Ignorance is still bliss
It's Easter weekend and Passover week, so why not get in the proper mood by checking out how a radio host in the world's largest market used his show, which is simulcast on a national cable news network, to acknowledge Rutgers reaching the women's national championship game?
You may already have heard or seen this. On Wednesday morning, Don Imus, host of "Imus in the Morning'' on WFAN-AM and on MSNBC, called the Rutgers players "nappy-headed hos.'' His producer referred to them as "hardcore hos'' and described the national title game between Rutgers and Tennessee as "the jigaboos vs. the wannabees.'' (That, by the way, is a completely out-of-context reference to the Spike Lee movie "School Daze.'')
This morning, the National Association of Black Journalists (of which I am a member) demanded that Imus be fired or the show boycotted, with the organization president adding, "Has he lost his mind?''
Imus didn't get fired. He apologized. Apparently it was sincere.
WFAN has made no comment so far, probably because they've got a Mets game to do. MSNBC, which has carried his show live for several years and apparently banks heavily on it (since it means it doesn't have to come up with original morning programming of its own) acted as if he'd wandered into the station and started fiddling with knobs without their knowledge: "'Imus in the Morning' is not a production of the cable network and is produced by WFAN Radio. As Imus makes clear every day, his views are not those of MSNBC. We regret that his remarks were aired on MSNBC and apologize for these offensive comments.''
MSNBC isn't apologizing to the point where it says they're going to yank him off the air, though. In their defense and WFAN's, though, if the things he's said before, and some of his "friends'' have said, haven't been enough to get him permanently canceled, then no one should dream that this will. Once, years ago, a U.S. Senator did a nasty imitation of O.J. case judge Lance Ito on this show, and it took a while for anyone to apologize then, too.
The president of Rutgers and the president of the NCAA issued a joint statement condemning Imus. Rutgers coach C. Vivian Stringer also issued a statement, which read, in part:
"To serve as a joke of Mr. Imus in such an insensitive manner creates a wedge and makes light of the efforts of these classy individuals, both as women and as women of color. It is unfortunate Mr. Imus sought to tarnish Rutgers' spirit and success.''
Give her credit for not responding this way, instead:
"Who is this crotchety dope-addled fool to even make fun of how anyone else looks? How does he even still have a job after decades of slinging around jokes that should've gone out of style 40 years ago? You think if I, a black woman, had his background and talked the way he does on a national show and tried to pass it off as comedy, that I'd ever work another day in any profession besides swabbing out toilets? Either he used some bad acid back in the '60s or the people who hired him are still using it. If there were any justice in this society, my girls would own that station and he'd be getting paid subway fare to come down there and comb out their 'nappy heads' every morning.''
But if she said that, she'd probably get fired, or boycotted.
By the way, this was originally going to be a post about Imus, Billy Packer (used a term that's derogatory to gays on The Charlie Rose Show the night before the Final Four, and still doesn't think he did anything wrong) and Micheal Ray Richardson (fired as a CBA coach after telling reporters that he figured his contract negotiations would come out well because he has "big-time Jew lawyers).
But the development of the Imus/Rutgers story kind of overran everything.
The bottom line: Imus and Packer are professional broadcasters entrusted to raise and keep raised the standards of mass communications in an ever-expanding universe of information, access, voices and opinions. They apparently stink at it, and the people who hire them apparently stink at that. As for Richardson, at some point someone needs to tell him that he's no longer an out-of-his-depth NBA rookie barely out of his teens, and now is a head coach with all the attendant responsibilities, including interacting with the media and forming coherent, intelligent observations.
Yet Richardson is the only one of the three out of a job today.
Hmmmmmmmm.
Happy Easter and Happy Passover.
Comments
Nice blog David. I wish the major newspapers had the guts to print this as front page news, but because it was a white male who made those vile remarks, it got reduced to this. Even ESPN has a link but it can be overlooked. Now if a African-American male or female had made equally repulsive remarks, that would have been the top story of the day.
Anyone that says otherwise is just plain stupid.
Posted by: Mark Strand | April 6, 2007 7:46 PM
I agree with Imus. We sugarcoat everything on the radio today for the PC crowd. If these people look like what Imus thinks, then he has a right to say it. The NAACP does not run the world.
Posted by: Spence Gibson | April 6, 2007 8:26 PM
David
If you read Howard Stern's book you'd know that Imus used to call Howard's sidekick R Quivers (Balt native) the N word constantly but he always explained later that it was due to his cocaine use. Sure.
