Blogger Spurs US Radio Host's Firing 505
jas_public writes "The Wall Street Journal reports on the controversial events which ultimately led to the firing of radio shock jock Don Imus. 'At 6:14 a.m. on Wednesday, April 4, relatively few people were tuned into the "Imus in the Morning Show" ... Ryan Chiachiere was. A 26-year-old researcher in Washington, D.C., for liberal watchdog organization Media Matters for America, he was assigned to monitor Mr. Imus's program. Mr. Chiachiere clipped the video, alerted his bosses and started working on a blog post for the organization's Web site.' The article breaks down how that viral video clip and word of mouth outrage reached the ears of the presidents of CBS and MSNBC, ultimately leading to Imus' dismissal."
Radio vs TV (Score:2, Interesting)
Credit where credit is due (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:"Blogging" is the most overrated thing ever (Score:1, Interesting)
Now I personally would view this as being a not so pleasant consequence of the emergence of blogging, but let's face it. If this blog didn't exist, nobody who wasn't listening to Imus's show would have known he had said that.
Re:this whle Imus thing is insane (Score:5, Interesting)
No. Mock indignation, so everyone can try to look "less racist" than everyone else.
Even his worst detractors don't seriously consider him a racist - Just another shock-jock using racially-charged language to make a buck.
Just as racist, just as misogynistic, just as insensitive.
C'mon, hasn't Chris Rock taught you anything? We show racial insensitivity. They (and it doesn't matter which "they" you refer to), as a repressed minority, subvert our vitriol to sardonically weaken our merciless blows.
Gimme a break. I thought the left at least gave lip service to freedom of speech
Nah, the right pretends to care about the bill of rights. The left pretends to care about "the children". Neither really does, of course, but let's get our pack-delusions straight here.
And FTR, I don't listen to his show (though I have left it perhaps three or four times while scanning channels, to listen to one of his guests)
Re:this whle Imus thing is insane (Score:5, Interesting)
This is manufactured outrage pure and simple. No one really thinks Imus had an intent to cause anyone grief. Al Sharpton and Jessie Jackson need their names to be in the headlines at all times because they're media whores; that's their job. And of course the white PC left had to be just as outraged to prove to everyone that they aren't racists.
Imus was was just making an observation that the Rutgers team was mostly black and looked like gang members due to their tattoos. He phrased it in a politically incorrect manner, which is what got him canned. I believe it was George Carlin who said that language is neutral. It is intent that makes something offensive or not. Imus's intent was to make the point that the Rutgers team was more butch than the Tennessee players in a humorous way.
Of course, as you say if black people use those words in a derogatory manner, society gives them a pass (in fact, popular black culture seems to encourage their use). Either words are ok for everyone to use or they are ok for no one to use. Double standards are bullshit, plain and simple.
I'm white. I'm liberal. I'm not a racist. I thought it was funny. Anyone who was seriously offended by his remarks needs to grow up.
Disturbing (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:this whle Imus thing is insane (Score:4, Interesting)
As soon as I heard about the comments made by Imus, I told my friends he would be suspended or shitcanned and that his defenders would compare his remarks to hip-hop lyrics and blame the liberals for his troubles. As a 65 year old white guy, you don't get to appropriate the language of hip-hop. Throwing some hip-hop slang into your sentences does not make you sound hip and edgy, it just makes you sound like a jackass.
Bizarrely, Imus seems to have been expressing admiration for the Rugers team. Listen to a recording of what he said - it doesn't sound like he's trying to insult or show contempt.
So, how does your own medicine taste? (Score:5, Interesting)
Color you blue.
Yes, mob rage obliterating free speech *is* a bad thing. Good point. We'll remind you of that when the wholesale slaughter of the free media which you happen not to agree with continues tomorrow.
Re:missing the point, its about double standards. (Score:2, Interesting)
Is it okay for these pop icons, and their fans, to be using such language? I would imagine that many groups for black civil rights would say that it isn't, that glorifying thugs and hos is not helping black people gain equal social footing.
