Imus Gets Sacked...

[iceman]

There was more political dialog on that show (and not just PC bullshit like this shitshow has become) than there was on the rest of radio combined. Imus has a mean streak but he's always had his heart and his wallet in the right place.

He's raised millions of dollars for vets, for kids with autism, for kids with cancer.

Which YOU have NOT done.

The most common critique of the guy is that he's "old". Well, fuck you, you'll be old too one day . If you're lucky. They didn't pay him 8 million a year because he's senile.

The whole fucking thing is ridiculous, people worried about one fucking comment while our kids continue to die in Iraq for no fucking purpose.

Get your priorities straight, you stupid motherfuckers: A radio guy said something mean, stop the fucking presses.

Meanwhile we are in a war we can't win no matter what we do. Hmmm. Pick your battles.

The whole thing stinks of the press: the interviewers who couldn't get the same people Imus diud, the Washington press corps still offended by Imus' handling of Clinton 10 years ago, the sad sorry bitches who are now trying to make a career commenting on the debacle now.

Imus is funny and mean, charitable and hateful and, ultimately, a human being with flaws. Just like you.

So shut the fuck up.

[TJ.Brk]

http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/TV/0...ers/index.html

Damn, I didn't think CBS would have the balls to do it...

Personally, I'm happy. That old geezer sucks.

OK. Well then they should fire Al Sharpton and the Rev Jesse for being complete morons and insulting anyone with half a brain.

Did they fire those two when they said the things they did about those white players at Duke. NO

What about rap music. I think they should fire every single radio station manager that plays rap because it talks about violence towards white people.

Now I think you see my point about how PC biased this entire ordeal is. Frankly Imus is a cock. Never liked the guy, but he is a shock jock.

[tromano]

Cool it iceman. He will be on XM next month. Right?

[Pow4Brains]

Isn’t he is paid to get a reaction out of people? Granted he has said some shit in the past that leads me to believe he has a little racism (old dog/new tricks), etc….in him, but that is his personality and the reason he was/is on the radio to begin with. If you don’t like it, don’t listen. When people stop listening his rating will fall and the show will be off the air. Pulling the plug was retarded, and I agree, overall he means well.

Isn’t Rush Limbaugh still on the air after all the crap that came out of his mouth about Donovan Mcnab?

[iceman]

Isn’t Rush Limbaugh still on the air after all the crap that came out of his mouth about Donovan Mcnab?

Yes he is. Also after it became clear that he was a drug addict while railing against drugs and saying that dealers should get life without parole.

While he was buying prescription drugs. Illegally. From a dealer (errrr, "doctor"). Pure fucking hypocrisy, distiled to a level that Grey Goose could never hope to match.

Imus had the best show in the whole of American media, the one show that didn't pander, the one show that tried to tell it like it is.

Mixed in with some non-pc bullshit that I often wished he would stop doing, because it didn't add anything and it was embarassing.

But still, a radio show. And they went over the line one day.

Big fucking deal.

[BLOOD SWEAT STEEL]

So it's okay to judge one talk radio host as a drug addict and a hypocrite, and not another as a racist? Please. This doesn't even touch on the "Jigaboo" casually thrown into the conversation - for those who have listened.

While I don't think he should have been fired, I wonder how many of you would be wielding pitchforks and torches if it were Hannity, Coulter, O'Reilly or Ingraham spewing the same words as Imus? Yeah. We all already know the answer to that one. Freedom of speech, but only as long as the speaker's views are somewhat in line with your own. I could give a shit less about any of them, I just wouldn't be so quick to paint the evil-doers with such a narrow brush.

[tromano]

Bill Maher had his show canceled when he endorsed Al Queda / criticized US troops after 911. He was back on HBO by 2003.

[Lonnie]

While I don't think he should have been fired, I wonder how many of you would be wielding pitchforks and torches if it were Hannity, Coulter, O'Reilly or Ingraham spewing the same words as Imus? Yeah. We all already know the answer to that one. Freedom of speech, but only as long as the speaker's views are somewhat in line with your own. I could give a shit less about any of them, I just wouldn't be so quick to paint the evil-doers with such a narrow brush.

I support everyone's freedom of speech, but be ready to deal with the repercussions of WHAT you say. That dumb@$$ Imus couldn't even figure out why what he said was so offensive....

[Pow4Brains]

That dumb@$$ Imus couldn't even figure out why what he said was so offensive....

And hence the reason he shouldn’t have been fired.

[AsheanMT]

Who cares anymore.... Bush is the president and wasn't even elected as so. We are in an un-winnable war (in Iraq and against imaginary terrorists) that is kept alive to keep our military industrial complex strong and healthy. We can't exercise our freedom of speech. We have leaders who DO NOT keep church and state separate. etc.etc.etc.. I'd be all for revolution but I'm heavily outnumbered so I say...fuck it!

[MeatPuppet]

Bill Maher had his show canceled when he endorsed Al Queda / criticized US troops after 911. He was back on HBO by 2003.

