black last week. So why did he wait a week after Imus' comments to decry the I Man and say he'd never appear on his show again? Well, it scores political points by piling on the anti-Imus bandwagon once it starts rolling, of course.

The only people who have shown any class in this situation are the Rutgers' women's basketball team and its coach, Vivian Stringer. They really have been graceful through this entire ordeal and should be commended for being exemplary human beings.

I've never been a satellite radio listener, but my wife and I agreed yesterday that we will purchase a subscription immediately to whatever satellite service picks up Imus.

Take care,
PK

sfz_T-car · Post by **sfz_T-car** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 2:13 pm

I've never been a satellite radio listener, but my wife and I agreed yesterday that we will purchase a subscription immediately to whatever satellite service picks up Imus.

Maybe Imus will produce some 360 only content on Xbox Live

pk500 · Post by **pk500** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 2:14 pm

sfz_T-car wrote:
I've never been a satellite radio listener, but my wife and I agreed yesterday that we will purchase a subscription immediately to whatever satellite service picks up Imus.
Maybe Imus will produce some 360 only content on Xbox Live

Then I'm back on Live with a 360, man!

Take care,
PK

Teal · Post by **Teal** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 2:22 pm

You know, PK, it's not enough to point out that Sharpton and Jackson are racists of the worst order...they also claim to be 'reverends'-'christians' even. In my earliest memories of Sunday School, forgiveness was a given for someone who would make these claims. Funny how they must've missed that part of it....

Those two clowns make me sick...

pk500 · Post by **pk500** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 2:24 pm

Good points, Teal.

Take care,
PK

Sport73 · Post by **Sport73** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 2:27 pm

tealboy03 wrote:You know, PK, it's not enough to point out that Sharpton and Jackson are racists of the worst order...they also claim to be 'reverends'-'christians' even. In my earliest memories of Sunday School, forgiveness was a given for someone who would make these claims. Funny how they must've missed that part of it....

Those two clowns make me sick...

Isn't there also something about 'let he who is free from sin cast the first stone'?

pk500 · Post by **pk500** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 2:30 pm

Sport73 wrote:
tealboy03 wrote:You know, PK, it's not enough to point out that Sharpton and Jackson are racists of the worst order...they also claim to be 'reverends'-'christians' even. In my earliest memories of Sunday School, forgiveness was a given for someone who would make these claims. Funny how they must've missed that part of it....

Those two clowns make me sick...
Isn't there also something about 'let he who is free from sin cast the first stone'?

Maybe the Rev. Al should have called Tawana Brawley to toss that first rock at Imus ...

Take care,
PK

JRod · Post by **JRod** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 2:30 pm

Sport73 wrote:
tealboy03 wrote:You know, PK, it's not enough to point out that Sharpton and Jackson are racists of the worst order...they also claim to be 'reverends'-'christians' even. In my earliest memories of Sunday School, forgiveness was a given for someone who would make these claims. Funny how they must've missed that part of it....

Those two clowns make me sick...
Isn't there also something about 'let he who is free from sin cast the first stone'?

No that must be the "other" bible you hear so much about.

dbdynsty25 · Post by **dbdynsty25** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 2:30 pm

All I know is that if this story had happened during any other week than the one where Anna Nicole Smith's baby daddy is the biggest story, it would be a non-issue, or at least one that only got a limited amount of press. Maybe a small headline on CNN, but then it would disappear. This is a non-story. I personally don't listen to Imus, I listen to Adam Carolla here in LA, but he's said stuff on his show (and on Loveline a couple years back) that has been 10x more offensive to different races and nary a word is said. The country doesn't have anything else to focus on right now except for Anna and Imus. It is ridiculous.

pk500 · Post by **pk500** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 2:36 pm

dbdynsty25 wrote:All I know is that if this story had happened during any other week than the one where Anna Nicole Smith's baby daddy is the biggest story, it would be a non-issue, or at least one that only got a limited amount of press. Maybe a small headline on CNN, but then it would disappear. This is a non-story. I personally don't listen to Imus, I listen to Adam Carolla here in LA, but he's said stuff on his show (and on Loveline a couple years back) that has been 10x more offensive to different races and nary a word is said. The country doesn't have anything else to focus on right now except for Anna and Imus. It is ridiculous.

