Don Imus - Suspended, Now Fired!

[RWC130 594]

Radio Host Is Suspended Over Racial Remarks

By BILL CARTER

Published: April 10, 2007

The radio talk show host Don Imus was suspended for two weeks yesterday after the outcry over his racially disparaging remarks about the Rutgers University women’s basketball team.

Demonstrators protested against Don Imus outside the NBC studios in Chicago Monday. Mr. Imus stirred controversy with remarks made last week about the Rutgers University women’s basketball team.

The suspension will begin Monday.

NBC News, which does a simulcast broadcast of Mr. Imus’s radio program on its cable news channel MSNBC, was the first to act, suspending Mr. Imus and calling his comments “racist and abhorrent.”

A short time later, CBS Radio, which is his chief employer, followed, saying it, too, would take Mr. Imus, 66, off the air for two weeks.

NBC also served notice yesterday that it would not tolerate insensitive remarks in the future. Mr. Imus had promised to change the tenor of the show, NBC said in a statement, and had agreed that the suspension was appropriate.

“Our future relationship with Imus is contingent on his ability to live up to his word,” NBC said. CBS made no statement other than that it was suspending Mr. Imus, who has been the host of “Imus in the Morning” for more than 30 years.

MSNBC will replace Mr. Imus’s program with news coverage. CBS was undecided about how it would fill the time.

The actions came at the end of a day of intensifying pressure on Mr. Imus from black leaders, who expressed outrage at his description last Wednesday of the Rutgers team as “nappy-headed ho’s.”

Mr. Imus tried to stave off calls for his resignation by appearing yesterday on a syndicated radio program that has the Rev. Al Sharpton as its host and making a more complete apology for what he said were “repugnant, repulsive, and horrible” comments.

He said he was also trying to reach out to the team, its coach and players’ parents to issue an apology.

Mr. Imus said he wanted to try to “see if they’ll forgive me and if there is something that can be established here that I can do to begin to build something positive out of this — and then who knows?”

But his job still appeared to be in jeopardy, with Mr. Sharpton and other black leaders calling for Mr. Imus to be fired, threatening to initiate a boycott of sponsors and demanding that the Federal Communications Commission take action against him and radio stations that carry his program.

It is unclear whether members of the Rutgers team will agree to meet with Mr. Imus. The Rutgers athletic director, Robert E. Mulcahy III, said in a statement yesterday, “I have relayed the message of Don Imus and his offer to apologize in person to the students and asked them to let me know how they wished to respond if at all.”

It is also still unclear how much support Mr. Imus can expect from the roster of politicians, authors and media figures who make up his daily guest list. Some of his regular guests, like the author Tom Oliphant and the editor at large of Newsweek, Evan Thomas, have already appeared with him and offered support. But Mr. Sharpton said yesterday that he would be asking “all the candidates running for president if they plan to appear on the show.”

Some of those candidates, like Senator John McCain and Senator Joseph R. Biden, are regular guests. Mr. McCain said in an interview in Phoenix yesterday that he was a “believer in redemption” and hoped that Mr. Imus could satisfy his critics with his apology.

Mr. Imus also found support in the publishing industry where he is highly valued by authors and publishers. The publisher of Simon & Schuster, David Rosenthal, said it would be a shame if Mr. Imus lost his job.

“I think he has been a fantastic forum for authors and for people with interesting ideas,” Mr. Rosenthal said..

The “Imus in the Morning” program is popular in New York, where it reaches about a half million listeners on the radio station WFAN. Mr. Imus is an employee of CBS, but WFAN is the only CBS station to carry the program. It is, however, syndicated on Westwood One, a company that is managed by CBS. Executives from Westwood One declined to comment.

The program has become particularly important for MSNBC, serving as that network’s regular morning program. “Imus in the Morning” has been building its audience steadily on MSNBC, threatening to overtake CNN in that time slot.

At NBC, the decision to suspend Mr. Imus was made by the management of NBC News, in consultation with the company’s corporate management, headed by Jeff Zucker.

The suspension will not begin until Monday because Mr. Imus had scheduled a telethon to benefit research into a cure for sudden infant death syndrome and neither outlet wanted to hurt that cause.

In his appearance with Mr. Sharpton, Mr. Imus offered no real defense for his statement, other than to say it was an attempt at humor that had failed miserably. “I understand there’s no excuse for it,” he told Mr. Sharpton. “I’m not pretending that there is. I wish I hadn’t said it.”

His critics say Mr. Imus has shown a pattern of racially charged remarks over the years. Some of these he tried to defend on Mr. Sharpton’s program, saying they had been misinterpreted or were satirical.

