Imus Simulcast dropped by MSNBC

[millbank]

Interesting current announcers on the Fan, Mike and Mad Dog, the two before Joe Benigno and Evan Roberts all during their programs today have spoken up that the firing of Imus a disgrace, both how MSNBC and CBS handled situation in light of the Telethon firing Imus in the middle of it. Saying executives have no guts....

[stuckincincy]

Imus got the Governor of NJ hit by a car and put into intensive care. This guy is a total putz.

 

 

He's pretty banged up...12 busted ribs, broken sternum, collarbone, leg. He was in the front passenger seat - they think he wasn't wearing his seat belt.

 

He was on his way to Rutgers to share in the beating of Imus. What a thing for the Governor of a State to stick his (billionaire) nose into...

 

I understand Hillary is going to make a visit to Rutgers to get her licks in.

[HelloNewman]

I am so sick and tired of hearing about this story but I must say something. The man made a mistake....yes what he said was not right but at the same time the uproar over this is absolutely stupid. I would like to call out all the self-righteous people calling for his removal to look in the mirror themselves and tell me you have never made a mistake or never said something you wish you could take back in your life. As I recall aren't we about forgiveness and deserve second chances...the man said he was sorry until he ws blue in the face yet the witchhunt continues. It amazes me how people like Sharpton and Jackson all preach about peace and forgiveness yet they ask for the head of this man on a silver platter. What he said was wrong...he acknowledges it ...apologized for it...made ammends....give the man a break already...or do you want his legs too?

[DC Tom]

Imus got the Governor of NJ hit by a car and put into intensive care. This guy is a total putz.

 

Blaming that on Imus is a real stretch. Kind of like blaming Kaiser Wilhelm II for 9/11...yeah, you can connect the two, but that's not responsibility.

[slothrop]

Article by Dave Zirin (edgeofsports.com), my favorite sports writer:

 

Memo to Imus: You're Fired

By Dave Zirin

 

In an absolutely mind bending turn of events, Don Imus is now a man without a job. A week after calling the Rutgers women's basketball team "nappy headed hos," the man once hailed by Time Magazine as one of the most influential people in the country, is officially off the air. The final ax fell as CBS announced that they could no longer withstand the heat from both inside and outside their company. As CBS President and Chief Executive Officer Leslie Moonves said, "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."

 

"Discussion" is an awfully antiseptic word for what went down. Make no mistake: CBS's Moonves and the bigwigs at MSNBC, who Wednesday pulled the plug on Imus's TV show, were met with an upsurge inside their own ranks. As Bob Herbert wrote in the New York Times, "Powerful statements were made during in-house meetings by women at NBC and MSNBC - about how black women are devalued in this country, how they are demeaned by white men and black men. White and black women spoke emotionally about the way black women are frequently trashed in the popular culture, especially in music, and about the way news outlets give far more attention to stories about white women in trouble. Phil Griffin, a senior vice president at NBC News who oversaw the Imus show for MSNBC, told me yesterday, 'It touched a huge nerve.'"

 

As the days went on, the anti-Imus tide gave expression across the country to a pent-up rage people feel about the way this kind of bigotry continually goes unchallenged. Hurricane Katrina destroyed a majority black city, which continues to wither from neglect, and not a word is said. Women face a constant barrage of sexism in our "Girls Gone Wild" culture but if you challenge it, you're a humorless prig. Imus calls Arabs and Muslims "ragheads" and still had the John Kerrys, Tim Russerts, and Harold Fords as regular guests. This was a classic case of the tipping point, when people just said enough is enough.

 

But why did this comment, in a career of ugly statements, finally break the camel's back? I would argue the answer partly lies in how we are taught to understand sports. Remember that Rush Limbaugh felt the biggest backlash of his career when he said that the media over hyped Philadelphia Eagles football star Donovan McNabb because of their "social concern" to see a successful African American quarterback. After thousands of angry calls and emails Rush was bounced from ESPN. Both Imus and Rush built careers on this kind of bile but when they cross-pollinated their bigotry with sports, a new level of anger exploded. We are relentlessly sold the idea that our games are safe space from this kind of political swill. We are also told that sports are a "field of dreams," a true meritocracy where hard work always meets rewards. But when the playing field is shown to be unlevel, it stings. This sporting reality can wake people up and reveal the hidden inequities in our society that otherwise go unnoticed. When a Rutgers team defies the odds and makes the NCAA finals, and gets called "nappy headed hos" for their trouble, it presses a very all-too-raw nerve.

 

But Imus is also without a job because Rutgers Coach Vivian Stringer and her team, unlike many of Imus's victims, refused to be silent. As captain Essence Carson said, "We're happy -- we're glad to finally have the opportunity to stand up for what we know is right... We can speak up for women, not just African-American women, but all women."

 

Coach Stringer took it even further in her comments last night to MSNBC's Keith Olbermann.

