Imus

[bfsc]

I can't believe no one brought up the Imus thing. Does anything else think the whole thing is ridiculos and blown WAY out of proportion. :eek:

[f94gator]

I agree. So he said something stupid. I DON'T CARE.

[Man-O-War]

Yeah dude, fu@kin media is so hungry for whatever they can spin into "news".

[cmfish]

Who listens to Imus anyways?

[Wayward Son]

I don't listen to his show, don't care what he says. However, what he's reported to have said is mild compared to what you can hear on FM stations in every city in America. I just don't see any legitimate reason to get cranked up over it.

[chuam]

The guy said something incredibly stupid. He is getting what he desrves for it now. I'm all for free speech but I also believe in repurcussions for what you say. Those in the public eye have to be more careful about putting their foot in their mouth.

[jackpine savage]

If he costs the staions money they will can his ass, if they dont lose sponsors he will be back

[Bill McIntyre]

I'd say that calling a bunch of college women "nappy headed hos" is pretty nasty.

But there is an interesting OpEd in today's LA Times by a female lawyer who happens to be black and agrees in a way with Wayward.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-rice11apr11,0,5538321.story?coll=la-opinion-rightrail
Don Imus: the good-natured racist
The shock jock was only mimicking rappers and comedians who make millions at the expense of black women.
By Constance L. Rice
CONSTANCE L. RICE is a civil rights attorney in Los Angeles.

April 11, 2007

'THAT'S SOME nappy-headed hos." When white radio shock jock Don Imus dropped this little gem about the Rutgers women's basketball team onto the airwaves, he couldn't possibly have imagined that it would trigger a two-week suspension of his top-rated radio gig, the "Imus in the Morning Show."

On the Imus insult meter, "nappy-headed hos" wouldn't rate above a 3. It doesn't even come close to one of his meaner riffs. Regular listeners of the show expect racist and sexist banter. As Imus explained to Mike Wallace on "60 Minutes" in 1998, his show has someone specially assigned to do "nigger jokes." But rest assured, the Imus crew has plenty of kike, wetback, mick, spick, dago, Jap, Chink, redneck and unprintable Catholic priest jokes too. Not to mention the rabid homophobia and occasional Islamophobia.

The Rev. Al Sharpton, the NAACP, NOW — the whole civil and women's rights establishment — are up in arms, and they should be. Imus' remarks were racist, offensive and, given that these athletes are not fair targets, out of bounds. There is no excuse for what he said.

But there's also no basis for firing him or ending his show. Firing Imus for racist riffs would be like firing Liberace for flamboyance. It's what he does.

More to the point, Imus should only be fired when the black artists who make millions of dollars rapping about black bitches and hos lose their recording contracts. Black leaders should denounce Imus and boycott him and call for his head only after they do the same for the misogynist artists with whom they have shared stages, magazine covers and awards shows.

The truth is, Imus' remarks mimic those of the original gurus of black female denigration: black men with no class. He is only repeating what he's heard and being honest about the way many men — of all races — judge women.

Just as black comedians who make mean jokes about Asians and Latinos don't see themselves as racists, I'm sure that Imus doesn't see himself as a racist either. He reveres blues artists such as B.B. King and Ray Charles. He praises American icons such as Jackie Robinson and Martin Luther King Jr. He clearly likes former Tennessee Rep. Harold Ford and has interviewed Sharpton a few times. He treated Lani Guinier with uncharacteristic respect during her guest appearance to discuss her latest book.

His sympathy for the Katrina victims came through. And after the James Byrd dragging-lynching in Texas in 1998, Imus did not joke. In serious tones that couldn't hide his sorrow or disgust, he quietly remarked that it was unwise for black people to ever trust whites.

After listening to him for 10 years, I've concluded that Imus is not a malevolent racist. He is a good-natured racist. And the streak of decency running down his self-centered, mean persona is sometimes pretty wide.

Imus and company are jocular misanthropes who say what a lot of folk only dare to think. That's why many tune in: to eavesdrop on a seventh-grade white boys' locker room — and to hear some of the best political interviews on the air. More often than not, the humor works, but it is universally offensive and sometimes goes too far, as it did in this case.

It is what it is. If his show has to go, there are hard-hitting black and Latino acts on cable that will be put in the cross hairs next. In the end, it's healthier to have what people of all races really think out in the open rather than hounded into the shadows.

After Imus sincerely apologizes to the women on the Rutgers team and listens to the well-deserved criticism, he should go back to doing what he does best — tearing down the powerful.

