Imus In Trouble With Jackson and Sharpton

[The Voice of Reason]

The (so-called) Reverends Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson are on a campaign to remove Don Imus from the airwaves for comments Imus made about a college basketball team made up mostly of black women. Imus apologized for his remarks calling the players " Nappy-headed hos." but that hasn't stopped Sharpton and Jackson from complaining to the FCC , WFAN and MSNBC in their call for Imus to be fired. What do you think, should Imus get the boot or be forgiven for his remarks?

 

[Mark Giardina]

The (so-called) Reverends Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson are on a campaign to remove Don Imus from the airwaves for comments Imus made about a college basketball team made up mostly of black women. Imus apologized for his remarks calling the players " Nappy-headed hos." but that hasn't stopped Sharpton and Jackson from complaining to the FCC , WFAN and MSNBC in their call for Imus to be fired. What do you think, should Imus get the boot or be forgiven for his remarks?

MSNBC will fight like hell to keep Imus on the air because his show is the only one that generates an audience for that network. Same goes for WFAN.

As for Imus' remarks, yes they were uncalled for, but he's built his career insulting people, so is anyone really shocked at the comments he made. Besides he apologized so what does Sharpton and Jackson want, Imus to be strung up from a tree?

 

[Johnny Morgan]

Imus apologized for his remarks calling the players " Nappy-headed hos." but that hasn't stopped Sharpton and Jackson from complaining to the FCC

Not sure what they expect the FCC to do. "Nappy-headed hos" is neither obscene nor indecent.

And the FCC does not have a "race-based" speech regulation.

At most, this goes into the file of the station(s) about which Sharpton, et al. complained. One of a number of items that the FCC can look at when renewing.

In the totality of the circumstances 8 years from now, I'm sure one host saying "nappy-headed hos" one time (and later offering contrition) falls somewhere in between complaints that "the bulb over the front door to the studio was out" and "they used regular copy paper in the public file".

 

[Radio_Realist]

I wonder how much Imus had to pay those two in order to get them to be part of his publicity stunt?

 

[Johnny Morgan]

Buck fifty, plus bus fare?

 

[evnlee]

I wonder how much Imus had to pay those two in order to get them to be part of his publicity stunt?

considering the players involved, it seems more plausible that those two would be paying Imus for thier pub

honestly, though~ how can anyone take 'Hymietown' Jackson and 'Tawana' Sharpton seriously at all? If someone is going to pitch a fuss, stomp thier feet, and demand Imus' resignation, shouldn't it be someone that doesn't have thier own 'oops' baggage?

That's like Paula Abdul going on the radio to complain about Courtney Love's inebriation! ridiculous.

 

[VERITAS DE VOCE]

TRUE... but consider the audience. The direct audience is not Black America, it's the media. And they shell for those two ANYTIME there is a racially-charged incident in this country. Black America is the proxy. Sharpton/Jackson knows it. American knows it. The media loves it and curtails to it.

IMUS is in serious hot water. The peacock and the fan can fight like crazy for this, but it's going to hurt. Sharpton and Jackson are just the beginning. Pundits like Michael Eric Dyson and Cornel West. Media types like Roland Martin. Faith-based/sociopolitical types like Floyd Flaye, Calvin Butts and TD Jakes. They are ALL aiming after him.

There is shock radio. And then there is this. Stern can lampoon all the scattered T n' A he wants. You throw out a line like that... Wyatt Earp shows up quoting the Bible (Tombstone fans in the house?)

...you tell him I'm comin' and hell is coming with me...

We have not head the last of Imus. Trust me.

 

[TJStone]

Imus groveling this morning was disgusting. He completely caved in to these people.
He is not Michael Richards. He makes a ton of money for both MSNBC and CBS Radio, plus the stations that carry him. The suits are not going to mess with the I-cash cow. What's happened to the I-cajones?

The Rev Al has a radio show and nobody listens, until today. This is the best stunt he's pulled so far. Veritas mentioned Michael Eric Dyson and nobody seems to have noticed that Dyson is gone from the Syndication One Black talk radio network (the same network Sharpton is on); they've got Star Jones from The View filling in after Dyson left without notice. That show's how much attention Sharpton's network is getting.

