Update to the piece below: Imus has been fired by CBS. Another scalp for the race hustlers - and just in time to cover up the Duke case.
We don't even like the guy much, but he has been railroaded. Imus is no racist. The message is: Be Very Afraid, and don't call anyone a "nappy-head ho," even as an ironic quote, unless you are black - in which case it is just fine.
The Imus Case is a surely a smokescreen as we said earlier this week, effectively covering up the Duke Case outcome. The Imus Case is equally foolish. Imus is an old-time shock jock, and an equal-opportunity insulter from way back - but a guy who regularly offers real substance of value, albeit with a lefty slant.
So you just have to ask "Why now?" Whimsical racial slurs towards all colors have been part of his shtick forever. Imus is just the scapegoat du jour. It could be Rush, or you, or me, tomorrow: anything to stay in the limelight and to keep the money coming in.
Editor's Note: In defence of the goofball Don Imus, to whom I rarely listen, here's a quote - not that I agree with it all - from Cynopsis:
Imus is in the crosshairs. He put himself there; his producer and colleagues enabled him. Thoughtless and sophomoric, he made a damaging remark. Damaging to the stellar young women of Rutgers basketball, and damaging to a long career in radio and on cable TV. Until Wednesday night, some of his bosses also enabled him.
What mystifies me is what took me from the broadcast network morning shows to Imus In The Morning on MSNBC. For the longest time, Good Morning America and the Today Show brought me morning news and information. Unthinking, I tuned into those channels on the low end of the dial. But, when their soundtrack became disturbingly frivolous and forced, I started searching, sampling.
I sampled Imus, occasionally at first, eventually adopting an unexplainable habit. It made no sense. I am decidedly not in the Imus demographic. The reasons not not to tune in to Imus are considerable:
- The adolescent male locker room humor
- "Comic" routines that center on genitalia, sexist and ethnic slurs
- The Bickersons … Mr. & Mrs. Imus' sniping at each other, lately echoed on-air by their 8-year old child
- Bo Dietl & Sid Rosenberg
- Endless plugs for products and services benefiting the Imus Inner Circle
And yet….
Imus served up the most refreshing, enlightening, provocative and spontaneous interviews with journos, politicos, and I-want-to-knows anywhere on morning tv. Interviews lasted 15-20 minutes uninterrupted, without deference to title or status. Imus' shameless on-air campaigns to fix broken parts of America were astonishing, whether for sick kids or wounded soldiers. The music acts … spectacular! Well chosen and superbly produced. And I love curmudgeonliness.
So I weigh the plusses and minuses of the Imuses. Is the intellectual content so strong that it outweighs the stupidity? Is this the tradeoff: tune out "Rev. Falwell", "Brian Wilson", and "Mayor Ray Nagin" in exchange for Jon Meacham, Anna Quindlan, and Harold Ford? There are days when it's the All White Guy Chorus, and that needs to be fixed, as with most broadcasts that pretend to reflect American thought.
The term "shock jock" is dated and inaccurate. Imus' claim that it's a comedy show is equally inaccurate. In 3 years, I tolerated the "comedy" to get to the substance, and the substance was solid. It's a testament to what we're able to tune out when we tune in.
