A VERY SAD DAY IN RADIO

[itburnswhenipee]

I can not express how sad I am. Not only sad that one of the greatest radio personalities in history lost his career over one throwaway comment---but also sad of what has happened to the United States of America.

Here are some questions:

Q: How is the term "Ho" considered racial?

Q: Was it "racist" when Imus referred to a white female as a "Ho"? (ie., Paris Hilton, on many occasions)

Q: What would the reaction have been if Imus used "Ho" to refer to the all-white women's golf team at Yale? Would anybody consider this racist?

Q: Webster's Dictionary defines "nappy" as "kinky or frizzy." Where is the racial reference?

Q: Was there an election in which the majority of African-Americans elected Al Sharpton as the official spokesperson for all black people? When was this election held?

Q: Who will fire all the rappers who have used the term "HO" to sell records and make millions of dollars?

Q: Will CBS fire air personality Steve Harvey for his daily comments utilizing humor based on stereotypes of African-Americans? How will we stop Chris Rock, Cedric The Entertainer, D.L. Hughley, Bernie Mac and other comedians from making racial references in their standup comedy routines?

HERE IS THE MOST IMPORTANT QUESTION FOR ALL THE RADIO PERSONALITIES READING THIS: HOW CAN YOU DO A SHOW WHEN YOU ARE CONSTANTLY LOOKING OVER YOUR SHOULDER?

Think about it.

 

[lilburncommunityradio]

Yes indeed very sad.. Its a sad state of affiars when Two Race Bigots like Jackson and Sharpton can make this happen. They are a discredit to thier race. I think it sucks. I hope that for those that are joyous about this, just damn CHOKE. Anyone who buys thier crap are race baiters.

 

[amlover]

This was a knee jerk reaction and should have never happened. I for one enjoyed Imus and watched his show on MSNBC and listened to the stream of his show from WFAN website. I think in the long run MSNBC and CBS will have only hurt themselves. Imus will resurface on satellite which is fine with me. Let's hold Sharpton and Jackson to their words and see if they go after the rap artist and stations that air their foul crap. I do think Imus was out of line with his comments but should have not been fired.

 

[taylorengineer]

Come on it burns.....we all know what that means and where it comes from! So does Imus......
Good point about the African-American comedians, pundits, and rappers. When are THEY going to stop the self hatred? When will the black community demand a stop to this much more influential "you ain't good enough" brainwashing from the rappers and hip-hop artists?
Snoop Dog said today that the hip-hop artists are from the 'hood and were telling their story of despair....that they have a right to use the instruments of self hatred to tell the story of the urban black man ala 2007.
The message is still self hatred....and we become what we think about. We need leadership.... more now than ever before! Not just from black leaders but ALL leaders. We face tremendous challenges, as a nation, and as a planet. We should make every effort to move in the positive, constructive, direction.
And we need ALL the media to quit making black folk feel inferior.....because we all know they are not.

 

[FMDawg]

I never cared for Imus, but work with people who listened to him in his prime and they loved him. This whole affair is ridiculous but it leaves me with 2 questions.

1. Would it have escalated to this level were it not for his TV show and the video evidence that could be viewed ad nauseum?

2. I wonder where are all the Dixie Chick supporters who were complaining about "censorship" and it's chilling effect on free speech? Don't hear'em now. And do you think that many who are saying Imus getting fired was overkill were more than happy to the DC's not get airplay and have to cancel concerts? Just wondering

 

[bdcsi]

I didn't care for his show.. listening to a bunch of New Yorkers sit around and bitch about everything just wasn't fun for me. But.. what has happened to him is just short of the black listing of people from the McCarthy era. Its sad in 2007 that people still insist on having a double standard between the races in our country. When somebody makes a deragatory remark about any ethnic group that is caucasian.. Irish, Italian, Brit.. whatever.. white people as a group aren't offended.. why should black people be when somebody berates an individual or a few black people? He apologized, it was a stupid thing to say... whats the problem?

BD

 

[cklw800]

Get over it. Double standards exist and will stay. There are plenty of white men left to make fun of black people. Imus is just one less. Steve Harvey, Snoop Dogg are not excused either. If you are SO upset about what Steve Harvey and other black entertainers say about the black people you all seem to care about so much, go after them. Tell them how much you care about how they degrade YOUR black friends and get them off the air!

Get over it. It's a GREAT day for radio. No one's talking about Sirius of XM today.

 

[wombat]

i couldn't agree more. it makes me so sad. and i've never once listened to don imus. the selective outrage at him is amazing. others spew hate every day they're on the air (limbaugh, even howard stern sometimes) and no one blinks. imus takes a stab at a joke and his career is over.

and i don't buy the argument that "some groups can use bad words, when those words refer to themselves, but others can't." if a word is unacceptable, it should be unacceptable to EVERYONE. how do parents teach their kids that it's fine for some people to use the n word but it's not ok for others?

and not to blame the victims, but the womens basketball team even pisses me off now. i'd wager not a single one of them had ever even HEARD of don imus before this. and they got their feelings hurt? oh poor babies. poor babies who are getting a fantastic education and playing a college sport, running down a basketball court while more than 3000 OTHER young americans have been blown to fing smithereens in iraq? let's keep our eyes on the ball, people.

and america has frightened me for many years now. the little seed of fear is growing and apparently there's nothing i can do to stop it. this country has officially gone crazy.

 

[BDBopper]

What I don't understand is now Trent Lott is leading a charge to have Rosie O' Donnel fired for her statements inferring 9/11 was an inside job as a payback. I thought Imus was a liberal Democrat. Or am I mistaken?