Maybe Imus could have said it better, but he had a valid point. Rutgers is an elite school academically and a top women's basketball program. Their players could be and should be role models for Blacks, Women and all kids but instead they come across as ghetto/hip-hop/rap/gang-banger trash (in contrast to their opponents from Tennessee). If this is how Rutger's wants to be represented on national TV, they are really in trouble. Applications follow image. Money follows image. But maybe political correctness is more important to the woolly headed ("marked by fuzzy thinking; muddleheaded; dim-witted") intellectuals running the state university of NJ.

God Bless America (except Rutgers).

 

[charles123]

He's an idiot when he was on the air in Dallas and still is an idiot now.

 

[Infidel]

Wonder how much Not-so-Sharpton and H-jackson will shake him down? Those two need revenue to pay for their limos and $5000 suits.

 

[chuckydoll]

And deservedly so

Rutgers Lady Knights coach Vivian Stringer attends a black megachurch in Somerset NJ. Yesterday her church's pastor, Buster Soaries, used his Easter sermon to demand Imus's head over this racist shtick. Buster Soaries is no liberal -- he's close to George W. Bush and former NJ Gov. Christine Todd Whitman.

Rutgers is an elite school academically and a top women's basketball program. Their players could be and should be role models for Blacks, Women and all kids but instead they come across as ghetto/hip-hop/rap/gang-banger trash (in contrast to their opponents from Tennessee).

Did you read the NY Daily News yesterday? A sports-section article showed the Lady Knights are high-class. Looks like we got ourselves another Imus on this board.

 

[Radio_Realist]

I read somewhere that Imus got a two week suspension over this deal.

 

[Mark Giardina]

I read somewhere that Imus got a two week suspension over this deal.

Every cable TV network carried the story Monday night that CBS Radio and MSNBC has suspended Imus for two weeks because of the controversial remarks he made over the women's basketball team.

Imus even appeared on Al Sharpton's radio show to apologize numerous times.
Sharpton wouldn't even stay in the studio with Imus during commercial breaks, in which the I-man said to one of Sharpton's people, off mic, I didn't come here for this B.S.

My opinion, for what its worth, is that while Imus was wrong to say what he did, the man apologized. Meanwhile Jesse Jackson and Sharpton are using this incident just to generate publicity for themselves. They are calling for Imus to be fired.

Where was the outcry when it was discovered that Jackson fathered a child out of wedlock, or that Sharpton was involved in the Tawana Brawley incident in which innocent people were paraded in front of the media?

 

[evnlee]

Re: And deservedly so

Did you read the NY Daily News yesterday? A sports-section article showed the Lady Knights are high-class.

I read it, and the one from NJ.Com. Did you watch any of the womens Final Four? Or course not.

Take a look at the starters from Tenn and Rutgers. Imus was wrong to say what he said, but he was not being dishonest. Those girls do 'look rough', compared to thier opponent. Read where almost all the players are from the Northeast ( predominantly NY,NJ, etc, only 2 not from there), and many do, in fact have tattoes. I know this sounds bad, but when I see a woman with Rodman like tats, I think ' thats a rough chick'.

He went to far with the 'ho' comment, IMHO. But people who are making out like the Rutgers womens BB team is somewhow some group of 'damaged, shrinking violets' are just as wrong as Imus.

This whole new world of 'talk radio' and 'political correctness' wont last long. One or the other is going to have to go.

 

[Radio_Realist]

What I don't understand is that though the etymology of "ho" is a derivative of "whore", in Ebonics, "ho" refers to any woman, not just women of loose morals. If you ever listened to rap music, you've heard African-American men use the term "ho" to apply to all women.

At most, Imus showed some insenstivity in using an Ebonics word. And if the critcism was over his description over the texture of African-American hair, that might not have been the most elegant way to describe it, but it was merely an accurate description.

Between the Ebonics noun and the description of the textrure of their hair, what he called them was simply "curly-haired women". That's hardly something to get upset about.

It strikes me as counterproductive for members of a minority group to fight to have their language recognized as a real and valid language instead of merely sloppy slang, then to turn around and chastise someone for actually using words from that language. Ebonics either is or isn't a language. If it is, Imus did nothing wrong. It is isn't, someone needs to stop trying to convince everyone that it is.