My politics might be 180 degrees from Maher's but I really liked him and thought it was one of the dumbest things I had ever seen when he got canned. That is proof that the Left doesn't have a lock on the PC stupidity that is having it's way with our society. Everyone is way, way, way too sensitive now a days.

This can't continue. Something has got to reach a breaking point. If not, life will begin to imitate art and we will find ourselves living in the world of Demolition Man.

[Pura Vida]

They've prob wanted to sack him for a long time, but needed something like this to get out of the contract. He sucks.

Money talks. His show was cheap to produce and brought in big bucks. As soon as advertisers began pulling out, he's canned.

[SkiDork]

Personally I'm glad that dinosaur is gone. He was funny in the 70s but went downhill ever since.

The FAN is one of my fave stations but I never listened to it in the morning because he was on. I'm now looking forward to some decent sports talk in the morning instead of having to switch to ESPN 1050.

[Lonnie]

And hence the reason he shouldn’t have been fired.

Sorry, but you lost me...

[BigAirSkier1580]

As I said in the other thread...

Could care less that he won't be on the air anymore, but he was canned for the wrong reason.

[MassLiberal]

He was canned because sponsers pulled their advertising. It is one thing to attack a political figure such as hillary, quite another to attack a group of girls who worked their asses off to be a Cinderella Story in the womens Basketball Tourny, who have no ability to respond. He went too far.

If the sponsors had stayed on board, he would have stayed, in the end, it was the money that talked.

[Benny Profane]

As I said before, that comment simply wasn't funny. Just bitter and nasty. Much like many things he, but more his little crew of alter egos, have been getting away with for over 25 years.

I'm reminded of a comment made by one of the actors in the Sopranos cast in an article in Vanity Fair recently. They pointed out how male culture in New York and Jersey is filled with a lot of ball busting, that many from other parts of the country have a hard time with. God knows I'm not happy being back and tolerating it. But that ball busting, if done mano y mano, always carries a penalty. You risk physical injury or loss of job or damage to your property if you go "too far" with the wrong person, and that's the game. But when it's done in the media, on, well, the perfect home for it, a sports radio outlet, that risk is nill, unless they get past your bodyguards near your limo. So it's easy to get away with the cheap shots, the unfunny ethnic and racist jokes. Everyone out there still stuck in high school gets a snigger, and you and your crew make a few million. Well, this time he got punched in the face and is lying on the ground in the big schoolyard, wondering, hey, what did I say? Let him go away and figure it out, and maybe he'll be a man about it and learn. But I doubt it. He's too old.

[Tuckerman]

I wounder if Howard Stern would give Imus a spot on Howard 100. He says its a refuge for shock jocks that get banned on terrestrial radio.

[MassLiberal]

I wounder if Howard Stern would give Imus a spot on Howard 100. He says its a refuge for shock jocks that get banned on terrestrial radio.

Considering the fact the Stern hates Imus with a passion, I doubt it.

But who knows, maybe he'll have a change of heart.

[Crass3000]

If the sponsors had stayed on board, he would have stayed, in the end, it was the money that talked.

Totally true.

It's not like the networks who made tons of money off his show gave a crap what he said as long as they were making money. He's been doing pretty much the same thing for years. Now they act like he was fired because he made them look bad and tarnished their reputation -- like they are on some moral pedestal.

[Tuckerman]

Considering the fact the Stern hates Imus with a passion, I doubt it.

But who knows, maybe he'll have a change of heart.

Well, I would agree but he also hated Bubba The Love Sponge but set aside his hate in the name of free speech.

[SkiDork]

Remember that scene in "Private Parts" where Imus comes out of his dressing room and yells at him? Funny stuff...

[The Dad]

Excellent postmortem on the shit-storm from the Gray Lady:

April 13, 2007
The Media Equation
Flying Solo Past the Point of No Return
By DAVID CARR

For a few days, it seemed as if Don Imus would somehow pull out of the death spiral. After all, once he came under fire, Mr. Imus said he was sorry for the racial insult, said he was sorry again and then began a week of penance, raising money on his own show for sick children and turning up at various other microphones to renew his apology.

But even as he went through the ritual of public mortification, his backers began to see what he did not: the drumbeat was not going to stop. The controversy metastasized and by Monday, the media began to lock and load. Mr. Imus, who had shrugged off the initial criticism last week, was fighting for survival.

“All the elements were there,” said James Carville, the political consultant who has appeared on the show and has seen a few stories blow up in his time. “You had some dry brush, gasoline, high winds, no rain and low humidity and before you know it, man, it was a wildfire.”

The toxicity of Mr. Imus’s remark, the innocence of his targets, and his refusal to put down the shovel — he dug himself deeper just about every time he opened his mouth — made last night’s decision by CBS to end his show seem almost inevitable. Disparate media imperatives were at work, but they converged and whipsawed into a self-sustaining frenzy.

OLD MEETS NEW Mr. Imus is an old-school radio guy caught in a very modern media paradigm. When he started 30 years ago, if he made the same kind of remark, it would have floated off into the ether — the Federal Communications Commission, if it received complaints, might have taken notice, but few others.