Posted by: eric reisterstown | April 6, 2007 8:41 PM
If you've listened to him in the past, you know it was only a matter of time that something like this happened- offending a group that should be celebrated for their achievement.
Posted by: Mark M | April 6, 2007 8:46 PM
David,
Normally I'm a big fan of your commentary, but in this case I have to disagree with you, especially the last paragraph, where you imply that b/c Richardson is black he was fired, whereas Imus and Packer weren't/haven't been fired b/c they're white. It couldn't have anything to do with the fact that Packer and Imus have had long successful careers that have enriched the pockets of their employers? I think that you'd be hard pressed to find any significant accomplishments in Richardson's Bio, unless you count being drafted ahead of Larry Bird as one. If you are still insistent upon race being a deciding factor, then you should explore why Richard Williams hasn't been banned for some of his insensitive racial comments regarding his daughter's opponents; or Tiger Woods for his comments on homosexuality; or the press's moniker for Jason Williams as "White Chocolate." In today's world, it's all about the dollars -- so if you're a money maker, you are much more likely to get a pass than if you are not. By immediately jumping on the race bandwagon in a situation that doesn't warrant it, I feel that you're diminishing future cases where it does.
Posted by: Dhaval Tejani | April 6, 2007 11:20 PM
...blah, blah, blah... and if a black person said this about black women, it would be funny, Steel would not even comment on it. Chris Rock says worse things about whites every time he does a stand up routine, but it's okay to slam whitey of you're black. Lets keep it real all the way around.
Posted by: Chris | April 7, 2007 12:01 AM
Imus is an idiot, plain and simple. He's a bigot, he's boring and as an educated citizen, I have no idea why he's worth broadcasting. But this has to really be the last straw...how long are we going to allow this man to keep putting his foot DEEEP into his mouth? We deserve better programming...and more respect.
Posted by: Randy | April 7, 2007 2:02 AM
I sure don't understand the controversy over Packer. One would think that journalists would at least have a command of the english language.
Imus, however, is quite another story. Being a very imperfect Christian, I couldn't sleep at night talking that way about anyone. But Imus is Imus, and I believe that another comment here hit the nail on the head. He represents a lot of money to a lot of people. Shock value is his claim to fame, and he sure does that well. Money trumps everything, at least up to a point, and that point can get extreme when lots of money is at stake. I suspect that his producer will get to be the sacrificial lamb, since he gave the lead in to the comments. That way the money makers will still have IMUS, and at the same time, get to prove their outrage and sensitivity in a way that will protect their wallets.
My final comments are not meant in any way to excuse Imus, so please do not misunderstand them. I believe that another comment here referred to this also, but maybe not in exactly the same way. I find it ironic that when guys like me complain about the language of rapper music, we are called intolerant. When rappers use the word "Ho", somehow it's OK because they are the same color as those "Ho's" they refer to in their rap. So let's not get all bent out of shape here. Rappers are "money guys" too, just like the sponsors of Imus. And they are allowed to take their offensive language to the bank, just like Imus does. As I said, money trumps everything.
Posted by: Jim | April 7, 2007 7:00 PM
As a few others have said, Imus is a blithering idiot. It amazes me that MSNBC, with it's "liberal slant" every bit as obvious as FoxNews' "conservative slant", would seriously choose not to remove his program from their airwaves after such blatantly obvious racist remarks. Maybe part of the reason is that nobody watches his show in the first place?
Posted by: Eric | April 7, 2007 11:53 PM
The offensive thing to me is that Imus is a big deal media personality, and the people he insulted are just kids. Really, they're just teenagers basically-- especially the Rutgers women, where a lot of the players are Freshmen and Sophomores. Why would he insult and attack these kids, who he doesn't even know, especially when they performed so wonderfully in the tournament? I just can't see where the humor is supposed to be. He doesn't like the way they look? Or he thinks women shouldn't have tattoos?
Imus is on there flogging his ranch for kids with cancer all the time, and you'd think from that he cares about young people. Yet he does something like this. He's this big powerful guy, and the women he insulted are just college girls.
I just don't get it.
Posted by: SkipChurch | April 9, 2007 9:11 AM
I regret listening/watching Imus for so long. I am done. JCT
Posted by: J. C. Thomas | April 9, 2007 12:54 PM