Mr. Sharpton asked if the newspaper columnist Clarence Page had once gotten Mr. Imus to pledge not to do any more racial humor. Mr. Imus said he had.

“Do you repent once a decade?” Mr. Sharpton asked.

Mr. Imus argued that he was not at heart a racist: “I think what makes a difference in this context, and you can still call for me to be fired, that’s fine, but I think what makes a difference, a crucial difference is: What was my intent?”

Though he said he did not want people to think he was trying to excuse himself, Mr. Imus did point to charitable work he has done with children with cancer — many of them black — on his ranch in New Mexico, as well as his effort to raise money to find a cure for sickle-cell anemia.

Mr. Sharpton said intent could not be considered when actions were “over the line.” He also said that no matter how good or decent Mr. Imus might be at heart, his actions in this case had “set a precedent” that would invite other commentators to make similar comments.

He promised he would push the issue with sponsors and the F.C.C. It was not known last night how advertisers, which have included Bigelow Tea, Chrysler and the New York Stock Exchange, would respond.

The F.C.C. may not have a direct means to address the issue. It was under a mandate from Congress to act against what was deemed indecency, but there is not a similar mandate against other types of speech by a broadcaster.

Several media executives said a bigger problem for Mr. Imus may be advertisers’ response to calls for a boycott. Most such boycotts usually prove to be ineffective but Mr. Sharpton and other black leaders promised to make this one work. Mr. Sharpton also said he wanted to make sure Mr. Imus did not come out of this experience unscathed.

“I’m scathed,” Mr. Imus said. “Are you crazy? How am I unscathed by this?

Don’t you think I’m humiliated?”

Mr. Sharpton replied, “You’re not as humiliated as young black women are.”

Motoko Rich and Rebecca Cathcart contributed reporting.

Credit: www.nytimes.com

!!!

[Guest]

Good. I hate him. Toss him.

Replace him with Howard Stern.....lol

[ajsbear 11]

Over his career he's said and done a lot worse.

[JetPhoto 626]

Good. I hate him. Toss him.

Replace him with Howard Stern.....lol

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Hate him or not, he said no worse than what black radio host or Al Sharpton says about white people but no one makes a big deal about that.

There is too much of a double standard in this country, and that is a problem!

BTW Hoo Hoo is a has been!

O & A all the Way!

[Guest]

Who cares?!

[IzzyEng4 427]

Maybe he should start drinking and taking drugs again, at least then he would have an excuse. Dummy!

[Guest]

Never realized how ugly he is haha

[Guest Chip025]

Never realized how ugly he is haha

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He has a face for radio

[firefighter36 52]

Hate him or not, he said no worse than what black radio host or Al Sharpton says about white people but no one makes a big deal about that.

There is too much of a double standard in this country, and that is a problem!

BTW Hoo Hoo is a has been!

O & A all the Way!

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Right on JetPhoto. Al Sharpton thrives on ignorance and hatred just as much as the KKK and similar organizations. He without a doubt promotes a double standard, and walks an awfully fine line of free speech being a man who falsely called someone a rapist and was convicted of slander for said event.

Though Imus' comments weren't in good taste, Sharpton degrades Non-African Americans much worse than that on a daily basis. How is he a Reverend to begin with? and what church or religious sect ordained this guy? Any insight?

Edited April 10, 2007 by mbendel36

[Guest WCDES636]

Don Imus was a lot more funny when he was drinking. I don't think it was anything more than what he has said in the past but Al Sharpton needs more press play so he jumped on it. BTW anyone can be ordained..... Hell I am.

[vodoly 535]

he'll give Hackensack Medical center a few more million and it will all be fine

[firecapt32 282]

any one take notice that the suspension starts on monday.... the radiothone for his charaties is scheduled for fri... so the station NBX WFAN MSNBC all are hipocrites you are going to suspend him do it right away.

[Guest loudog]

He did it for publicity. When was the last time any of you talked about him until he did this? And what a coincidence it happened right before his radiothon. It's a sad way to get attention, but his ratings prove he needed to do something to stay on the radar. Although I agree, he has the right, it was still pretty dumb.

[gss131 212]

Good. I hate him. Toss him.

Replace him with Howard Stern.....lol

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Whats the matter with" YOU PEOPLE",if you start firing everybody for saying stupid S***,we'd all be out of work.

[Guest]

Where has his cowboy hat been through all of this?

[helicopper 1,050]

Right on JetPhoto. Al Sharpton thrives on ignorance and hatred just as much as the KKK and similar organizations. He without a doubt promotes a double standard, and walks an awfully fine line of free speech being a man who falsely called someone a rapist and was convicted of slander for said event.

