Imus Simulcast dropped by MSNBC

[KD in CA]

I'm watching MSNBC right now....And what's being aired in place of the recently canceled Imus show? Yup, you got it.....wall to wall, non-stop coverage of the "MSNBC drops the Imus show" story!!

 

The "LOOK AT ME!! LOOK AT ME!!" culture takes another step into the abyss.

 

[KD in CA]

If you said something like this at YOUR job...publicly, at a meeting or in front of clients, would you still have a job? What if you continued to do it after you were asked to stop and promised you boss that you would?

 

I would if my job entailed going on the radio to entertain people by making insulting and cutting remarks about public figures.

[tennesseeboy]

I don't think the Rutgers women's basketball team were "public figures" in a way which would justify calling them whores. I suspect if your daughter achieved a basketball scholarship and made it to the championship game of the NCAA only to have someone on national TV call her a whore you'd be more than a little offended.

 

I've listened to Imus on my way to work for years, and wasn't all that bothered by his insults of people like Hillary Clinton or Dick Cheney or W, or any of the other public figures. I likened him to Don Rickles, who was a master of insults.

 

However...calling kids whose only "fault" was to achieve athletic near excellence whores was beyond the pale. The hypocrisy I see is they didn't fire him the next day. They fired him the day after the sponsors pulled off the air. Watching them now with their "holier than thou" public castigation of Imus is a little sickening.

[The Senator]

ditto

 

I beleive in free speech and free will!

Not quite sure what this has to do with free speech - Imus didn't get arrested for his comments, did he?

 

The idiot is free to say whatever he wants, and his bosses are free to not employ him if they don't like his shtick, or - in this case - they deem his comments 'bad for business'.

 

Like you, I'm also a fan of free speech - and I urge Imus to go the the center of Harlem and shout those exact words he used on the air all day long.

[IDBillzFan]

I urge Imus to go the the center of Harlem and shout those exact words he used on the air all day along.

I know that sounds daunting, but it's already been proven that if you do something like that, Samuel L. Jackson will come to save you, and you will spend the next two hours playing "Simon Sez" and learning a little bit more about Chester A. Arthur.

[GG]

I would if my job entailed going on the radio to entertain people by making insulting and cutting remarks about public figures.

 

Well, there is that inconvenient truth.

 

And as always, this is moving beyond Imus and into the realm of hypocrisy that is the bedrock of people in newsentainment. Did Keith Olberman express his outrage over Imus two weeks ago, when Imus was pimping Countdown on a daily basis?

[RkFast]

and I urge Imus to go the the center of Harlem and shout those exact words he used on the air all day along.

 

He wouldnt be able to.

 

Know why?

 

BECAUSE HE'D BE DROWNED OUT BY ALL THE BOOM BOXES BLASTING WOMAN-DEGRADING GANSTA RAP AND RADIO SHOWS HOSTED BY BLACK MEN AND WOMEN POKING FUN AT 'CRACKERS' AND 'WHITEY'.

 

THATS WHY.

[GG]

He wouldnt be able to.

 

Know why?

 

BECAUSE HE'D BE DROWNED OUT BY ALL THE BOOM BOXES BLASTING WOMAN-DEGRADING GANSTA RAP AND RADIO SHOWS HOSTED BY BLACK MEN AND WOMEN POKING FUN AT 'CRACKERS' AND 'WHITEY'.

 

THATS WHY.

 

People still do that in Harlem?

[Kevbeau]

It all comes down to dollars. Sponsors pulled their backing of his show to avoid the firestorm and NBC canned him in response. I know this isn't magic insight, but the uppers at NBC didn't can him because they found him offensive.

[millbank]

Imus comments today

 

 

Imus: "My position on all of this is not whining about the hideously hypocritical coverage from the newspapers -- from everybody -- or the lack of support, say, from people like Harold Ford, Jr. who I had my life threatened over supporting and all these kind of things. It all began, and it doesn't make any difference -- like [James] Carville said -- stop talking about the context, it doesn't make any difference. If I hadn't have said it I wouldn't be here. So let's stop whining about it...You gotta stop complaining. I said a stupid, idiotic thing that desperately hurt these kids. I'm going to apologize but we gotta move on."

[The Senator]

He wouldnt be able to.

 

Know why?

 

BECAUSE HE'D BE DROWNED OUT BY ALL THE BOOM BOXES BLASTING WOMAN-DEGRADING GANSTA RAP AND RADIO SHOWS HOSTED BY BLACK MEN AND WOMEN POKING FUN AT 'CRACKERS' AND 'WHITEY'.

