Dubai Debt Issues Push Stocks Down
GMA: Adam Lambert, No; Chris Brown, Yes
Family Gets Early Christmas Gift From Ellen DeGeneres
Mayor: Sex Trafficking Victims, Please Speak Up
Street Artist Proposes on Subway Signage
This just in: Imus just got canned by CBS. He's live on the air now doing a fundraiser-- so you wonder how he's taking the news. Word is that Mike and the Mad Dog will be filling the spot starting tomorrow.
"From the outset, I believe all of us have been deeply upset and revulsed by the statements that were made on our air about the young women who represented Rutgers University in the NCAA Women's Basketball Championship with such class, energy and talent," CBS CEO Leslie Moonves said in a statement.You can read more about the events leading up to the firing on Jen's post from this morning. Sounds like a lot of people might be upset by this-- in our poll on Monday, only 31% of the respondents said Imus should be tossed."Those who have spoken with us the last few days represent people of goodwill from all segments of our society - all races, economic groups, men and women alike. In our meetings with concerned groups, there has been much discussion of the effect language like this has on our young people, particularly young women of color trying to make their way in this society," Moonves said.
"That consideration has weighed most heavily on our minds as we made our decision, as have the many e-mails, phone calls and personal discussions we have had with our colleagues across the CBS Corporation and our many other constituencies," he added.
And here are Gothamist's previous posts about the scandal-- this one moved fast:
4/11 Breaking: MSNBC Boots Imus Off The Cable Air
4/11 Rutgers Women's Basketball Team Reacts to Imus
4/10 Imus Off The Air for Two Weeks
4/9 The Shock (DJ) Heard Round the World
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
Wow this is getting ridiculous. Again, he made a racist remark, as a joke, to a bunch of people he's never met. That's a shitty move, but that's radio. If you don't like his program, turn it off. People have differing views.
He'll have a multi-million-dollar deal on XM or Sirius within months.
Sharpton needs to seriously STFU. I cannot stand his guts.
In the end CBS and MSNBC will be crying, since now WFAN ratings in the morning will be dead last.
He is not live on the air. His show ends at 10am. The radiothon goes on both today and tomorrow. Mike and the Mad Dog were on the air and announced the news at 4:30. In Imus's place tomorrow morning, it was originally announced that Mike & the Mad Dog would host. Now, it appears that Deirdre Imus and Charles McCord (Imus's longtime newscaster going back to his days at NBC) will host the radiothon tomorrow morning.
I love the obsession with Sharpton that some (white) people have. I dont know any black person that looks up to him, listens to what he has to say, follows his example, etc. And it's been this way for *years*. The only people keeping him in business are the white people who just need an easy black scapegoat, so they trot him out for commentary on any racial incident, which he happily obliges like a doll with a pull string attached. He just exists for white people to get fixated on and for the unimaginative white media, who would probably get more original nuanced commentary from a regular black guy at the office or on the corner. Again, if it wasnt for the reaction he engenders in white people, Sharpton actually would have STFU a long time ago and disappeared. Same with Jackson.
As for Imus, big deal. His show sucks, he's not funny, he's so ugly he shouldnt even be on the radio. This has been a pathetic non story. I believe that and I'm black. I think if he had been a radio broadcaster anywhere else but this self obsessed city, it wouldnt have even come close to national news.
Thank You CBS and all the companies who stood up and took a stand. This is not the good old days though many wish it were.
This is a start to some real changes, everyone will now be closely followed. With tha advent of You Tube and the use of the internet, this is only the beginning.
thank you Les Moonves.
BULLSHIT!
SO he said "nappy headed ho's" clearly it was A fucking joke! I'm not a fan of Imus but i do listen to some of his bits since i actually do listen to some hosts on WFAN(somers is the best). I dont blame msnbc and cbs for firing him, shit look at all the sponsors that pulled their ads from the show. but what really pisses me off is how sharpton and jackson succeeded in his dismissal. if this is the worst thing happeneing in the civil rights movement then we have nothing to worry about. her sharpton and jackson i bet you dont have a problem with rap music or BET late at night huh you hypocrite racist maggots
Right, you can tell it was a joke because it's sooo funny. #5 is right, this isn't about Sharpton or Jackson. My impression from the comments from MSNBC is that pretty much any African-American with any juice in the industry called the head office and said "this is bullshit."
I wish Sharpton would stop poking hornet nests with a stick. He really gains nothing with these "battles" for racial equality. If anything else, he takes the conversation backwards a few years.
Why does anyone listen to this windbag that introduced himself to us with the Tawna Brawley lies?
I can't believe some of the responses to Imus' firing. It doesn't matter that he was a "shock jock", or that rappers use lyrics that are worse than "nappy headed hos"(um, except rappers aren't old, rich, white dudes who have no context with which to remotely justify the use of the term). I think that the fact anyone can defend the use of sexist and racist remarks broadcast on the public radio spectrum (licensed from the government, but actually owned by the public) really says a lot about so-called cultural progress in this country.