But radio is now visible — Mr. Imus’s show was simulcast on MSNBC, and more to the point, it is downloadable. By Friday, reporters and advocates could click up the remark on the Media Matters for America Web site, and later YouTube, and see a vicious racial insult that delighted him visibly as it rolled off his tongue. The ether now has a memory.

IDLE HANDS An awareness of Mr. Imus’s “nappy-headed hos” remark grew on Friday, just as editors and reporters in both print and broadcast were staring down Good Friday and Easter. Filling up post-holiday reports is always a chore and there stood Mr. Imus, backpedaling and apologizing to anyone who would listen. The media apparatus, at loose ends, kicked in with a vengeance.

AN A-LIST MOMENT Most of the time when shock jocks step over the line, they are surrounded by a cadre of faceless enablers. Mr. Imus, because of his manifest interests, played host to the cream of journalism and politics. He may not have the biggest numbers in broadcasting, but his ability to book the likes of Senator John McCain and Tim Russert of NBC News means that he became a far worthier target. When most radio talkers go off the rails, the only question is whether advertisers will pull back. In this instance, his guests were implicated; whether they would return to the show became an issue of public moment.

THE WRONG VICTIMS Speaking of targets, Mr. Imus chose poorly. “Imus has a long history of saying far more negative, divisive things,” said Robert M. Entman, a professor of media and public affairs at George Washington University. “In this case, he chose a college basketball team. College athletics is sacred in our culture in a way. We tell ourselves that it is a place that we have transcended race. This was an attack on the purity of sport, student athletes who are not paid to perform. In picking on a whole team, he chose the wrong noun to go with the adjectives.”

He also picked on the wrong coach. C. Vivian Stringer protects her posse; her eloquent, aggressive defense of the team — and the obvious class of the players at the podium — made for riveting television with a great deal of emotional content. The Rutgers institutional decision to treat the affair as a teachable moment put Mr. Imus in an even deeper hole.

SHARPTON’S WHEELHOUSE Should Mr. Imus have stepped to the mouth of the lion on Monday and appeared on the Rev. Al Sharpton’s radio show, which effectively became a cable television show broadcast everywhere? Probably not. Mr. Imus gave the story stout legs by seeming to lose his cool on the show by calling his interrogators “you people,” a hoary racial trope. What looked like an effort to build a ledge became another trapdoor.

Mr. Imus might have learned by watching Michael Richards — another public figure whose racial remarks hit the YouTube megaphone — who went on the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s show and was left in a steaming heap. By seeking absolution from people with their own political agenda, Mr. Imus lost custody of his apology.

AN ARGUMENT WITHOUT END Sexism comes and goes on the Imus show, and all over the culture for that matter — but a visceral debate over racism in America is always there, waiting. “There is an insatiable appetite for race-related discourse in the country,” said Edward Wasserman, a journalism professor at Washington and Lee University. “Imus is just a barstool bigot, but there is such a river of anxiety about race in the culture that it doesn’t take much to tap into it.”

CASTING News thrives on the same thing entertainment does: character and narrative. In this case, a barely repentant curmudgeon had effectively mugged Cinderella. “It is a perfect story,” said Martin Kaplan, a professor of media and entertainment at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California. “You have a grizzled cowboy up against innocent victims.”

Mr. Jackson and Mr. Sharpton might have résumés at odds with their status as avatars of racial rectitude, but Essence Carson, a junior with a soft hand for both the piano and the jump shot, carried no such baggage when she suggested that Mr. Imus had some explaining to do. “The Rutgers women’s team this year will go down as one of the most famous teams in history, like the ’71 Nebraska team,” Mr. Carville said.

After listening to Mr. Imus on the “Today” show, Al Roker, the weatherman who is the very picture of America’s jolly uncle, made it plain in a post on his blog: “CBS Radio and NBC News need to remove Don Imus from the airwaves.”

Who countered for Mr. Imus? The cadre of white, accomplished males who have been his running buddies for years. He may have black friends, but they don’t show up on his show much and that broadcast apartheid left him without meaningful allies. Mr. Imus was alone and ineffective in his defense, after years of being surrounded by sycophancy that has left him reflexively entitled and ill-prepared for media opportunities in which he does not control the microphone.

A SPANKING MACHINE WITH NO EXIT Time heals, time forgets, but Mr. Imus was seeking to shore up his career immediately. Mr. Imus never caught a breath because he was in the middle of a 24-hour news cycle that kept him in the cross hairs. It is the kind of media ceremony that generally ends in a human sacrifice.

[cinnepa]

i just don't get how sharpton and jackson seem to think they represent the opinions of every minority in the country........did they apologize to the duke lacrosse players yet??

[SkiDork]

i just don't get how sharpton and jackson seem to think they represent the opinions of every minority in the country........did they apologize to the duke lacrosse players yet??

Tawana Brawley dude... Tawana Brawley..

nuff said....