Though Imus' comments weren't in good taste, Sharpton degrades Non-African Americans much worse than that on a daily basis. How is he a Reverend to begin with? and what church or religious sect ordained this guy? Any insight?

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Al Sharpton is the worst kind of racist. Nobody is rallying against him for his overtly hostile "slip" of the tongue when he said that all five cops in the Sean Bell case should be shot! He gets on his bully pulpit and spews venom and hatred at least as badly as any other racists/extremist groups.

I just wish the media would stop giving him the forum to air these ridiculous arguments to millions of people.

Hate the double standard!

[COMMANDCHIEF 4]

The world is still turning. Lets move on..

[Guest]

Maybe Imus should have been more politically correct with his comment, such as, "I wonder how many of those African American women on the Rutgers Basketball Team, will contribute to the ever rising percentage of African American children born out of WEDLOCK? Which by the way, is over 60% Imus is a BIG FOOL for apologizing. Jesse and Al should concern themselves with the more important issues that are plaguing their own Race and destroying the Black Communities, instead of worrying about what Imus is saying. Even Bill Cosby would agree on that!

[Guest]

Al Sharpton is the worst kind of racist.  Nobody is rallying against him for his overtly hostile "slip" of the tongue when he said that all five cops in the Sean Bell case should be shot!  He gets on his bully pulpit and spews venom and hatred at least as badly as any other racists/extremist groups.

I just wish the media would stop giving him the forum to air these ridiculous arguments to millions of people. 

Hate the double standard!

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Well spoken Chris. I agree 110%.

[Guest CrotonFalls33]

I will admit that his comments may not have been in good taste, but he has still done nothing wrong or unlawful. While Libel and Slander are not tolerated by the constitution, Don Imus still has a right to free expression and it is his strong opinions and outlandish statements which make his show entertaining. The American public needs to learn that not everything said is true. There will always be critics, the man himself has built his entire career on being one. He is meant to mock people because he is a comedian. All this political correctness that we live in today is nearly unbearable. Don Imus has apologized and that is already more than what he HAD to do. Just my two cents

[SageVigiles 1,194]

I hate Don Imus more than anyone, he's boring and a horrible radio personality, but this issue is bigger than him.

First Amendment? Que es? Sharpton needs someone to knock him off his soap box, preferably by way of a Louisville Slugger... Racist scumbag.

[Guest]

A little off topic but dealing with Shartpton and Jackson. Am I the only one that thinks that these 2 owe the duke lax players an apology now that players are off the hook? If I remember correctly these two wanted the heads of the accused players, so shouldn’t these 2 apologize like Imus did. I hate how this one way streak exists. In my opinion Sharpton and Jackson are two of the most racist people alive. I feel that once you bring race into account you are making a racist statement just like these two characters do on a daily basis on TV and the radio. If they feel America is so bad then leave, no one is making them stay.

As for Imus, I do listen to him occasionally. I like what I hear when I do listen to him. The show is generally pretty funny and he often has interesting guests. Did he make a mistake yes but should he be lynched for it no. We all make mistakes, but because he is in the lime light his mistakes get publicized. Cut the guy a break he has apologized several times already. What he did is nothing worse than some of the stuff that other shock jocks like Stern and O&A have done in the past.

Sorry for the rant just wanted to get it out of my system.

[llm60 0]

I agree with everything everyone has said there is to much of a double standard, unfourtunatly as long as there is a black and white issue in this country these situations will never stop!!

[Guest]

MSNBC drops IMUS

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,265441,00.html

[Guest]

Latest ...

CNN -- MSNBC has canceled its "Imus in the Morning" simulcast, the network announced Wednesday.

The decision comes after remarks deemed racist and sexist that radio talk-show host Don Imus made last week about the Rutgers University women's basketball team prompted a number of advertisers to drop the program. MSNBC will stop airing the program immediately.

MSNBC announced on Monday a two-week suspension of its simulcast of Imus' show after Imus referred to the Rutgers players as "nappy-headed hos." But as part of an "ongoing review process," which included input from its own employees, NBC Universal decided stronger action was necessary, the company said in a statement.

[Guest]

To all that hate him, why do you bother then. It's not like you listen to him on a regular basis. You only found about his latest "whoops" because of the news. What does he do that stops your whole world to the point where you have to chime in? When Howard Stern was on Free radio, and he bashed, where were you to chime in? Chime in on something that affect everyone, like rap. At least it'll be keystrokes and time well spent. You hate him, whatever, don't listen to him. You like him, support or shame him. We're all human, and he meant nothing by it. It's amazing how many people have been wrapped up in this one sided political correctness crap.