 

THATS WHY.

Hmmm...

 

First, what's with the CAPS LOCK??? (Rhetorical question, BTW - I'll guess you think yelling makes you more right then me?)

 

Second, I'm not sure when you were last in Harlem, but last time I visited, it was a beautiful sunny day with folks going about their business - shopping, dining, etc. - just like any other neighborhood in Manhattan. I didn't see any of the stuff you mentioned.

 

Are we talking about the same place, or have you only seen Harlem as it's depicted in the movies you watch?

[MattyT]

Imus comments today

Imus: "My position on all of this is not whining about the hideously hypocritical coverage from the newspapers -- from everybody -- or the lack of support, say, from people like Harold Ford, Jr. who I had my life threatened over supporting and all these kind of things. It all began, and it doesn't make any difference -- like [James] Carville said -- stop talking about the context, it doesn't make any difference. If I hadn't have said it I wouldn't be here. So let's stop whining about it...You gotta stop complaining. I said a stupid, idiotic thing that desperately hurt these kids. I'm going to apologize but we gotta move on."

Forget racism...he should be fired for name-dropping.

[RkFast]

Hmmm...

 

First, what's with the CAPS LOCK??? (Rhetorical question, BTW - I'll guess you think yelling makes you more right then me?)

 

Second, I'm not sure when you were last in Harlem, but last time I visited, it was a beautiful sunny day with folks going about their business - shopping, dining, etc. - just like any other neighborhood in Manhattan. I didn't see any of the stuff you mentioned.

 

Are we talking about the same place, or have you only seen Harlem as it's depicted in the movies you watch?

 

I wasnt trying to actually describe Harlem. I could have used "Main Street USA", and the point would be the same. That those who are getting on Imus ignore where that word comes from....and the blatant hypocrisy of the whole thing.

 

And Ive lived in NYC my whole life. Ive been to Harlem a few times. And if find it pretty funny that YOU use a stereotype to describe Harlem, but then get on others for when you think "they" are doing it. If its such a great place, as you say here, then why would Imus have a problem going there? What did you mean there?

[The Senator]

I wasnt trying to actually describe Harlem. I could have used "Main Street USA", and the point would be the same. That those who are getting on Imus ignore where that word comes from....and the blatant hypocrisy of the whole thing.

 

And Ive lived in NYC my whole life. Ive been to Harlem a few times. And if find it pretty funny that YOU use a stereotype to describe Harlem, but then get on others for when you think "they" are doing it. If its such a great place, as you say here, then why would Imus have a problem going there? What did you mean there?

I was trying to reply but you keep appending your reply, so I'll just let it go. I stand corrected.

 

BTW - as a life-long New Yorker, how'd you stumble on this board?

[Rico]

Forget racism...he should be fired for name-dropping.

Well, if you're going to drop names, at least make them names that people give a !@#$ about. Harold Ford Jr. & James Carville, WTF?

 

The Rutgers women's basketball team is going on Oprah, it's all over now!

[tennesseeboy]

Well, there is that inconvenient truth.

 

And as always, this is moving beyond Imus and into the realm of hypocrisy that is the bedrock of people in newsentainment. Did Keith Olberman express his outrage over Imus two weeks ago, when Imus was pimping Countdown on a daily basis?

I gotta admit...the hypocrisy is overwhelming. Watching the same David Gregory who sucked up to the Iman on a weekly basis showing his "outrage" this morning had me thinking that the only thing worse than being his enemy is being his friend. Wonder where Lieberman, Dodd and Biden are this morning? Harold Ford Jr. probably should have come on the show and essentially said, "Yeah I appreciate the help and all the wonderful things you did, but that racist statement was way out of bounds and you should be fired." Better than running away from the situation. If this was bad enough to fire him (and in my opinion it was) it should have happened by the close of business on the day he said it. MSNBC fired him because it had to when the sponsors started to pull out...end of story.

[RkFast]

I was trying to reply but you keep appending your reply, so I'll just let it go. I stand corrected.

 

BTW - as a life-long New Yorker, how'd you stumble on this board?

 

Its all good.

 

How how am I a Bills fan you ask?

 

See your avatar!

[Sketch Soland]

I know that sounds daunting, but it's already been proven that if you do something like that, Samuel L. Jackson will come to save you, and you will spend the next two hours playing "Simon Sez" and learning a little bit more about Chester A. Arthur.