Gotta love this fucked up status quo!
I can't believe some of the responses to Imus' firing. It doesn't matter that he was a "shock jock", or that rappers use lyrics that are worse than "nappy headed hos"(um, except rappers aren't old, rich, white dudes who have no context with which to remotely justify the use of the term). I think that the fact anyone can defend the use of sexist and racist remarks broadcast on the public radio spectrum (licensed from the government, but actually owned by the public) really says a lot about so-called cultural progress in this country.
Gotta love this fucked up status quo!
You can argue all you want that "they say it" and that Sharpton's an idiot (which is true). Imus is a hack, a terrible broadcaster who is universally despised by his colleagues, and he called a bunch of teen-aged girls "whores."
If anything, this reminds all of us who think things but don't say them out loud that we should not say those things out loud.
Prejudice and hate will always exist in people's thoughts and feelings, and the only defense the rest of us have is to train people to keep their thoughts to themselves, so we don't have to hear it.
#5... no black people look up to Sharpton or Jackson? You're kidding, right? He has a radio program, he has a foundation, he has listeners, and advertisers. He IS the voice of your community and race to America - like it or not. Every second there's a scene or controversial issue - he's there. Why? Because the individual, the accused, the mom, the dad, the perpetrator, the criminal, the ANYTHING says "This is Al Sharpton, he speaks for me."
If no one "looked up to him," he woudln't have a radio program. He wouldn't have an audience, or a foundation.
You need to point the blame where blame is due - it's not the "white people" that "trot" him out. We'd rather he just shut the hell up and stop making huge differences between WHITE and BLACK. Because, quite honestly, most of us could care less about the race. When you start screaming about RACE this and RACIAL that, we all groan and say "get over it."
Imus is a jerk for saying that - totally - but Sharpton is a BIGGER jerk for exploiting this case, yet again, and making a spectacle of himself.
Welcome to the agenda of tolerance. All people will have to learn to be tolerant, ie: keep your comments to yourself, bite your tongue, speak only politically correct speech, never ever speak an opinion that may be viewed now or in the future as intolerant. If you have any moral code what so ever, don't under any circumstance speak it out loud as others may not agree and consider you to be a bigot or small minded or hateful. As the line in the sand moves, so goes the right to say what you really intend whatever the context be.
Amazing isn't it - the agenda only moves one direction -
Speech comes with responsibility. Context of speech ads to the meaning of the words spoken and should be taken into account. Most people who do any amount of reading will come across words they do not know. Looking at the context helps to explain the meaning of the word. The same can be said with the spoken word. The context helps to imply the intent. How was it said, what was the tone of voice, what comments were being made prior, what else do you know about the person making the comment.
How I hate double standards. Now that Imus is fired. Now Mr Sharpton, time to go to the record companies and get those rappers fired too. And all those insult sketch and stand-up comics- they have to go also! How about it? Mr Sharpton and Jackson have misrepresented in the past...time to go.
What is left?
I think this was more of a generation thing. An older black man upset with an older white man kind of thing. They both think in their old school ways. Our generation doesn't see things by race or religion. We didn't live with the segregations etc. It's time for the older generations to get a grip and get a sense of humor. After September 11th-how can we afford not too. Peace.
Why are people focuings on the Reverend? Because he made himself the focus of this. He shut off the oxygen that would have allowed cooler heads like the Rev Soaries or Coach Stringer some air.
Here's an interesting thing… Imus invited Reverend Al on his show. Al told him to take a hike. Then Al invited him on his show, no one knew he had a show. Imus went. Imus's show was syndicated nationwide. Al Sharpton's show doesn't even have a New York distributor.
Glad Reverend Al (who I admit I voted for… twice…) is only thinking about the community and womanhood cleaning up the public airwaves.
Should I now assume they will be picketing Limbaugh and Ann Coulter next, since they say things as awful as Imus's line on a DAILY BASIS? I mean, if it's really about cleaning up the discourse. Ann Coulter called John Edwards "a faggot." Will they protest in front of Crown, who publishes her books, and Barnes and Noble, which sells them? Will he use his radio show's newfound notoriety to shut her down?
I would assume so, unless Reverend Al wants people to think he's a phony.
But at least he'll get a New York distributor for his own talk show out of this.
Oh, and hats off to those moral paragons CBS and NBC... waiting to see which way this was blowing before bailing out.
One of the saddest comments to come out of all of this was said by the Reverend Soaries, when he told Don Imus, "You have to understand, deep deep down most black people are convinced that white people don't like them." That's sad, and it's sad because I assume it is true. And I fail to see how Reverend Shapton's actions are going to improve that a bit.
