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| MSNBC says to drop Imus program |
| 2007-04-12 |
| NBC Universal said on Wednesday it would no longer simulcast Don Imus' radio program over its cable television network MSNBC amid an outcry over sexist and racist comments by the host. NBC Universal said in a statement: "This decision comes as a result of an ongoing review process, which initially included the announcement of a suspension." NBC Universal is 80 percent owned by General Electric and 20 percent by Vivendi. The move by the media company comes after a number of major corporations, including General Motors and Sprint Nextel Corp., withdrew their advertising from the Imus show. The radio show is broadcast by CBS Radio, a unit of CBS Corp. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #29 John: I'm not one for political correctness but some common sense and decency is in order. There are some things one should not say. thanks John, decency, courteousness and giving folks the benefit of the doubt should guide us all... some of us |
| Posted by: RD 2007-04-12 22:22 |
| #28 I think it's related to that line, "All pigs are equal, but some are more equal than others". ...or it might be "There's a fool born every minute". My vote is for how black Americans are so desperate to obtain a glimmering of political power that, in their haste, they will back even the most spavined nag if it gets them some of the spotlight. Ironically, it is precisely their support for morons like Sharpton, Jackson or Ellison that end up getting them marginalized by other thinking Americans. Tough shit. Bill Cosby is spot on in his recent indictments of black America. Until a much larger number of American blacks act like responsible citizens who are willing to work for positive improvement in their lives, they're screwed, blued and tattooed. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2007-04-12 19:26 |
| #27 Imus is not being dropped for being an ass, he's not being dropped for being offensive, a bigot, or for what he said. Imus is being dropped because the advertisers do not want their product associated with this guy in any way. When the advertising market pulls the plug, the great whore-MSNBC pulls the plug. And for no other reason. All they give a damn about is the money. Lesson today kiddies, you want Rosie out or any of the other leftie trash out? Watch the show, then write to the corperations about how sick the show was that they are endorsing. Then tell them as long as they advertise during her show you will not use their product. Only the market can really silence these idiots. |
| Posted by: 49 Pan 2007-04-12 19:07 |
| #26 ...or it might be "There's a fool born every minute". |
| Posted by: Dave D. 2007-04-12 17:42 |
| #25 "How Sharpton continues to wield a scintilla of public or political power is simply beyond me." I think it's related to that line, "All pigs are equal, but some are more equal than others". |
| Posted by: Dave D. 2007-04-12 17:41 |
| #24 Tawanna Brawley, Duke Larrosse, and the Rev. Al Sharpton. Talk about a rascist hate-mongering turd. |
| Posted by: anymouse 2007-04-12 17:06 |
| #23 CNN and Fox are reporting CBS just canned him. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2007-04-12 16:54 |
| #22 Sharpton gets media attention because he pulls eyeballs to the screen. More eyeballs, higher ad revenues. He'll get shoved aside as soon as the next Big Mouth comes along. |
| Posted by: mrp 2007-04-12 16:48 |
| #21 Don't like him, never liked him, don't care what happens to him. And his replacement during his suspension? The Great Plagarist himself, Mike Barnicle. There's a step up... |
| Posted by: tu3031 2007-04-12 16:33 |
| #20 Imus is totally out of line. Period. End of story. As others have noted, Jackson, Sharpton and many other liberal pets should be subjected to the exact same standards. How Sharpton continues to wield a scintilla of public or political power is simply beyond me. Al Sharpton is a street thug who makes even Don King look like a standup guy. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2007-04-12 16:25 |
| #19 RD, Atomic Conspiracy is an immigrant from England, who came over to join the fight in Viet Nam. I believe he settled in Texas, after (except for the recent stint "over there", of course). As for Imus, if he's as bad as wxjames says, quite possibly the network was looking for an excuse to get rid of him. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2007-04-12 16:15 |
| #18 RD, would you hire Woody Allen as pitchman for your product? Michael Jackson to be the public face of your brand name? How about Rosie O'Donnell? good question Mike and yes, NO, of course not. I probally think and feel the same way as most RB member does about the MSM/networks/cable. For the MSM to be pulling this TEMPEST about Imus is enough to make a Pharisee blush. RED ON RED is my favorite [as long as it's not amongst ourselves] and we should enjoy it... IIRC, Imus |
| Posted by: RD 2007-04-12 14:53 |