 

[deadman]

OK... Don Imus career is being paid to the black double standard.
I wish blacks would just admit that they want special rights.
Free Speech means I can say whatever the hell I want as long as
I don't cause a riot, lie under oath, file a false report, or break the
rules of the almighty FCC.

I am all about fighting back and cracking down on rap music and
pushing for the firing of any music producer or company that sells
music that has the words that are racist and/or sexist. Let's hear Jesse
and evil Al crow.

BTW Al Sharpton needs to apologize to the Duke Lacrosse Players.

 

[MarkLaRoi]

While I certainly agree that standards should be evenly applied across the board no matter what ethnic group a broadcaster belongs to, and no group should be permitted to insult another based on race, this is hardly his first offense. A person would also have to beas dumb as a bag of rocks to not realize his intent behind "nappy-headed hos". Perhaps if he was talking about an all White team you could have some debate as to his intent.

Besides, if he wasn't all in on the joke, why did he laugh along with his producer's "jigaboo" comment? Because he was ok with it. He needed to go and Sharpton needs to join him. Get rid of all the dead weight, ignorant lazy minds clogging up public airwaves.

 

[sweetdick]

Guys and gals, there is one reason Imus was canned by both NBC and CBS. It's pretty simple and we have all discussed it many times on this board when talking about stations in the Atlanta area.

Wednesday when NBC decided to fire Imus, it happened after 3-4 national advertisers pulled their money from his show.

Today, after a couple more national advertisers decided to pull out, CBS let him go.

According to reports Imus brought in around 15 million dollars a year for those 2 companies. When it became obvious the gravy train had derailed, that was all it took. Nothing Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson had to say had any influence on the decisions made by NBC and CBS. It was their threat to the advertisers that forced those companies to pull their money from his show. At that point it was only a matter of when he would be gone.

Many of you believe that the almighty dollar and its affect on the bottom line is the only reason radio stations exist, so this should come as no surprise to you.

 

[tigermichal]

Don Imus called these women "nappyheaded", "jiggaboos" All racial slurs used against African American people and he deserved to be fired

 

[tlyle]

Does Imus have grounds for wrongful termination? Most major corporations have rules for displining employees which may include termination if those rules are majorly violated. There is employment case law that you must warn employees before termination occurs. You must put them on probation and provide some performance improvement plan. NBC and CBS put him on suspension, but not probation. Did Imus get any prior warnings for his acts on the air? Does NBC or CBS have a case for dismissal because of FCC violations? I don't see where the FCC rules were broken. His contract may have wording indicating firing if certain things occur, but did it happen in this case?

I agree that sponsorship probably caused the trigger to be pulled, but Imus may still come out the winner here. I am suprised that Imus has not gone to satelite before now.

 

[Johnny B.]

No he didn't. And where is the ACLU?

 

[ArtyBoy]

Let me put on my tinfoil cap and posit this conspiracy theory: what if CBS is behind the fanning of these flames? Supposedly NBC encouraged Dana Carvey's lampooning of Johnny Carson as a means to help budge Johnny out of his chair in the early `90's.

So maybe CBS says, "Don is closing in on 70. We can't make bucks off of one of Paul Harvey's peers in morning drive. Someone fax the news to Al Sharpton that Don said 'nappy-head hos' this morning and see if we can get him out of here." It's a win-win for CBS: they're sensitive to social issues, and their rid of a guy maybe they wanted to unload anyhow.

 

[itburnswhenipee]

NAPPY HEADED HOES

No he didn't. And where is the ACLU?

I remember the first time I ever heard the word "hoes."

It was during the early 1980's, and a young comedian named Eddie Murphy appeared on Saturday Night Live and talked about "hoes" during a comedy bit. The Reverend Al Sharpton immediately condemned Murphy as a racist and after a great national outrage, Murphy apologized and promised never to tell jokes again on Saturday Night Live. But, that didn't placate the many advertisers who dropped their sponsorships in protest over the obviously bigoted and hateful Eddie Murphy. NBC later fired Murphy for his racist jokes, and he was never allowed to tell jokes, appear on TV, or make any movies ever again. ;D

 

[deadman]

Why are there so many black companies that specialize in being nappy? why are there are books by black authors on nappiness? It's not racist. I see just as many white hoes and I seen black hoes. That's not racist either.

The only nappy headed hoes I see now are Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton (they are Reverend in the true meaning). They pimped out their race as a bunch of victims without talking about the real issues.

 

[formeraa]

While I am an Imus fan, this country has an UGLY racial problem -- witnessed by all the posts in this thread. If you're young, check your history books. Blacks were brought to this country in chains and built much of the country in slavery. Blacks were regularly lynched and killed by whites (who got NO punishment whatsoever) up until the 60's. Segregation was rampant through much of the country until the late 60's and early 70's. This is not ancient history!

So, some 30 years later, Blacks are making some strides but still bump into ugly racial stereotypes. And the only response is to "Get Over It!" by whites. Good grief! : :

 

[beef]

Sweet Dick nailed it. And, beyond that, Imus has swam in these murky waters before. Like Greaseman it eventually caught him. I've always been proud that "grease' was quite popular in the alleged 'new south', ATLANTA when, IMHO, he was just a very creative, funny, racist in hiding. One can be many things, bad/good, all in one. This, to me, explains to me why Toucher, of the Fred variety, worked here for a bit and seems to be working in AmeriKKKa's worst racist town, and will thrive. Or not.