Yep. And our nation's deficit is what now? How many GI's have died in the last week in Iraq and Afghanistan? And Karl Rove is deleting how many incriminating e-mails?

Take care,
PK

Sport73 · Post by **Sport73** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 2:36 pm

dbdynsty25 wrote:All I know is that if this story had happened during any other week than the one where Anna Nicole Smith's baby daddy is the biggest story, it would be a non-issue, or at least one that only got a limited amount of press. Maybe a small headline on CNN, but then it would disappear. This is a non-story. I personally don't listen to Imus, I listen to Adam Carolla here in LA, but he's said stuff on his show (and on Loveline a couple years back) that has been 10x more offensive to different races and nary a word is said. The country doesn't have anything else to focus on right now except for Anna and Imus. It is ridiculous.

Nothing else to focus on; except perhaps the unpleasant details of soldiers dying in Iraq, US dependancy on foreign oil and all-time high gas prices pinching the lower class, the earliest beginning to Presidential campaigning in history, Apple delaying Leopard (OK, maybe that one's just for me).

I saw the movie Idiocracy recently, and it was mostly a big let-down. But, it's frightening how accurate the potrayal of our country is as a place that cares more about the sexual history of a drug-ridden bimbo whos greatest contribution to society was to 'relieve' teen-age boys than it does about the lives of real heroes risking their lives on our behalf.

dbdynsty25 · Post by **dbdynsty25** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 2:57 pm

I'm not saying there ISN'T anything else to focus, I'm saying that the media outlets choose to focus on Anna first, Imus second, and push the rest to the back, making it impossible for the public to ignore. I obviously didn't word that correctly.

RobVarak · Post by **RobVarak** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 3:00 pm

Don who?

Feanor · Post by **Feanor** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 3:04 pm

I was surprised the media seemed to ignore the "jigaboo" comment by the producer guy.

Leebo33 · Post by **Leebo33** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 3:05 pm

Jared wrote:The views expressed by contributors to the Digital Sportspage blog are not necessarily the views held by the management.

Especially since whatever he wrote set off my work filter. Is the word sex in there?

Post by **Jared** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 3:16 pm

I think a lot of the commotion caused by this is because people have looked back at Imus' comments and have seen this is a pattern, and not some isolated incident. From a Michael Wilbon article:

But there's nothing rare about Imus's vile attacks. This is what he does as a matter of course. Imus and his studio cohorts have painted black people as convicts and muggers and worst of all, apes. Not only do they find it funny, they expect everybody else will as well.

Sid Rosenberg, whom Imus once fired, then rehired, said one morning in 2001 that Serena and Venus Williams would be better off posing in National Geographic than Playboy. He knew he was saying Serena and Venus are closer to wild animals than women.

Please don't tell me it's not fair to hold Imus accountable for that remark and others like it because it didn't come out of his mouth. Imus hires the people who utter this filth and, in fact, wants them to go as far as possible because he believes it insulates him to a certain degree from the harshest criticism.

...

Imus is the one who said in 1995 of Gwen Ifill, an accomplished, award-winning black journalist of incredible dignity and grace: "Isn't the [New York] Times wonderful. . . . It lets the cleaning lady cover the White House."

It's Imus who called William C. Rhoden, the veteran Times sports columnist, "a quota hire." Of course, the work, accomplishments or stature of their targets do not matter to Imus and his stooges. He makes fun of former attorney general Janet Reno's Parkinson's disease.

So "nappy-headed hos" wasn't some weak moment of great exception on the Imus show. In 1997, during a "60 Minutes" profile, Mike Wallace confronted Imus and a former producer who quoted Imus as saying he'd hired a staffer to "do nigger jokes."

...

So, you'll excuse me if I dismiss Imus's apology as bogus. He's apologized in the past, told veteran black journalist Clarence Page on the air he would "promise to cease all simian references to black . . . black athletes." That was before Imus went back to the ape references, probably within a week.

There are other examples as well of similar behavior. If this is an isolated incident...then it does seem a bit much. But it doesn't seem like this is the case.