 

Don Imus.....WITH A VENGEANCE

[erynthered]

BINGO!!!!

 

 

 

Imus isn’t the real bad guy

Instead of wasting time on irrelevant shock jock, black leaders need to be fighting a growing gangster culture.

By JASON WHITLOCK

Columnist

 

Thank you, Don Imus. You’ve given us (black people) an excuse to avoid our real problem.

 

You’ve given Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson another opportunity to pretend that the old fight, which is now the safe and lucrative fight, is still the most important fight in our push for true economic and social equality.

 

You’ve given Vivian Stringer and Rutgers the chance to hold a nationally televised recruiting celebration expertly disguised as a news conference to respond to your poor attempt at humor.

 

Thank you, Don Imus. You extended Black History Month to April, and we can once again wallow in victimhood, protest like it’s 1965 and delude ourselves into believing that fixing your hatred is more necessary than eradicating our self-hatred.

 

The bigots win again.

 

While we’re fixated on a bad joke cracked by an irrelevant, bad shock jock, I’m sure at least one of the marvelous young women on the Rutgers basketball team is somewhere snapping her fingers to the beat of 50 Cent’s or Snoop Dogg’s or Young Jeezy’s latest ode glorifying nappy-headed pimps and hos.

 

I ain’t saying Jesse, Al and Vivian are gold-diggas, but they don’t have the heart to mount a legitimate campaign against the real black-folk killas.

 

It is us. At this time, we are our own worst enemies. We have allowed our youths to buy into a culture (hip hop) that has been perverted, corrupted and overtaken by prison culture. The music, attitude and behavior expressed in this culture is anti-black, anti-education, demeaning, self-destructive, pro-drug dealing and violent.

 

Rather than confront this heinous enemy from within, we sit back and wait for someone like Imus to have a slip of the tongue and make the mistake of repeating the things we say about ourselves.

 

It’s embarrassing. Dave Chappelle was offered $50 million to make racially insensitive jokes about black and white people on TV. He was hailed as a genius. Black comedians routinely crack jokes about white and black people, and we all laugh out loud.

 

I’m no Don Imus apologist. He and his tiny companion Mike Lupica blasted me after I fell out with ESPN. Imus is a hack.

 

But, in my view, he didn’t do anything outside the norm for shock jocks and comedians. He also offered an apology. That should’ve been the end of this whole affair. Instead, it’s only the beginning. It’s an opportunity for Stringer, Jackson and Sharpton to step on victim platforms and elevate themselves and their agenda$.

 

I watched the Rutgers news conference and was ashamed.

 

Martin Luther King Jr. spoke for eight minutes in 1963 at the March on Washington. At the time, black people could be lynched and denied fundamental rights with little thought. With the comments of a talk-show host most of her players had never heard of before last week serving as her excuse, Vivian Stringer rambled on for 30 minutes about the amazing season her team had.

 

Somehow, we’re supposed to believe that the comments of a man with virtually no connection to the sports world ruined Rutgers’ wonderful season. Had a broadcaster with credibility and a platform in the sports world uttered the words Imus did, I could understand a level of outrage.

 

But an hourlong press conference over a man who has already apologized, already been suspended and is already insignificant is just plain intellectually dishonest. This is opportunism. This is a distraction.

 

In the grand scheme, Don Imus is no threat to us in general and no threat to black women in particular. If his words are so powerful and so destructive and must be rebuked so forcefully, then what should we do about the idiot rappers on BET, MTV and every black-owned radio station in the country who use words much more powerful and much more destructive?

 

I don’t listen or watch Imus’ show regularly. Has he at any point glorified selling crack cocaine to black women? Has he celebrated black men shooting each other randomly? Has he suggested in any way that it’s cool to be a baby-daddy rather than a husband and a parent? Does he tell his listeners that they’re suckers for pursuing education and that they’re selling out their race if they do?

 

When Imus does any of that, call me and I’ll get upset. Until then, he is what he is — a washed-up shock jock who is very easy to ignore when you’re not looking to be made a victim.

 

No. We all know where the real battleground is. We know that the gangsta rappers and their followers in the athletic world have far bigger platforms to negatively define us than some old white man with a bad radio show. There’s no money and lots of danger in that battle, so Jesse and Al are going to sit it out.

 

http://www.kansascity.com/159/story/66339.html

[SDS]

BINGO!!!!

 

what makes the situation all the more absurd is where do these self-righteous people think the 85 year old Imus came up with the word "Ho"? The Harvard Faculty Club?