Or I could judge a visible group solely by the words, actions, and affectations of its most visible and accessible members.
Re:Lesson from this debacle (Score:1, Interesting)
The irony is... (Score:4, Interesting)
Barring something really important, I will not watch MSNBC or CBS for six months. Lesser punishments have been dealt to P&G, Sprint, GM, and Staples. I am sure there were more but those are the ones I saw somewhere.
Sure, Imus is a loud-mouth idiot who says all sorts of ridiculous things. He offends just about everybody at some point. I am so sick of certain communities screaming bloody murder when THEY are offended that I now WANT them to be offended as often and thoroughly as possible. They need to learn to get over it.
Re:Throw some cheese on that whine! (Score:1, Interesting)
Were they fired for political reasons, or did the audience tune out?
They should have let Imus die by himself, just like they should let Rosie die by herself.
Re:this whle Imus thing is insane (Score:4, Interesting)
Maybe, but you're not the one who's been discriminated against, verbally abused, beaten up and sometimes even murdered in cold blood, so who are you to talk?
Oh? As a white guy, I can safely walk through a black gang neighborhood in South Central Los Angeles?
Oh wait, I actually WAS beaten up and ripped off in my supposedly safe neighborhood and it wasn't even South Central! I thought that since I'm white and heterosexual, I'm immune from all that!
Sheesh, grow up and quit being a whiny victim. EVERYONE is hated by some group for some irrational reason.
Re:Please Explain (Score:5, Interesting)
Uh, yep. That's about the size of it. If a black man walked up to me and said "Yo, honkey, what up?" No one would think anything of it. Remember: Only white people can be racist. Only men can be sexist. Only straight people can be narrow-minded ("homophobic"). Did you not get the memo?
As a straight, white, male I'm fucked. All my beliefs, feeling and motives are suspect and to be derided. I'm guilty of all of these offenses before I even open my mouth. I have to come up with lame justifications every day that "my best friends are crippled, black lesbians", just to "defend" myself.
The saddest part is, simply by posting this sarcastic rant, I've already convinced everyone that I'm all of these things, and worse. Add to that the fact that I'm a Christian that believes in evolution and I've pretty much hated by everyone.
On the plus side, I don't use Windows.Re:Most women basketball players are hideous. (Score:4, Interesting)
You're also overlooking the fairly public campaign (led by blacks) to get rappers and other public figures to stop using the "n word". I'm pretty sure Jesse and Al have come out in support of that effort, but that doesn't make me a fan of their politics. I just don't bother trying to make them the focus of racial problems in America. They wouldn't be as effective in what they do if racism were not a problem. Yes, they exploit that fact. But you just exploited the fact that they exploit the situation, to make your own inane point that there's a reverse racist in your work place, without whom everyone would be singing Kum Bay Yah.
Re:Most women basketball players are hideous. (Score:3, Interesting)
Its only mind boggling if you ignore the fact that not very long ago an apartheid system operated in the racist South.
The principle supporters of segregation were Democrats. When LBJ signed the civil rights act the segregationists quit the Democratic party and were welcomed with open arms by the Republican party. Except for Sen. Byrd who stopped being a racist.
And so as a result it is OK for the people who were oppressed under segregation to make comments that it is not OK for white people to say. Chris Rock can talk about 'Niggers' because nobody is going to make the mistake of thinking that he might be a closet sympathizer of the KKK.
When Trent Lott, George Allen and other white folk don't get the benefit of the doubt, precisely because there are still racists who think that its OK to treat black people as second class citizens. There are even still people who try to disenfranchise black people by making it harder for them to vote. Take a look at the elections in Florida where black people were systematically disenfranchised for having the same name as convicted felons. Take a look at Ohio where the corrupt Republican secretary of state deliberately distributed election equipment so that black people had to wait hours to vote while white people got to vote immediately.
