Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Imus In The Mourning?

The story of the moment that has grown enormously strong and powerful legs, involves Imus and his lack of sensivity. But when you really take a moment, (that is) when you stop and consider it, it's really nothing new. You see, Don Imus, Howard Stern, and many others like them, are seasoned old pros at making inappropriate and (downright) offensive comments. It's how they got rich. They are considered the "fathers of the shock jock era", they hold a place in the "who's who of cheap ratings whores". They made their fame and fortune by pushing the boundaries and the people rewarded them with high ratings and fat paychecks, basically for being horses' asses for 3-4 hours a day.

Why?

There was (and still is) a market for it.

What's utterly amazing that it's getting so much attention now, like it's some new thing under the sun. This is primarily why I will not watch Imus, nor will I ever listen to Stern (and I have free Sirius until July). I see absolutely no value in hearing what either one of them have to say about any given topic; nor would I care to listen to anyone else that remotely resembles them, in style or attitude.

They claim to be funny. But they aren't.

Whether or not he should be fired, that's up to CBS and MSNBC. They have to decide if they will be able to withstand the pressure and still keep ratings They must decide whether or not to risk that the ratings are going to tank, or cut their losses and fire him. I will say that after 30 years or so, it's not going to do any good now. If he's fired, someone else will pick him back up and he'll be back on.

To his credit, he has faced the inquisition of Al Sharpton today and made no excuses. Good old Al has made lots of them in his days, especially when he advanced the Tuwanna Brawley hoax. He desperately tried to tap dance his way out of that one. So pardon me if I find it difficult to lend much credibility to him (at least on a regular basis). But as to this situation, I have to side with some of the points Al made when he grilled Imus, yesterday. Other things he was saying, were the usual Sharpton wanting to "hear his own voice" diatribes, which he is wont to do.

From the video of the interview, it would seem that he is truly sorry. But who knows the deep feelings of someone's heart?

And as for whether Imus keeps his job or not? I really do not give a damn, because it should have been done years ago. I do not care, mainly because it's long overdue. As much as I love free speech, there needs to be responsibility. But since Imus has been rewarded with prosperity by those that would have to do the firing, how hypocritical would it be now? They helped create this monster, maybe now they should live with it. Suspending him for two weeks is a vacation, firing him now would be hypocritical, and keeping him on could prove disastrous (for both CBS and MSNBC).

Oh well. It's their bed, let them lay in it.


Addendum:

John McWhorter wonders if the current firestorm over the Imus remarks will really further the cause of improved race relations or just fill the void until there is another incident.

Tony Norman, hardly a mainstream and relatively unknown columnist from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, piles on in an effort to get his name out there:

Hard-core fans never hold Mr. Imus accountable for anything he says because he's "always joking." I've been a nominal fan of the show for many years, but now I'm trying to kick the habit.

That's why I've decided to turn to a higher power. Thank God for the Rev. Al Sharpton. He'll keep us honest. We know we can no longer reconcile our "liberal" politics with a passive consumption of "Imus in the Morning."

Oh please. Are we still putting Al, the same man that a has a long sordid history of racism, up on a pedestal, now? I'd recommend finding a different role model, if I were Tony.

But it's not just enabling, wannabe big-time columnists that are jumping on the bandwagon, here's an entire article that presents others in Imus's industry and their reactions.

Bottom line here, let he/she who is without error, mistake, misstep, misspeak, or even sin, cast the first stone. What Imus said was repulsive, make no mistake about it. But those that stand and sit in judgment of him have very little room to be making this the issue it is, especially when this has been an acceptable standard for so long. And besides that, Al Sharpton should be the last person to have any credibility here. And I mean the last person.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I never listened to that corpse Imus either. He's awful. I wonder how all the liberal elite who love listening to/being on his show are going to react. I imagine that they will have to boycott. LOL.

I too have to chuckle when I see race-baiters Sharpton and Jesse Jackson lecturing about racial insensitivity. Double LOL.

LA Sunset said...

Greg,

Here is an old article on Brother Al. Some will immediately discredit the source of the article, because of the conservative nature of the publication that published it. But I do not think it's too far-fetched to see Al in this light, because I have heard him say many things that are every bit as racist as Imus's comments were. It's a pretty accurate portrayal if you ask me and you'd think that those that want to advance the cause of civil rights and eradicating racism would look at someone with a better personal record.

Anonymous said...

Great article, LAS. (I really should have a subscription to the Natn'l Review.)

The artcile made me think that Imus should have told Sharpton he'd resign just as soon as Sharpton does, since Sharpton has done at least as much damage to race relations in America as Imus has. Now that would have been a great move by Imus. Considering he can't come out of this looking good, he'd have everything to gain by openly pointing out Sharpton's extreme hypocrisy.