[Guest CRASH]

To all that hate him, why do you bother then. It's not like you listen to him on a regular basis. You only found about his latest "whoops" because of the news. What does he do that stops your whole world to the point where you have to chime in? When Howard Stern was on Free radio, and he bashed, where were you to chime in? Chime in on something that affect everyone, like rap. At least it'll be keystrokes and time well spent. You hate him, whatever, don't listen to him. You like him, support or shame him. We're all human, and he meant nothing by it. It's amazing how many people have been wrapped up in this one sided political correctness crap.

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LOVE HIM OR HATE HIM WAS IT WRONG YES SHOULD HE BE SUSPENDED OR FIRED NO....... IF SOMEHOW THIS WAS A BLACK HOST CRACKING COMMENTS ABOUT WHITEY YOU WOULD HEAR NOTHING . THIS IS JUST PURE B.S. LEAVE THE DAMN GUY ALONE IT WAS AN ACTUAL QUOTE FROM A SPIKE LEE MOVIE......LISTEN TO 90% OF TODAYS HIP HOP AND YOU WILL HEAR FAR WORSE BUT BECAUSE ITS BLACK ON BLACK THAT MAKES IT OK NO WAY IM TIRED OF THESE DOUBLE STANDARDS...........

[trauma74 111]

I have never been an Imus fan. I always thought he was somewhat of a moron, BUT, he has the right to speak freely. Look at all of the things that Howard Stern has done and said over the years. Look at Opie and Anthony, yes they got the boot from free radio and now they are on XM.

Imus should not be suspended or fired. He should receive an award and a raise in pay! LOL!

Everyone is correct about the things they say about Shaprton and Jesse Jackson. The guy that stabbed Sharpton many years ago should have done us all a favor and either used a longer knife or a gun. Sharpton is more of a racist then the leader of the KKK. The media bows down to the black community and makes them out to be innocent. Sharpton made a reference to shooting police officers during one of his interviews about the Sean Bell case. He said it was a mistake and it came out wrong. That is a big giant load of SH*T. He meant to say it!!!!!!! We all know that. He likes to act all innocent, but behind the scenes he is in bed with the gangs.

Sharpton always talks about the black community being poor and how the government should do more to help them. Every time you see Sharpton he is in a nice suit, in a nice car and I am sure he has a nice house too. He does not live in the ghetto.

It is a fact that any member of the black community can make something of themselves. Look at Barack Obama. He has done well for himself and he is not a racist scumbag like Sharpton is.

On one final note, if Sean Bell and his group of felons were not at a nightclub engaging in prostitution they would have never had to deal with the PD. The fact of the matter is that they were doing illegal things and the PD was watching them. Once they started to use their car as a weapon against police officers and their vehicles, they again broke the law. The PD had every right to shoot as many times as needed to stop the threat against themselves and any innocent civilians who were near by.

[RWC130 594]

I hear on the news that sponsors are dropping him left and right.

This could be "The End" for him.

[Guest CRASH]

I have never been an Imus fan. I always thought he was somewhat of a moron, BUT, he has the right to speak freely. Look at all of the things that Howard Stern has done and said over the years. Look at Opie and Anthony, yes they got the boot from free radio and now they are on XM.

Imus should not be suspended or fired. He should receive an award and a raise in pay! LOL!

Everyone is correct about the things they say about Shaprton and Jesse Jackson. The guy that stabbed Sharpton many years ago should have done us all a favor and either used a longer knife or a gun. Sharpton is more of a racist then the leader of the KKK. The media bows down to the black community and makes them out to be innocent. Sharpton made a reference to shooting police officers during one of his interviews about the Sean Bell case. He said it was a mistake and it came out wrong. That is a big giant load of SH*T. He meant to say it!!!!!!! We all know that. He likes to act all innocent, but behind the scenes he is in bed with the gangs.

Sharpton always talks about the black community being poor and how the government should do more to help them. Every time you see Sharpton he is in a nice suit, in a nice car and I am sure he has a nice house too. He does not live in the ghetto.

It is a fact that any member of the black community can make something of themselves. Look at Barack Obama. He has done well for himself and he is not a racist scumbag like Sharpton is.

On one final note, if Sean Bell and his group of felons were not at a nightclub engaging in prostitution they would have never had to deal with the PD. The fact of the matter is that they were doing illegal things and the PD was watching them. Once they started to use their car as a weapon against police officers and their vehicles, they again broke the law. The PD had every right to shoot as many times as needed to stop the threat against themselves and any innocent civilians who were near by.

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.BY THE WAY OPIE AND ANTHONY HAVE REPLACED HOWARD STERN IN MOST FREE FM MARKETS INCLUDING NY THEY ARE ON DAILY FROM 6-9 AM IN NY AND THEN CONTINUE ON XM202