But then again, I'm not sure that's what this was all about.
when will sharpton apologize to duke and steven pagones for draggin them thru the mud with his racism?
AMERICA FUCK YEAH!
Isn't CBS owned by Viacom. Doesn't Viacom make millions with films and music glorifying the pimp life and the denigration of women. How do people think that an old white guy came to believe that it was cool to call college girls "nappy headed hos"? From the popular culture that blasts that kind of thinking everyday.
When Viacom fires all the rappers and record producers of such filth then I'll believe that they are not a bunch of money grubbing hypocrites.
What's funny is that the Duke students learned something from their misfortune. They mentioned what's it like to go through the wringer and stated what would it be like for a person who don't have the means to defend themselves.
Steven pagones? I feel sorry for him, he's gotten very fat.
For those who don't know there ARE people in the Black community who protest against sexist rap lyrics, it's just that you never hear of them.
In fact, one woman did it for years who just died recently. I don't recall her name but she's active in NOW and she's black.
And, the comedians? oh, I don't know why don't you ask the entertainment execs who put them on? Put pressure on them.
There's no double standard, people of color have been shafted for centuries. some lynched, some dragged behind a pick up truck. Yes, that happened. Name a black person who did that.
Rosie et al? One crackpot at a time please.
Bad precedent? I'd say it's about time.
This is a start, hate radio just got it's notice and others are just waiting to see what happens.
That means you Mike Francessa and Chris Russo.
Notice all these yahoos are from Long Island and are of an older generation? Guess that's what redlining will do.
For all those who lie on the bed of ignorance.
Politically Correct a definition:
The often quoted earliest cited usage of the term (in the form "not politically correct") comes from the U.S. Supreme Court decision Chisholm v. Georgia (1793), where it clearly means that the statement it refers to is not literally correct, owing to the political status of the United States as it was understood at that time.[4]
The term "political correctness" is said to derive from Marxist-Leninist vocabulary to describe the "party line".[5] By the 1970s this term, re-appropriated as a satirical form of criticism, was being used by some on the Left to dismiss the views of other Leftists whom they deemed too doctrinaire and rigid. It was in this sense that the popular usage of the phrase in English derived.[6][7] The alternative term "ideologically sound" followed a similar trajectory to this point, appearing in satirical works such as Bart Dickon.
In the 1990s, the term became part of a conservative challenge to curriculum and teaching methods on college campuses in the United States (D'Souza 1991; Berman 1992; Schultz 1993; Messer Davidow 1993, 1994; Scatamburlo 1998). In a commencement address at the University of Michigan in 1991, U.S. President George H. W. Bush spoke out against a "movement" who would "declare certain topics off-limits, certain expressions off-limits, even certain gestures off-limits."[8]
The phrase "politically correct" has become popular in other countries as well, including several Scandinavian countries (politisk korrekt=pk), Spain and Latin America (políticamente correcto), France (politiquement correct), Germany (politisch korrekt), The Netherlands (politiek correct) and Italy (politicamente corretto).[citation needed]
White men and their mis-directed rage and dissapointment, so you blame Sharpton and Jackson, when Bush's cabinet and advisors and talking heads are all a bunch of draft dodgers...shame...shame..actually it's pathetic. Nothing worse than a white man with a chip on his shoulder.
I agree hate radio is on the way out, and the commenst on this thread are like the last gasp's of segregation...There must be a lot of patchy hoods and robes out there.
TAWANA TOLD THE TRUTH...
Spike Lee, Girl Six.
Great news- hopefully it will make people think twice before
deciding to act like an a-hole.
This is the end of the line for Imus - guests & advertisers wont touch him, and Sirius / XM are in the middle of a merger, and have
no money to pay him.
Sucks for him, but shows get cancelled all the time- having a show is a privelege, and his got revoked.
I don't suppose anyone saw Al sharpton on the news mentioning now he will be focusing on rap entertainment and their use of racial and misogynist slurs.
Like he said, this is not a time to gloat or drink champagne.
Well, he did.
While I agree that "Anus" should have been suspended for his comments . I think the full firing was the wrong move ! In this country we do have the right of free speech (Even with the current Administration in office) and that right should have protected this guy from being fired from his job . It's painfully obvious that CBS/VIACOM didnt have a clause in his contract that would have prohibited coarse language . Don't get it twisted, I don't agree with anything he said concerning those players or there race . Their should be a limit that companies should abide by with regards to public pressure regardless of who's complaining . "Anus" was discriminated against and if his so decides to pursue another gig in radio and decided to sue to clear his name, He would have a damn good case against CBS/VIACOM . I hate to say it but he was in the right as far as voicing his opinion regardless if it was a joke he was trying to make .
Fuck those two pompadoured cocksuckers Sharpton and Jackson.
