Hours after CBS decided to fire Don Imus yesterday afternoon for his comments about the Rutgers women's basketball team, Imus, joined by his wife, and the basketball team and coach, joined by university officials and others, met at the NJ Governor's mansion . This afternoon, Rutgers coach C. Vivian Stringer said :
We, the Rutgers University Scarlet Knight basketball team, accept -- accept -- Mr. Imus' apology, and we are in the process of forgiving. We still find his statements to be unacceptable, and this is an experience that we will never forget.
Filling in for her husband on the Imus in the Morning radio show, Deirdre Imus told listeners to stop sending hate mail to the basketball players and instead "send hate mail to my husband." She added that the players were "beautiful and courageous." There's a lot of finger-pointing and blame right now, from many sides. Imus, for one, has complained about the treatment he's getting in the media, from MSNBC, from Al Sharpton, and more, but he has admitted that he was wrong to say what he did. When it comes down to it, it seems the only innocent people in this situation are the Rutger's women's basketball team.
Roundups: The Wall Street Journal had an excellent article looking at the anatomy of the growing scandal, from broadcast last Wednesday to yesterday's firing (apparently Bo Dietl tried to lobby on Imus's behalf). The NY Times' David Carr has a good rundown of the different factors in Imus's career demise. Radar has a list of who is standing by Imus - and who's not.
Opinionwise, Jerry Della Femina writes an op-ed in the Post complaining that "Al Sharpton wins" while Daily News' Mike Lupica laments how no one was listening to Imus's apologies. The Daily News also has an editorial saying that the country needs to confront the hate from other areas - like the hip-hop music industry. And we were read Al Roker's blog entry where he writes, "As someone who called for the dropping of his show, I take no personal satisfaction in the Imus program's removal" - looks like a lot of people are unhappy with Al.
