My thoughts on Don Imus
I know I’m a little late to the party here, but I don’t think Don Imus should have been fired for his comments. Yes, they were racist, and he knew it when he said it. But, he also came out and apologized and said he would change, and the team stated that they forgave him. That should have been enough. He could have been suspended without pay for a month to think about it, but then he should have been able to come back and see if he learned from his mistakes.
For those abroad, or for those living under a rock in the US, Imus is a radio personality with a show that was simulcast on MSNBC. He’s a 66 year-old codger who has been doing this most of his life. He’s well known in New York but not so much elsewhere. When talking about the Rutgers woman’s basketball team, he referred to them as “nappy headed ho’s.” This of course offended ethnic groups who mobilized and called for his dismissal.
Granted, what he said was distasteful and racially demeaning, but I think firing him for it sets a very scary precedent for free speech in America. If you’ve read this blog for any length of time, you know that I feel free speech should be absolute, no matter how much we might disagree with the vile nature of what is being said.
In a normal day of Imus’ broadcasts, none of those women would have ever even known about the comment, and many of the listeners, while mildly offended would have shook their head, thought he was a sad old codger and moved on. Some of them may have changed the channel and some may have complained. The reason this got blown up to such a ridiculous level is because there are now groups that listen to every radio and TV program and complain about anything THEY find objectionable.
Yes, there are people whose sole job in this world is to listen to and transcribe what people say on a radio show specifically for the purpose to complain about it. These are not people who would ever actually listen to the show themselves, they aren’t the target audience.
And these groups take these comments and whip up a media firestorm around them. They get leaders to denounce it and all of a sudden an off-color joke that failed becomes front page news. This DOMINATED our headlines here last week. It was the lead news story on TV news. The media created this issue where none existed. Aren’t we in a war? Didn’t the supposedly safe green zone get bombed this week? This is news?
All of a sudden the Rutgers basketball team has to set up press conferences to respond. They claim that their spotlight and time to shine for what they did in their sport was diminished. Well the reason it was diminished was because of these watchdog groups and the media. They both seized on the opportunity and ran full bore with pitchforks waving.
They silenced Imus, who will they go after next? Where will it end? Or will it just end in no one ever saying anything that might cause any issues. I don’t like that, it’s stifling to me. Having an honest discussion about race in these situations is what will help. Simply silencing anyone whose speech you cannot stand does nothing to further debate. All it does is get your face in front of cameras.
April 18, 2007 @ 2:44 pm
The real irony here it that, if you’ve heard all the stories that have come out about things he’s said OFF the air to other employee’s, he should have been fired a long time ago for that. He didn’t even deny that he called a black secretary the “n word” to her face back in the ’80’s. I don’t know about you, but I’d get fired for THAT. Of course, that didn’t cause the radio station to lose sponsors, so they looked the other way.
April 18, 2007 @ 3:48 pm
Well there ARE fireable offenses, but I don’t think what he said on air was one. If this was well documented on the back end and he had been warned before, that’s one thing. This was a company knee-jerk reaction to pressure from watchdog groups.
It would have happened to any talking head that said it.
That’s really what I’m against. As for Imus, I always knew he was a racist prick, so that’s why I didn’t listen to him before.
The other thing is the hypocrisy from some of the people calling for his head. Others that have had well documented tirades against Jew’s and the like. HymieTown anyone?
So sure, maybe he needed to get fired in general, but this situation was created and perpetuated by the media, and that’s what scares me. It can happen to anyone, not just people that may truly deserve it.
April 18, 2007 @ 5:23 pm
@2: I’m gonna have to disagree with you on this one, Grey. I do think that what he said is and was a fireable offense, and – maybe more importantly – Imus has said many similar things in the past, many of them likewise fireable offenses.
But don’t kid yourself. Imus’ history had a major role in this. The enormous corporations who really caused the firing by pulling their ads obviously determined that the man was in an indefensible position. He couldn’t claim to be a first-time offender because he’s (on air) a well known many times offender. And he couldn’t say he’d never do it again because he’d tried that line several times before.
So while I agree in principle that it would be possible for someone to say what Imus said without truly being as much of a bigoted, racist prick as Imus happens to be, I don’t agree that any random person could have been fired as a result of this. Imus has been working towards this for decades.
Note: I’m no fan of Al Sharpton, though, and I really wish they’d fired Imus before he got involved. Now he gets to claim that he was responsible, which isn’t even close to true.
April 20, 2007 @ 4:18 pm
I disagree. They didn’t go after Don Imus in this. They went after “nappy headed ho” and it just happened to be attached to this particular prick. If it would have been said by any big time radio jock, I believe they would have gone after it with the exact same fervor.
And I think things would have been different in my mind too if he wouldn’t have apologized and they would have accepted. Would they have accepted his apology if they really didn’t believe it? Remember, he talked directly to them.
I think that if you offend someone, apologize, and they accept, then move on already.
Now it could be that MSNBC and CBS were just waiting for the final straw to hit, and this gave them what they wanted, but I think if that was the case, they would have let him go long ago.
I just think that when we keep lowering the bar on what is offensive, and raise the stakes on what happens then no one will ever say anything for fear of retribution.
I totally agree on Sharpton… and I wanna add Jackson that as well…