I used to live in New Jersey and would often listen to about 15 minutes of Imus In the Morning on WFAN while I commuted from my home to the school at which I taught. After the country music station was pulled and WCBS stopped playing Oldies, it was about the only thing I could stand in the morning. The all new s station was always about traffic into and other happenings in and about New York City and there was no way I was going there. Besides WFAN also broadcast the Mets’ games and it was usually where my radio was tuned the night before.
I first heard Imus back in the days of his drug and alcohol induced problems in 1972. Then the running gag was whether or not he would even show up for his morning show and pools were often established as to what time he might make an appearance. Then he would be a regular disc jockey playing songs between his irreverent patter. The music was good; Imus not so much. He never did get much better even after his exile to Cleveland and rehab. His wife and son seemed to help for a while, as did the ranch.
Now I love my Rutgers’ teams as anyone who reads this blog might know. And I was offended when Imus made his “nappy headed hos” comment. (That is when I heard about it. Living in north-central PA now, I don’t usual get any immediate news unless it’s on the net.)Was Imus trying to be funny? Having heard his shtick for years, I would say probably. Did he fail at being funny? Again, having heard this crap for years, of course. Did this comment require his being fired? Probably not. It was only after he panicked and made his appearance on Al Sharpton’s radio show that things got really bad.
By appearing with Sharpton, Imus legitimized much of the criticism and dug his self created hole even deeper by saying something like, “I can’t get anywhere with you people.” Race-baiters Sharpton and Jesse Jackson gleefully stomped on Imus even harder after that. (I call them “race-baiters” because they have yet to crack down on the purveyors of even worse language in the form of hip-hop and gangsta rap. But, of course, nearly all of those “artists” are black while Imus is white.)
Some have decried the stripping of Don Imus’ First Amendment rights to freedom of speech, but that is pure bullshit. No one stripped him of his rights to say anything. What happened is the people who were offended (Rutgers’ fans, the basketball team, and even followers of Sharpton and Jackson) exercised their First Amendment rights and spoke to the sponsors and broadcasters of Imus’ show and told them they would no longer purchase their products, watch their network, or listen to their radio station if they continued to support the sophomoric humor of Don Imus. Upon feeling the wrath of an angered populous, the sponsors pulled the plug on the I-Man. It’s called the Law of Unintended Consequences in some quarters. Also known as Newton’s Third Law: for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
What I found particularly disgusting in all this hoopla over the three words Imus uttered was the firestorm of “holier-than-thou” critics that cropped up on the news shows. Not that the whole thing should have been swept under the rug, but were there really no more important stories to tell? What a farce national network news has become when it spends its vast resources on tabloid stories like this and Anna Nicole Smith night, after night, after night. difficult to see how people can take them seriously any more.
No comments:
Post a Comment