And then the rest of us concerned about black female denigration can begin to examine our own glass mansions.

[richhermes]

It looks like MSNBC has already decided to stop simulcasting Imus, even after the suspension. They were losing a ton of sponsors.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17999196/

[Wayward Son]

I do not have a problem with listeners (customers) getting irate & giving the station & advertisers hell over it.

I think ceding ground to the race baiting poverty pimps Jackson & Sharpton was too much.

[OrangeSpear]

I could care less if I ever hear Al Sharpton speak again.

I mean talk about calling the kettle black.

[jackpine savage]

Still, all in all it was a damn stupid thing to say.

[DIVERTOM]

He's old and rich enough where he probably says "Who Cares Anyways".
Actually it has made him more popular. He will probably have a second
coming in a few months.

[ScottZeagle]

Jason Whitlock summed it all up in his commentary in the Kansas City paper today...

http://www.kansascity.com/182/story/66339.html


Imus isn’t the real bad guy
Instead of wasting time on irrelevant shock jock, black leaders need to be fighting a growing gangster culture.
JASON WHITLOCK

Thank you, Don Imus. You’ve given us (black people) an excuse to avoid our real problem.

You’ve given Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson another opportunity to pretend that the old fight, which is now the safe and lucrative fight, is still the most important fight in our push for true economic and social equality.

You’ve given Vivian Stringer and Rutgers the chance to hold a nationally televised recruiting celebration expertly disguised as a news conference to respond to your poor attempt at humor.

Thank you, Don Imus. You extended Black History Month to April, and we can once again wallow in victimhood, protest like it’s 1965 and delude ourselves into believing that fixing your hatred is more necessary than eradicating our self-hatred.

The bigots win again.

While we’re fixated on a bad joke cracked by an irrelevant, bad shock jock, I’m sure at least one of the marvelous young women on the Rutgers basketball team is somewhere snapping her fingers to the beat of 50 Cent’s or Snoop Dogg’s or Young Jeezy’s latest ode glorifying nappy-headed pimps and hos.

I ain’t saying Jesse, Al and Vivian are gold-diggas, but they don’t have the heart to mount a legitimate campaign against the real black-folk killas.

It is us. At this time, we are our own worst enemies. We have allowed our youths to buy into a culture (hip hop) that has been perverted, corrupted and overtaken by prison culture. The music, attitude and behavior expressed in this culture is anti-black, anti-education, demeaning, self-destructive, pro-drug dealing and violent.

Rather than confront this heinous enemy from within, we sit back and wait for someone like Imus to have a slip of the tongue and make the mistake of repeating the things we say about ourselves.

It’s embarrassing. Dave Chappelle was offered $50 million to make racially insensitive jokes about black and white people on TV. He was hailed as a genius. Black comedians routinely crack jokes about white and black people, and we all laugh out loud.

I’m no Don Imus apologist. He and his tiny companion Mike Lupica blasted me after I fell out with ESPN. Imus is a hack.

But, in my view, he didn’t do anything outside the norm for shock jocks and comedians. He also offered an apology. That should’ve been the end of this whole affair. Instead, it’s only the beginning. It’s an opportunity for Stringer, Jackson and Sharpton to step on victim platforms and elevate themselves and their agenda$.

I watched the Rutgers news conference and was ashamed.

Martin Luther King Jr. spoke for eight minutes in 1963 at the March on Washington. At the time, black people could be lynched and denied fundamental rights with little thought. With the comments of a talk-show host most of her players had never heard of before last week serving as her excuse, Vivian Stringer rambled on for 30 minutes about the amazing season her team had.

Somehow, we’re supposed to believe that the comments of a man with virtually no connection to the sports world ruined Rutgers’ wonderful season. Had a broadcaster with credibility and a platform in the sports world uttered the words Imus did, I could understand a level of outrage.

But an hourlong press conference over a man who has already apologized, already been suspended and is already insignificant is just plain intellectually dishonest. This is opportunism. This is a distraction.

In the grand scheme, Don Imus is no threat to us in general and no threat to black women in particular. If his words are so powerful and so destructive and must be rebuked so forcefully, then what should we do about the idiot rappers on BET, MTV and every black-owned radio station in the country who use words much more powerful and much more destructive?

I don’t listen or watch Imus’ show regularly. Has he at any point glorified selling crack cocaine to black women? Has he celebrated black men shooting each other randomly? Has he suggested in any way that it’s cool to be a baby-daddy rather than a husband and a parent? Does he tell his listeners that they’re suckers for pursuing education and that they’re selling out their race if they do?