Brando70 · Post by **Brando70** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 3:17 pm

I'm going to rant myself, because I think that that leathery sack of poop got what he deserved.

For starters, how does the involvement of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton change what Imus said? Yes, they are clowns, and yes, they are bigoted themselves, but that doesn't change Imus's actions, it just makes them look hypocritical. And his charity means jack squat. If I hand money to a homeless person and then spit on another person because I don't like the way they look, does that make me okay?

Imus has always been a bullying, pompous, bigoted, unfunny ass. His whole career wasn't based on "making fun" of people. Don Rickles made fun of people, but you always knew it was just that. Imus based his schtick on putting people down, including women and minorities. There's a fine line between making fun of our differences and using humor to promote racial stereotypes. Like Nigel Tufnel, Imus was too clueless to know the difference.

I am shocked so many people are defending him, too. It's not like he said something racially insensitive about a politician or a celebrity or a pro athlete. He picked on a women's college basketball team for no other reason than that team did not look like what he thought a women's basketball team should look like. He then initially acted like a dick when criticized about it, only becoming "sorry" when it was clear his career was being sent to the glue factory. Talk about a phony and a moron. At least Michael Richards had the conscience and/or common sense to appear contrite right after his incident.

I believe in freedom of speech, and Imus has every right to say what he wants. He can march around in public screaming about nappy headed hos, ragheads, and every other group he and that POS producer of his want to make fun of. But he is not entitled to a job that pays him to do that. His idiocy finally caught up with him and his employer canned him when it realized his further employment would cost them a lot of revenue. That's not censorship, that's the free market at work. It's not dissimilar from what happened with Dan Rather when he had to leave CBS News -- his position was simply untennable. And like Rather, Imus will probably land another gig when the dust settles, maybe as the Crypt Keeper on Tales from the Crypt.

Racial humor is fine and can be really funny. I am all for attacking taboos and sacred cows. The South Park "Naggers" episode is a brilliant recent example of how to do this cleverly. But with Imus, it always seemed like the racial epithets or the sexist comment were the point. There was no irony, satire, or humor, just a crusty old man who finally got busted for being a jerk.

Sudz · Post by **Sudz** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 3:18 pm

yeah. dave could make fun of whitey all day.

i thought it was funny.

sharpton is scum. i don't care what color anybody is. assholes come in all races.

kicko · Post by **kicko** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 3:18 pm

Great blog

i agree, i think his comment was out of line, but what people do not see is Al & Jess are far more racial then the poor old I-man, and i actually hate Imus.

Teal · Post by **Teal** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 3:19 pm

pk500 wrote:
dbdynsty25 wrote:All I know is that if this story had happened during any other week than the one where Anna Nicole Smith's baby daddy is the biggest story, it would be a non-issue, or at least one that only got a limited amount of press. Maybe a small headline on CNN, but then it would disappear. This is a non-story. I personally don't listen to Imus, I listen to Adam Carolla here in LA, but he's said stuff on his show (and on Loveline a couple years back) that has been 10x more offensive to different races and nary a word is said. The country doesn't have anything else to focus on right now except for Anna and Imus. It is ridiculous.
Yep. And our nation's deficit is what now? How many GI's have died in the last week in Iraq and Afghanistan? And Karl Rove is deleting how many incriminating e-mails?

Take care,
PK

Silly me...I actually thought this thread was about Imus...what was I thinking?!

pk500 · Post by **pk500** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 3:22 pm

Jared wrote:There are other examples as well of similar behavior. If this is an isolated incident...then it does seem a bit much. But it doesn't seem like this is the case.

And Sharpton and Jackson's incidents of epithets against white Jews are isolated? Yet they're the moral paragons in this case?

Take care,
PK

Sully · Post by **Sully** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 3:30 pm

The same stations that have thrown Imus off the air are likely broadcasting 50 Cent's latest hit on their airwaves this afternoon. Granted, this doesn't give Imus a pass for what he said. It was stupid, ignorant, and I'm sure he wishes he never said it, but how is it different than what rappers like Snoop Dogg, Jay-Z, and 50 Cent have been saying for years?