I didn't mean he was gloating. I meant he will now be focusing on the entertainment industry and their problems with racist and misogynist slurs.
there you have it, he's outright saying something about it, happy pappy?
The days of sitting on the back of the bus is over. The fuse is lit.
The good people have prevailed.
The real problem with the black community is black men- they are poor role models, and abandon their children instead of being good fathers. Thats more of a problem than some hip hop music will ever be.
Imus deserves to be fired for these slurs against some of the most intelligent hard working black women I've ever seen- the Rutgers B-Ball team & Coach Stringer are an inspiration for women everywhere- I hope they make a movie about her life.
Not Wanted For Free Expression: Don Imus
From the comments, it appears that very few of you understand what "freedom of expression" means. No one is revoking Imus' ability to express himself freely. No one is claiming that he doesn't have the right to free speech.
His employers, however, do have the right not to pay him for his output. If his work-related actions have a negative impact on business, why on earth should these companies keep him on the air? Just to be defiant? That makes no sense.
Note that the FCC didn't come down and levy fines and/or cancel the show (insofar as I know, anyway). Unlike with Howard Stern, who has for many years been allowed to muckrake and tread into similar racially-sensitive territory; his run-ins with both his employer and the FCC were more to do with foul language and sexually implicit/explicit content.
In short, there are plenty of assholes on the radio, just as there are on TV. For some reason which I will never understand, the majority of listeners/viewers seem to find brash, abrasive behavior entertaining. Stop patronizing businesses who front these people and your quality of discourse will improve. Like it or not, in a big way these blowhards are influencing the national dialogue, as it were.
Just out of curiousity, has Al apologized to the Duke students yet? I'm just wondering.
The really silly part about this whole thing is that Imus obviously wanted to make it right. Instead of having him removed from the air, Sharpton could have used it to get on his program, get a message of tolerance out there and why it was bad it happened. When he had Imus on his program he could have treated him like a human being instead of just slamming into him and trying to turn the "you people" thing into something it obviously wasn't and used the whole thing to actually open a dialog instead of turning into a c*ck waving contest to get a guy thrown off the air who was obviously sorry and obviously wanted to make it right.
But no, getting Imus thrown off the air was obviously the way to go
While it wasn't very funny, nobody in the media or on this blog gets Imus' and McGuirk's shtick: his use of "nappy-headed hos" is a parody of the gansta rap patois itself. Snoop Dogg's self-righteous remonstration that he would never bring his misogyny to bear on college girls is absolutely laughable.
Again, not funny, not nice, not acceptable. But Imus isn't a racist and didn't deserve to be hounded out of his job that way, especially in light of his contrition (admittedly badly handled). Misogynist/misanthrope? Yes. Racist? No.
What's worse is the way the debate was completely hijacked in the mainstream media witchhunt. Just look at the variety of opinion from the anonymity this blog provides: you won't find it in the press. The sad state of our cultural dialogue.
#6 Tiffany Networker wrote:
This attitude should be absolutely frightening to anyone who cares about really unearthing the attitudes and prejudices and assumptions in our society.
"[E]veryone will be closely followed"? By Les Moonves and his PC YouTube police? Please. George Orwell could never have imagined this truth, so much stranger than his fiction.
If Bill Maher gets fired for saying that terrorists aren't cowards, then Imus should certainly be fired as what he said is 10000 times worse. Imus's remarks once again reveal the deep seeded racism/sexism that pervade this country. I'm sure most of Imus's audience were laughing when they actually heard him say it, and I'm sure most are still laughing and agreeing with his remarks.
hey lincoln douglas, I didn't say that.
read what the initial statement from CBS were, after the MSNBC dropout, CBS stated they will not fire Imus but will follow him closely for the next 2 weeks. Why shouldn't an employer watch an employee closely if they have reason to??????
What does the personal computer (PC) have to do with this? You mean Mac vs. PC?
besides, if you're not guilty, what have you got to hide? hahahahaha, you like that huh? how I spinned it to your side.
Mike and the Mad dog are also being closely watched.
Oh, I forgot, Thank You Les Moonves.
I agree with #34.
1st amendment means you can say what you want (Like calling King George III a fat, crazy tyrant) without getting thrown in jail. It doesn't mean you can offend people and still expect Aetna and Geico to sponsor your radio program.
Last time I checked Al Sharpton doesn't have any corporate sponsors or a real job for that matter. So how would he get fired?
However, Rosie does need to go. She's one outburst away from the axe.
Has anyone ever been to a Rutgers women's game?
Well, if you've ever sat courtside (as I have), you would know that they are the most foul mouthed women's team you've ever heard in your life. It's truly insane what these woman say on the court.
They are also play really dirty. The cuss all over the court any time they come in contact with a member of the opposite team, and they throw elbows/cheap fouls every chance they get.