 

She said, "We've become so desensitized that we've allowed a lot of things to pass, and we've not been happy... Too often politicians, leaders, and religious leaders speak for us, and we sit back and don't realize the power in numbers, and when to say enough is enough....We see [injustice]all the time. A kid that steals something with a plastic cap pistol, and spends 10 years in jail, and yet you see, the white-collar workers, you know, thieves that steal millions of dollars [get off]. And I do think that if people stood up, politicians [wouldn't] wait for a poll but [would be] strong enough to make a decision and stand...You know I happen to be the daughter of a coal miner. My father lost both his legs in a mine. He worked hard each and every day. He only stayed out of the mine six months until he got prosthetics. I know what it is to work hard and this has been a lifelong pursuit and passion. I've coached for 36 years...as a person of conscience, I have seen so much that I would like to see changed, with everything. I would gladly exchange winning a national championship if we, as young ladies, would stand and allow the country to somehow be empowered and that we take back our country..."

 

If you want to understand why Imus is out of work, read Coach Stringer's words again. The fact is that so many of us are sick and tired of being sick and tired. We are sick of the casual racism. We are tired of the smirking, drive-by sexism. We are done with people who make their living by selling the idea that some people are less human than others. We are fed up with the politics of division and hate. We are the majority in this country, but are often entirely without voice. This past week, our voices were heard. It won't - it can't - end with Don Imus.

[stinky finger]

Actually, Sharpton provided him the platform to apologize

The great "reverend" did this for personal gain. Come on. Naive to think otherwise.

[Sketch Soland]

The great "reverend" did this for personal gain. Come on. Naive to think otherwise.

 

I would argue it's naive to think that a human being acts solely out of one motivation. The more likely case is that Sharpeton does care, but the manner in which he chooses to act upon this care is often in the most self-aggrandizing way possible, which most of the time blunts his own ability to achieve the results he says he desires (which in itself always supplies him with further reason to be, thus maintaining his egoistic image of himself as the crusader against racial inequality). This makes him misguided in his approach and an egoist in his speech and bearing, but it does not make him a person devoid of real care about the issue of racial relations or a person who doesn't care deeply about things.

[tennesseeboy]

Yeah...like the fact that the very legitimate accomplishments of minorities can be completely ruined in their own eyes by something said by someone who is so completely irrelevent and ignored that what he says isn't even noticed for THREE DAYS.

I agree wholeheartedly. I'm as big an Imus fan as they come, but what he said was so obviously over the line that he AND McGuirk should have been fired on day one. MSNBC left him twisting in the wind as did CBS and when the sponsors started to pull support and celebrity guests started to bail. The hypocrisy that they are spouting about "doing the right thing" is a little hard to take. Imus went ahead with the apology to the young women even after he was terminated..which was a sign of character in my book. The guy made a dumb mistake and got an appropriate punishment by being fired. This lynching seems uncalled for.

[DC Tom]

I agree wholeheartedly.

 

Then I change my mind.

 

The real losers in this are the ladies at Rutgers. CBS will fare fine, Imus will get another job (or retire and live off the money he's saved), Sharpton will find a new trivial cause to make money over...and the women on the Rutgers basketball team will always be victims of Don Imus first and basketball players second after this...almost entirely because they chose to be victims. Real !@#$ing empowering choice, that.

[stinky finger]

I would argue it's naive to think that a human being acts solely out of one motivation. The more likely case is that Sharpeton does care, but the manner in which he chooses to act upon this care is often in the most self-aggrandizing way possible, which most of the time blunts his own ability to achieve the results he says he desires (which in itself always supplies him with further reason to be, thus maintaining his egoistic image of himself as the crusader against racial inequality). This makes him misguided in his approach and an egoist in his speech and bearing, but it does not make him a person devoid of real care about the issue of racial relations or a person who doesn't care deeply about things.

I don't doubt what you're saying is true, but his "platform" was in the fore of his mind, IMO.

[DC Tom]

I would argue it's naive to think that a human being acts solely out of one motivation. The more likely case is that Sharpeton does care, but the manner in which he chooses to act upon this care is often in the most self-aggrandizing way possible, which most of the time blunts his own ability to achieve the results he says he desires (which in itself always supplies him with further reason to be, thus maintaining his egoistic image of himself as the crusader against racial inequality). This makes him misguided in his approach and an egoist in his speech and bearing, but it does not make him a person devoid of real care about the issue of racial relations or a person who doesn't care deeply about things.

 

Sorry, but I disagree...I was in Poughkeepsie when he was pushing the Tawana Brawley case, in almost precisely the same way Nifong pushed the Duke rape case. Sharpton's as much about social justice as Nifong was about criminal justice.

[tennesseeboy]

Then I change my mind.

 

The real losers in this are the ladies at Rutgers. CBS will fare fine, Imus will get another job (or retire and live off the money he's saved), Sharpton will find a new trivial cause to make money over...and the women on the Rutgers basketball team will always be victims of Don Imus first and basketball players second after this...almost entirely because they chose to be victims. Real !@#$ing empowering choice, that.