| #17 Oh, btw, you confused piece of redneck arrogance, you are a goddamned liar for calling me a moron and the village idiot.. whoops there it is, red-neck name calling.. [parody red-neck] Well Thankee Yankee that's sum real nice chicken shit thare yer covered with. A might ryight Liberal Coating thare AC Yankee! [/ parody red-neck] Fluffing yourself up a bit eh AC, like an old hen chicken ruffling up its feathers... If you manage to get a chance between preenings.. [smoothing yer ruffled poop covered feathers] without yer poor imagination working overtime this time then, inventing and projecting, parse this: >>> the whole thang is a tempest in a teapot! The Short and Stout of IT then.. Free Speech VS political correctness Should We have the Slightest Doubt? Throw the Fucking Speech Codes OUT! /ooops now short-fat-strong people are gonna have my comment licence pulled. ** Tell us AC, how you managed to pull your Yankee Ass over yer Yankee head over that one. ;-) |
| Posted by: RD 2007-04-12 14:13 |
| #16 He is a good fellow at heart, very charitable, a good BS detector, decent and humble. But he clearly does have some racist/sexist feelings he has to confront. Mhw, you don't know Imus. He is a prick; Impossible to work for, insulting and degrading to all who hold no sway over him. This jerk has no redeeming factors. And, oh yeah, the 'ranch' is a scam to support Imus' life style. He prolly mistreats the kids at the ranch on a daily basis. I'm happy he has been rubbed in his own crap for once. |
| Posted by: wxjames 2007-04-12 13:35 |
| #15 I won't miss his mumbling and simplistic politics, but Al Sharpton should take the same hit. He campaigned for a boycott against Korean grocers, and sought prosecution of New York cops in the Tawana Brawley false accusation case. That sack of racist turd shouldn't be given a platform. |
| Posted by: Sneaze 2007-04-12 12:42 |
| #14 This is a good comment by an enemy of Imus: http://www.kansascity.com/182/story/66339.html BTW, Atomic Conspiracy, in answer to your question about MAD Magazine from yesterday, they now feature Ted Rall. |
| Posted by: Ernest Brown 2007-04-12 08:32 |
| #13 Many black women are quite sensitive to the ideal of black beauty held by many - the preference for light colored, straight hair, caucasian facial features - the Halle Berry type etc. You have to be a fool to go there on a public radio show. Because their Tennessee opponents were attractive and light skinned you call the Rutgers team - "a bunch of nappy headed hos" ? And then actually mention the Spike Lee movie that had one group of light skinned girls abuse the other darker skinned team? And expect to still be on the air? I'm not one for political correctness but some common sense and decency is in order. There are some things one should not say. |
| Posted by: John Frum 2007-04-12 07:45 |
| #12 There are a lot of people Imus could have used that phrase against without it bothering me in the least - and some of them are even black women. But the Rutgers womens basketball team are not among them. I deplore the hypocracy of the 'crusade' against him, but otherwise can't complain about his being fired. It is all about the money anyway - the employer decided the lost revenue from sponsors was not going to be offset by gains in ratings from his show. If you want him on the air, mount a campaign against sponsors who pulled their ads. |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2007-04-12 07:39 |
| #11 The best thing for Imus is to take a few years away from the microphone and struggle with his demons. He is a good fellow at heart, very charitable, a good BS detector, decent and humble. But he clearly does have some racist/sexist feelings he has to confront. |
| Posted by: mhw 2007-04-12 07:21 |
| #10 RD, would you hire Woody Allen as pitchman for your product? Michael Jackson to be the public face of your brand name? How about Rosie O'Donnell? What's that, you say? No? Censor! [/satire] Dan: a fair point, but the proper solution is not to let Imus off easy, but to bring the hammer down on those who've been unfairly given a pass. |
| Posted by: Mike 2007-04-12 06:57 |
| #9 Steve is absolutely right....BUT it's the double standard that gets me. Jesse Jackson's "Hymietown" reference? Al Sharpton's Tawana Brawley disgrace? They were no less racist than Imus' comments. Yet these are not just "personalities" but are considered leaders in their community. Jackson has a TV show and Sharpton a radio show. All I ask is that society hold these people up to the same level of scrutiny and standard. |
| Posted by: PlanetDan 2007-04-12 06:51 |
| #8 MSNBC is exercising 'editorship'. Exactly. If PMS-NBC had been exercising intelligent editorship, they would have never put the sonofabitch on in the first place. Better late than never, I suppose. Don Imus has no class. He's never had any class. He has a right to the free exercise of his classlessness, but no right to be free of the consequence of his classlessness--the most significant of which is thet other people may react to his deficiency in class by declining to do business with him. It's no different than the country radio stations which dropped the Vichy Chicks after Natalie Maines insulted their target audience. There are plenty of threats to free speech. Canning Imus for this is not one of them. |
| Posted by: Mike 2007-04-12 06:51 |
| #7 Oh, btw, you confused piece of redneck arrogance, you are a goddamned liar for calling me a moron and the village idiot, and everybody here knows it. And I definitely would say that in person. |
| Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy 2007-04-12 05:47 |