When Imus does any of that, call me and I’ll get upset. Until then, he is what he is — a washed-up shock jock who is very easy to ignore when you’re not looking to be made a victim.

No. We all know where the real battleground is. We know that the gangsta rappers and their followers in the athletic world have far bigger platforms to negatively define us than some old white man with a bad radio show. There’s no money and lots of danger in that battle, so Jesse and Al are going to sit it out.

(This post is only my personal thought and is in no way connected to Zeagle Systems, its owner, nor its employees... :rolleyes: )

[Bill McIntyre]

I do not have a problem with listeners (customers) getting irate & giving the station & advertisers hell over it.


Don't customers have the final word? I thought that was what free enterprise is all about. He is only as popular as his listeners make him. If they don't like it, its their right to bitch.

I think that you could hardly categorize Imus fans as latte-drinking liberals out of touch with the real world out there. Maybe the real world is tired of hearing women called nappy-headed hos.

[Mobile Diver]

Couple of good editorials there. Firing him will be an economic decision, as it should be. He will reappear somewhere, of course. He has an audience.

That said, he is a genuine zit on the ass of humanity. I wish him all the hell anyone can dish out. He has been an ass for a long time. & as Howard Stern pointed out, he has no balls. He clearly likes racist humor, has done it for a long time, but then apologizes at the first sign of trouble. Not a damn redeeming quality about him, except his ranch for kids with cancer. Which he can retire to manage.

[bfsc]

Don't customers have the final word? I thought that was what free enterprise is all about. He is only as popular as his listeners make him. If they don't like it, its their right to bitch.

I think that you could hardly categorize Imus fans as latte-drinking liberals out of touch with the real world out there. Maybe the real world is tired of hearing women called nappy-headed hos.

I don't believe that it is his listeners that are bitching. It seems to be people that don't listen to his show that are complaining and threatening to bocott the sponsers. I have never listened to or watched the show, but it seems like he was singled out. That same language is everywhere, I just don't get why they now decide to pick him over such an innocent comment.

[inletsurf]

Imus sucks anyway.

[Capt.Gene]

If Chappelle had said this on his show it wouldn't have made the news.
The most biggotted people on the news today are that nappy headed hoe Sharpton and that sex weasel Jesse Jackoff.

[inletsurf]

I don't believe that it is his listeners that are bitching. It seems to be people that don't listen to his show that are complaining and threatening to bocott the sponsers. I have never listened to or watched the show, but it seems like he was singled out. That same language is everywhere, I just don't get why they now decide to pick him over such an innocent comment.

People like Imus, and Stern, etc etc have been targeted for years to make these mistakes. Its because worthless POSs like Sharpton have nothing else better to do than to make mountains out of molehills and ruin people's lives. Its what justifies his "job", and what makes him wealthy. Sharpton has the ability to fire up people within his ethnicity who normally wouldn't care.

Sharpton is nothing but a damn idiot.

[rojodiablo]

I don't believe that it is his listeners that are bitching. It seems to be people that don't listen to his show that are complaining and threatening to bocott the sponsers. I have never listened to or watched the show, but it seems like he was singled out. That same language is everywhere, I just don't get why they now decide to pick him over such an innocent comment.
Yep. Imus and MSNBC and their sponsors really have nothing to worry about. Al Sharptons' followers can boycott, but what does that really do?? I mean, you can't mortgage a house or buy stocks with WIC coupons and food stamps. :rofl: Plus, on Adam Corolla's/ Danny Bonaduche's show yesterday, they had of all people, Kobe Bryant from the Los Angeles Rapers saying how it was wrong, and it shows how race relations STILL have a long way to go until people accept people for what they are. Kobe felt that something more serious than a 2week suspension was in order. So, It got me thinking....Thank GOD Imus didn't fly to Denver, and bend some black student over a chair, stab her in the cornhole and choke her. Why, if IMUS had done something terrible like that, he would have to write the girl a fat check to shut up, but the whole Rutgers basketball team purple diamond rings worth 5 million dollars, and then go to Jerry Buss and ask for a raise. But Imus didn't. He just said something stupid. Finally, the kettle calling the pot white!!.

[biggsy]

Someone actually bought http://www.nappyho.com

Check out where it's redirected to...