Oh MY GOD!!! I agree again....call 911!! call 911!!

[DC Tom]

Oh MY GOD!!! I agree again....call 911!! call 911!!

 

Oh, Christ...can I change my mind? The real victim's...oh, I don't know...CBS. Because...well, just because.

 

Hell, let's just say the real victim's Ed. He probably needs the attention anyway.

[Sketch Soland]

Sorry, but I disagree...I was in Poughkeepsie when he was pushing the Tawana Brawley case, in almost precisely the same way Nifong pushed the Duke rape case. Sharpton's as much about social justice as Nifong was about criminal justice.

 

Just because Sharpeton's modus operandi is highly questionable does not mean that part of what motivates him to aggrandize himself in the public sphere does not come out of a real desire to quell discrimination as he sees it.

[Observer]

Blaming that on Imus is a real stretch. Kind of like blaming Kaiser Wilhelm II for 9/11...yeah, you can connect the two, but that's not responsibility.

 

I see a but-for relationship.

 

But for Imus not saying Nappy Headed Ho on the radio, Corzine would be on a golf course right now.

[millbank]

Actually the Young Ladies of the Rutgers basketball team, are to my best knowledge the only people who have said they forgive Imus . To me this means they are going to move on and will move past this. Its those who look for victims or scape goats for their own purposes who are the real losers here. These young Ladies are nothing but winners nonsense to call them as anything else but. It is others whose behavior needs to be questioned, from the two disgraceful Reverends , to the gutless Media and political sorts who stuck their fingers in the air to see which way the wind blows before speaking out, to those who will now move on and find another source of what Imus offered, all the while pretending to be outraged.

 

 

 

Then I change my mind.

 

The real losers in this are the ladies at Rutgers. CBS will fare fine, Imus will get another job (or retire and live off the money he's saved), Sharpton will find a new trivial cause to make money over...and the women on the Rutgers basketball team will always be victims of Don Imus first and basketball players second after this...almost entirely because they chose to be victims. Real !@#$ing empowering choice, that.

[DC Tom]

I see a but-for relationship.

 

But for Imus not saying Nappy Headed Ho on the radio, Corzine would be on a golf course right now.

 

But for Kaiser Wilhelm II mobilizing the German Army and triggering WWI, the World Trade Center would still be standing.

[IDBillzFan]

I would argue it's naive to think that a human being acts solely out of one motivation. The more likely case is that Sharpeton does care, but the manner in which he chooses to act upon this care is often in the most self-aggrandizing way possible, which most of the time blunts his own ability to achieve the results he desires (which in itself always supplies him with further reason to be, thus maintaining his egoistic image of himself as a crusader against racial inequality). This makes him misguided in his approach and an egoist in his speech and bearing, but it does not make him a person devoid of real care about the issue of racial relations or a person who doesn't care deeply about things.

Misguided?

 

Al Sharpton cares about race relations about as much as Paris Hilton cares about who she's going to !@#$ next. He doesn't build race relations...he tears them down.

 

Let me know when he apologizes to Steven Pagones.

[DC Tom]

Just because Sharpeton's modus operandi is highly questionable does not mean that part of what motivates him to aggrandize himself in the public sphere does not come out of a real desire to quell discrimination as he sees it.

 

My point (which I didn't make clear, I know) was that my opinion of Sharpton is directly influenced by my proximity to an issue which was NOT about discrimination but aggrandizement.

 

My other reason for lambasting Sharpton (and Jackson) is the "What would the Reverend King have done?" King was about fighting discrimination...and I highly doubt that King would support or even recognize the actions of Sharpton as fighting discrimination, because King knew the value of pride and self-respect over victimhood and self-aggrandizement. It's a shame King's movement has been usurped by these yahoos.

[Sketch Soland]

Misguided?

 

Al Sharpton cares about race relations about as much as Paris Hilton cares about who she's going to !@#$ next. He doesn't build race relations...he tears them down.

 

Let me know when he apologizes to Steven Pagones.

 

There's a difference between caring about an issue and the method one takes to address the issue in the public sphere, imo. Al Sharpeton's method is what should be very much questioned and dissected, and I am very much interested in doing that. But to say that Sharpeton the human being is solely motivated by a desire to be Ego King of the Race War Universe is to say that a person is solely constituted by their actions in the public sphere, which I find to be a very shallow and superficial interpretation of human nature. One could very much make the argument that the reason for Sharpeton's "deluded" or "egotistical" manner of addressing race relations comes out of the fact that he cares too much, that the sheer level of his own internal desire to see an end to what he sees as discrimination blinds him to a degree that he forsakes a more rational and open-minded approach in favor of an almost religious narrow minded zeal that priveleges his own internal sense of rightness in favor of broaching a more appropriate discourse among varying peoples and interests.