| #6 What is free speech if not a Constitutional right? My point was not that you literally believe in Imus's right to work at MSNBC, but that any complaint about "free speech" is really meaningless outside the Constitutional and legal framework. It is just second guessing someone else's business decisions. You retain your option to fire foul-mouthed employees, but MSNBC is committing an outrage by doing the same? If an employee did say "nappy-headed 'ho" to a customer, would you be joining the PC speech code left by giving them the boot? Why is MSNBC any different? Yes, they have a speech code. They don't really have a choice if they are going to retain any control over content, that is, their own (Constitutional) right of free speech. What else do you think should have been done about Imus? You condemn various kinds of depravity in the rest of the media. Yet you are defending it from Imus, and with the same bogus "free speech" mantra the lefty media beasts use. Btw, commercial media standards and practices are very different from college speech codes. The latter can in fact be held to Constitutional standards, but seldom are. |
| Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy 2007-04-12 05:34 |
| #5 Hogwash, RD. As I never tire of telling Dixie Chickistas and other leftists, the Constitution does not guarantee access to the forum of one's choice. Imus has the right of free speech, but he does not have a right to work for MSLSD if they don't want him. Somewhere between your ears you invented a false little smelly posit that I believe Imus has an Inalienable Constitutional right to work at MSMBC no matter what he said or did. NOT, never wrote it, never said it, never thought it. The Networks/Cable censor the good works of our armed forces on the one hand and on the other refuse to recognize and disseminate a warning about the greatest threat to our grand children since WWII. But they are willing to flood the airwaves with pure garbage horrible role models for our daughters [MTV], PC Garbage, pro-homo anti-gun liberal propaganda, the foulest of lies and treason. Networks, PBS, Cable. "We can't offend the Muslims, we can't offend minorities etc..." "Oh but we can string up the Duke Kids, cause they're WHITE, and we can string up Trent Lott...WHITE REPUB....etc" I detest MSMBC, Imus is just a putz. The few times I've seen his show he said some pretty outrageous things about Iraq, which was all it took for me. So no simpatico, empathy or concern from me. EXCEPT, for the proverbial camel's nose..sic the precursors threatning our free speech. The Left here in America is going to make a serious run at our free speech. In case you haven't noticed we already have speech codes in the public square, Universities and the media where some of us are more equal that others. Is the Internet next? Hillary software searching for the words "Muzzie", "nuke", "Arc light" etc. LOL! BTW I still own a business, still hire and fire people now and then. and if one of them were to call a customer, "nappy headed ho", I'd fire em on the spot. ;-) ***************************************** the whole Imus thang is a tempest in a teapot! The Short and Stout of IT then.. Free Speech VS political correctness Should We have the Slightest Doubt? Throw the Fucking Speech Codes OUT! /ooops now short-fat-strong people are gonna have my comment licence pulled. |
| Posted by: RD 2007-04-12 03:28 |
| #4 This isn't a free speech issue. No governmental agency I know of is depriving Mr. Imus of his rights. MSNBC is exercising 'editorship'. Perhaps they should have done this long before with Mr. Imus, and if they're in the mood I can suggest some other people on their network in need of editing. But it's their right to decide who is and isn't on their network. Ditto the radio, ditto the newspapers. Whatever one thinks of Imus in general (I think he's an ass) or with regard to his comments about the Rutgers womens basketball team (his comments were racist and derogatory), it isn't a free speech issue for private networks to drop him. It's editorship. |
| Posted by: Steve White 2007-04-12 00:55 |
| #3 Hogwash, RD. As I never tire of telling Dixie Chickistas and other leftists, the Constitution does not guarantee access to the forum of one's choice. Imus has the right of free speech, but he does not have a right to work for MSLSD if they don't want him. His remarks were not some generalized joke about racial stereotypes, the usual source of these kinds of complaints. They were a personal insult directed at a dozen or so publicly identifiable young women who had done absolutely nothing to deserve or invite it. It might be political correctness, but a broken clock is right twice a day and they got this one right. Imus is a half-assed lib anyway. That and the fact that they are "hoes" themselves was probably why the network execs initially tried to cut him some slack. He's another left over cultural corpse from the 1960s, preserved in alchohol by the look of him. It is time to bury him. |
| Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy 2007-04-12 00:54 |
| #2 the whole thang is a tempest in a teapot! The Short and Stout of IT then.. Free Speech VS political correctness Should We have the Slightest Doubt? Throw the Fucking Speech Codes OUT! /ooops now short-fat-strong people are gonna have my comment licence pulled. |
| Posted by: RD 2007-04-12 00:27 |
| #1 Some FREEREPIBLIC Netters are arguing IMUS is being unfairly punished for being a vocal anti-HILLARY critic-detractor. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2007-04-12 00:13 |