 

[VERITAS DE VOCE]

Realist, you are right... and then so what.

What I mean is what I have alluded to in DFW radio. There is an UNFORTUNATE, PREVAILING double standard with talk shows and in our society. It will NEVER go anywhere. It will continue to exist. And there is nothing anyone can do about it.

When a top jock sounds off a backporch, country witticism like Imus did, there is going to be a reaction of which he has never seen. If Al Sharpton or Michael Eric Dyson say the same thing, people laugh. So is life... and that dimwit should have known better. A popular sentiment in the educated black community is this, "You don't have the right to make that joke." REGARDLESS of how you (fat cat in white America pushing the buttons in radio) feel about argument dealing with reparations, slavery or double standard remarks, there are just some things certain people can't say that others can. It takes a little bit of decorum, a larger bit of intelligence and a whole lot of common sense to know the difference.

Two weeks? Please. They are going for his career. Mark that down.

 

[evnlee]

When a top jock sounds off a backporch, country witticism like Imus did, there is going to be a reaction of which he has never seen. If Al Sharpton or Michael Eric Dyson say the same thing, people laugh. So is life... and that dimwit should have known better.

Hmmm...so when Sharpton used the term 'diamond merchants' to refer to hasidic Jews in NYC, prompting a riot, people just laughed, right?

Or, how about when he falsely accused an ADA of rape, and was ordered to pay $345,000 in damages?

Or, how about when he went on the radio and weighed in ( pun intended ) on the Duke Lacrosse team, and referred to them as 'pony riding thugs that play a girls sport' ( I thought that was actullay funny).

Please. There is a double standard at work here, and to say that Dyson or Sharpton OR Jackson would be held to the same standards as Imus, Limbaugh, or the rest is absurd.

 

[VERITAS DE VOCE]

Well again, it's a matter of no fact at work here... I said if he something L-I-K-E I-M-U-S. What that fool said against Jews in NYC, or what Jackson said for that matter directing conversation toward his MAPSCO and that area of "town" he was referring to.

Again, LIKE IMUS... you know how many national and local urban jocks use that commonplace vernacular and laugh about it?! So before you go off rattling various and sundry stories you found on Google, you should identify with the text first.

So we agree on the double standard... leave it at that and find another post.

 

[evnlee]

Well again, it's a matter of no fact at work here... I said if he something L-I-K-E I-M-U-S. What that fool said against Jews in NYC, or what Jackson said for that matter directing conversation toward his MAPSCO and that area of "town" he was referring to.

Again, LIKE IMUS... you know how many national and local urban jocks use that commonplace vernacular and laugh about it?! So before you go off rattling various and sundry stories you found on Google, you should identify with the text first.

So we agree on the double standard... leave it at that and find another post.

Hey, we can agree on the double standard

I think it's equally offensive calling a collegiate sports team 'nappyheaded ho's' or 'pony riding thugs' or 'children whose parents wealth precludes them from the justice system' ( another Sharpton beauty, and he might be considered an 'urban jock ).

Both statements are unpopular, and I believe the Freedom of Speech is set up to protect 'unpopular speech'. The big question now is:

A: will this all blow over and be forgotten in 2 weeks?
B: will the 'marketplace' solve the issue? ( will Imus lose advertisers?)
C: will Imus be unable to attract the high powered DC interviews due to his gaffe?

I have a prediction: Imus will return in 2 weeks and continue his show. Then , in about a year or two, he will do it again, say something stupid and offensive, and this will all blow up again. This time, however, I see Imus throwing in the towel and retiring to NM and his ranch, muttering and whining all the way.

Lets watch and see ;D

 

[Radio_Realist]

I think it's equally offensive calling a collegiate sports team 'nappyheaded ho's' or 'pony riding thugs' or 'children whose parents wealth precludes them from the justice system'

Not to mention calling a collegiate sports team the "fighting" Irish, and thereby perpetuating that offensive stereotype. Why not call them "drunken Hooligans"? And when are they going to put a stop to calling certain females of the Caucasian persuasion "blonde bimbos"?