It is pretty difficult to prove that the systematic measures used to disenfranchise blacks are deliberate. They are cloaked in the language of 'preventing voter fraud'. So society has to rely on proxy measures for likely racism. And that is why it is not acceptable for any white person who makes racist statements to have any role in the political process.
There is a double standard here, its called the race card and its the Republican party that has made a habit of playing it at every opportunity for the past forty years.
All a business decision (Score:5, Interesting)
They can't be making money off his show or they wouldn't have fired him. Plain and simple. Now that he has been 'fired for cause', there has to be some clause in his multi-million dollar contract that allows the radio corporation to get out of paying him. In America, you can usually find out what is happening in the background by following the money.
I'm quite sure that after a month or two, Imus will be back on the air. Most likely through a satellite radio service like Howard Stern is. He'll be paid somewhat less than what he was on broadcast and a lot less than Mr. Stern (whose contract is choking the satellite radio company that signed him). But he'll be back.
The other poster was right, Imus was fired because Euro-Americans are not allowed to say anything non-reverential about anyone who isn't Euro-American. African Americans can say anything about anyone, no matter how violent, libelous, or insane, just as long as they have a synthetic electronic drum beat in the background, use a loud angry voice, and frame their speech inside childish inane rhymes.
Don't take these people seriously. Remember, we control the technology, and therefore we ultimately control the people who depend upon technology.
Re:Radio vs TV (Score:3, Interesting)
When has O'Reilly called a black person a nappy-headed ho? I actually dig O'Reilly because he doesn't let politicians dodge a question like all the other talking heads do.
What I find really funny is that Democrats and other liberals were forced to speak out against Imus, who is normally a welcome venue for them. But I noticed that nobody called out Jesse Jackson for his hypocrisy when he has made anti-semitic remarks. The only person who did was Meredith Vieria, and she actually APOLOGIZED for bringing it up. She would never apologize to a conservative hypocrite. Oi.
Actually... (Score:3, Interesting)
However Al Sharpton and others deserve public outrage against them as well for being bigots of a different flavor. It's pretty obvious that in situations involving Blacks and Whites Sharpton always takes the side of the Blacks, facts be damned. So as much as he would like to claim the high road he's just another bigot and part of the problem not the solution.
Re:The really scary aspect of this. (Score:2, Interesting)
Let me set you and a lot of other people straight about something: I work in an environment in which secrecy and surveillance is a day-to-day part of people's jobs. Trust me when I tell you this, this nation has far bigger fish to fry and barely has the resources to do what needs to be done in this area. (Forgive me for not going into this in more detail, but I can't. I'm sure your smart enough to figure out why). There are far more dangerous things going on that require solid intelligence resources, things that directly affect the general welfare of this country. Besides, do you even realize what it would take in time, equipment and manpower for the United States Government to attempt to "spy" on American phone calls?
But, that's for a different discussion...
That aside, my comments were not on what Media Matters does on the surface...hell, I'm a regular reader of Media Research Center's site, and there's no secret that their goal is to focus on anti-conservative bias in the media. As for Media Matters, I've been to their site and, you're right, I don't agree with a lot of their positions...but that's not my problem.
My problem is with the wording of the story. Perhaps it's because of my age, but I find it a bit disconcerting when someone is monitoring something like the Imus show (or any radio show for that matter...I'll bet they have a whole Truth Squad tuning in to Limbaugh or Hannity). You know, like in the old Iron Curtain days (remember real Communism, kids?). The folks who ran those governments also had citizens "monitoring" people. The Nazis were pretty adept at this, too. In Cuba, they send police squads out to confiscate unauthorized satellite dishes [cubanet.org] discovered through monitoring, to prevent information from the outside.
Now, before anyone gets their panties in a bunch, I'm not comparing Media Matters with Commies, Nazis and the Cuban cops. As we all do, they have every right to listen to anything they wish and comment on it in any way they want, and I would defend to the death their right to do that, whether I agreed with their politics or not.
But that word...monitoring...a bit too Orwellian for my old bones.