Imus is history -- fired yesterday by MSNBC, fired today by CBS. I hope you are paying attention Rush Limbaugh, cause we will be watching your dirty mouth next.
In my view, Don Imus has behaved very well since this incident happened. He is a very flawed man, but he is far from the worst of the shock jocks. And he had many corporate and elite male enablers. There is no excuse for his behavior, but I believe he is genuinely sorry.
Because he's not the worst shock jock and because he has done so much good work in his lifetime, I can't help wishing Rush was going down instead of Imus. Still, whenever a shock jock goes down, it is a victory for the coming progressive era.
NY Times:
The firing of Mr. Imus came on a surreal day, one that served as a reminder not only of the millions of dollars he has raised for children’s charities over nearly two decades, but of the millions of dollars in future donations that he may have been lost as a result of his ill-considered remarks.
For four and a half hours this morning, he turned his radio program into a live fundraiser for three charities — two benefiting children with cancer, and the other for families that have lost babies to sudden infant death syndrome — an endeavor he has undertaken each of the last 18 years.
Among the guests were children and parents who had been the beneficiaries of his efforts — particularly the Imus Cattle Ranch for Kids with Cancer, a program that the host founded on his New Mexico ranch along with his wife, Deirdre. He strongly suggested, for example, that he believed his long career on terrestrial radio, at least, was drawing to a close, which gave the broadcast something of a funereal atmosphere.
“This may or not be our final radiothon,” he said, just before 6 a.m. “There’s no way to know, anything. But let’s say for sake of being safe that it is.” “Ordinarily, we’d like to raise, say, around $3 million,” he said. “But today our goal is around $100 million.”
At several points, he lashed out at the “hypocrisy” of the media coverage of the fallout from his remarks, and “the lack of support from people like Harold Ford,” the former Tennessee congressman who is black and whom the talk show host had touted repeatedly throughout his recent, failed bid for a Senate seat.
He also expressed bitterness that MSNBC had “pulled the plug” on televising his program less than 12 hours before the fundraiser was to begin. “They got their pound of flesh and made their decision,” he said.
And yet, Mr. Imus also emphasized that, ultimately, he alone was to blame for his predicament.
“I said a stupid, idiotic thing that hurt these kids,” he said of the Rutgers players. “If I hadn’t have said it, we wouldn’t be here. So let’s stop whining about it.”
Call me crazy, but I have some respect for Imus' friends who have stood by this very flawed man. It has always been obvious to me that Imus has/had nothing but a high regard for Harold Ford. But just imagine thinking Harold Ford is anybody's friend!
Imus Politics Racism Sexism News Gender MSNBC Rutgers Don Imus CBS Harold Ford