[jeffcroci]

I think that if this sort of comedian shit wounds people soooo deeply, everyone who is offended that much should go put some rat poison in their cool aid, because maybe life is just going to be to harsh for you anyway. HE IS A F**CKING RADIO PERSONALITY!!! if he is funny to you laugh, and if not, say "Imus is an a-hole" and then completely forget about it. If someone says "oh no, you dont understand, Imus's words were deeply hurtfull and blah blah blaah" you should look tthem in the eyes give them the thumbs down gesture and not entertain the subject again, because some part of that person is a cabbage and they are trying to make you a cabbage too

[bfsc]

Someone actually bought http://www.nappyho.com

Check out where it's redirected to...

That is hilarious.

Some of those girls are now "scared for life" :rolleyes: If some guy calling them a nappy ho scared them for life, then I can think of some people on spearboard must really be scared.

[Mattedhead]

I think that if this sort of comedian shit wounds people soooo deeply, everyone who is offended that much should go put some rat poison in their cool aid, because maybe life is just going to be to harsh for you anyway. HE IS A F**CKING RADIO PERSONALITY!!! if he is funny to you laugh, and if not, say "Imus is an a-hole" and then completely forget about it. If someone says "oh no, you dont understand, Imus's words were deeply hurtfull and blah blah blaah" you should look tthem in the eyes give them the thumbs down gesture and not entertain the subject again, because some part of that person is a cabbage and they are trying to make you a cabbage too


:yay:
How about people worry about their own conduct more, and less about someone who's job it is to piss people off. If this is even in the top 100 issues anyone in this country should be concerned over then they aren't paying attention...

[bfsc]

How about people worry about their own conduct more, and less about someone who's job it is to piss people off. If this is even in the top 100 issues anyone in this country should be concerned over then they aren't paying attention...

This issue concerns me greatly... I am concerned as to why this is even an issue.

[f94gator]

Someone actually bought http://www.nappyho.com

Check out where it's redirected to...

That's pretty funny. :D

Oh, please don't ban me because I think it's funny. :rolleyes: :eek: :p

[aaron proffitt]

Alot of good points to be made.....

[ScottZeagle]

That's pretty funny. :D

Oh, please don't ban me because I think it's funny. :rolleyes: :eek: :p

It was funnier before it got changed...

;)

[inletsurf]

Where is Al Sharpton now?????

http://www.break.com/index/double_standard.html

[inletsurf]

Well, looks like Imus will be looking for a job bagging groceries somewhere....

http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/TV/04/12/imus.rutgers/index.html

[Bill McIntyre]

I have never listened to any of these "shock jocks" since I figure I get more of that than I need right here on Spearboard, but from what I've read, there are others far worse then Imus.

There is an article in today's LA Times that explains why this was bringing him down when worse stuff has been and continues to be said. Here is an excerpt.

But racist, sexist and even homophobic comments packaged for laughs are nothing new on talk radio. After all, Imus once crudely denigrated gay tennis star Amelie Mauresmo. He slapped Washington Post media reporter Howard Kurtz with an unabashedly anti-Semitic nickname. And those remarks were relatively tame compared with those of other nationally known shock jocks such as Howard Stern and "Opie and Anthony."

The difference this time is that, as with the Rodney King beating and, more recently, ex-"Seinfeld" star Michael Richards' racial tirade captured on a cellphone camera, the epithets came with video that turned them into incontrovertible and immortal monuments to the misdeed.

Similarly, the Imus media nugget exploded onto the Internet, feeding the 24/7 news cycle and quickly galvanizing an unlikely coalition of name-brand analysts — including NBC weatherman Al Roker, feminist Eleanor Smeal and Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama — all calling for his ouster from the airwaves.

"Twenty years ago, you said something stupid on the radio and it disappeared," said John Kobylt, half of L.A.'s "John & Ken Show" on talk-radio station KFI-AM 640. "Now, it's replayed endlessly, and 99% of the people who are reacting to it haven't seen the show and/or know its context."

[Mobile Diver]

Well, looks like Imus will be looking for a job bagging groceries somewhere....

http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/TV/04/12/imus.rutgers/index.html

Some station somewhere will pick him up. Maybe satellite. He has a loyal audience. He is just a certified *****head & not just for this latest remark or the racist angle.

[mulefeathers]

I have never listened to any of these "shock jocks" since I figure I get more of that than I need right here on Spearboard, but from what I've read, there are others far worse then Imus.

There is an article in today's LA Times that explains why this was bringing him down when worse stuff has been and continues to be said. Here is an excerpt.

Post a link to this entire article please

[Bill McIntyre]

Post a link to this entire article please

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-na-imus12apr12,0,4638313.story?coll=la-home-headlines

[Wayward Son]

Now Don Imus has settled it for us, this is how Christmas will go from now on:

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/images2/santa2007.gif