Imus again

[Belmondo]

Sounds like Don Imus may soon be back on the air with CBS Radio.

Do we care? Will we tune in?
I have very mixed feelings about Imus. I think he is irreverent and funny, but there is just no excuse for the stupid and insensitive racial comments he made. I do admire the fact that he kept a low profile after being fired and didn't go whining to Larry King.

I guess in the end, I'll have to believe his apologies were genuine and give him another chance.
And you?

[The Omen]

Sounds like Don Imus may soon be back on the air with CBS Radio.

Do we care? Will we tune in?
I have very mixed feelings about Imus. I think he is irreverent and funny, but there is just no excuse for the stupid and insensitive racial comments he made. I do admire the fact that he kept a low profile after being fired and didn't go whining to Larry King.

I guess in the end, I'll have to believe his apologies were genuine and give him another chance.
And you?

I truly believe Imus has always sucked as a commentator, a talk show host and a person. But honestly, I found his so called racial remarks a little ho-hum. If he comes back, I don't care.

[Parklife]

never listened to him before, will likely never listen to him in the future....

[fred kite]

I couldn't care less what happens to Don Imus. I'm sure it's a reflection of his enormous ego that he thinks anyone wants to hear him on radio again...he's got more money than God, so he clearly isn't trying to get back on the air because he's broke. Maybe he and Al Sharpton could do a Point/Counterpoint kind of show? Or he could team up with his lifelong admirer, Howard Stern.

[Dark Knight]

I always heard Howard Stern ripping on him. One day I was flipping channels (this was a while ago) and there he was.
I watched way longer than I should have. It was the most boring thing I ever heard/watched. He looked like he was putting himself to sleep.
Never understood how he got a radio or TV show.

[IChiWawa]

I liked his show alot before he started the MSNBC simulcast, when he was adopted by the media and political elites and started getting much more full of himself. He used to be a lot more about music and common sense and humor but then transformed into a book-peddling, show-plugging, candidate-pushing bitter old man who seemed to get most upset when guests didn't kiss his ass enough or his private jet was late or his new mbz wasn't ready. Watching his show being used as a stage for delivering uncontested BS by both the right and the left showed that he didn't have many marbles left. I like Harold Ford but listening to him saying that the United States armed forces had never fought a guerilla war before Iraq and seeing Imus (an ex-marine) nodding agreement was painful.

All that being said, he and his crew had their moments. He still allowed his house comedians to skewer the powerful of all persuasions. I laughed at his show much more than just about any sitcom I've seen in the last ten years. Freedom of speech was practiced daily and except for two or three incredibly stupid remarks about the Rutgers women's basketball team he'd still be having his ego massaged daily. Whenever he'd describe just about any person with an Italian surname as 'mob-connected', or a red-state republican as a 'toothless goober' or 'inbred cracker' he got no heat whatever, but once he used terms found in the lyrics of songs carried in i-pods across the country, sung by artists who support and perform at political events with no problem whatsoever, he had to pay. It may come as a surprise to some that during the same infamous exchange with Bernard McGuirk, the term 'jig-a-boos' was also used, but since this was a direct reference to Spike Lee's School Daze (which also btw contained a musical number called 'Straight and Nappy'), I guess it wasn't offensive, therefore it was barely reported.

There was once a time when you could hear Imus having a pleasant converstion with Pat Buchanen, Frank Rich, Jerry Brown, Grover Norquist, Tom Hayden, G Gordon Liddy, Timothy Leary etc where they were actually self-deprecating and admitted failures of logic from some of their own crowd.....all over the ideological spectrum they could disagree without being disagreeable......it was a pretty good show back then. As much as Imus has fallen from his old self, I still miss the only vegetarian cattle rancher on the dial.

[Chris_Sax]

Whenever he'd describe just about any person with an Italian surname as 'mob-connected', or a red-state republican as a 'toothless goober' or 'inbred cracker' he got no heat whatever, but once he used terms found in the lyrics of songs carried in i-pods across the country, sung by artists who support and perform at political events with no problem whatsoever, he had to pay.

The issue wasn't that he used the term, the issue was the he used the term to describe amateur student athletes who did nothing to bring it upon themselves.

[IChiWawa]

Whenever he'd describe just about any person with an Italian surname as 'mob-connected', or a red-state republican as a 'toothless goober' or 'inbred cracker' he got no heat whatever, but once he used terms found in the lyrics of songs carried in i-pods across the country, sung by artists who support and perform at political events with no problem whatsoever, he had to pay.

The issue wasn't that he used the term, the issue was the he used the term to describe amateur student athletes who did nothing to bring it upon themselves.

I disagree. People who happen to have Italian surnames (or for that matter, people who happen to be white, rural and conservative) are not doing anything more to 'bring.....upon themselves' a racial or ethnic stereotype. To argue otherwise is to employ a double standard. By the same logic, if some black politician does something I disagree with, I can refer to him/her with the N word because the action bothered me? Ridiculous.

[Chris_Sax]

Imus' show has a well-documented history of racist bullshit being thrown around, there were some minor controversies, but he was never in danger of losing his show or anything like that. The reason this became what it did is because of the target he chose.

If you can't wrap your head around the difference between calling people crackers and calling people the n word, I don't know what to tell you, except that you are old and crotchety and being deliberately obtuse.

Imus' show was boring and no one who appeared regularly on the show had an IQ greater than that of my johnson.

I'm a fake cowboy
In a wheelchair I ride
I'm Imus
Am I dead or alive?

[IChiWawa]

If you can't wrap your head around the difference between calling people crackers and calling people the n word, I don't know what to tell you, except that you are old and crotchety and being deliberately obtuse.

Wrong again. You missed the point(s) but that's nothing new. I should have remembered. You probably don't even realize that now you're even arguing against yourself:

The issue wasn't that he used the term, the issue was the he used the term to describe amateur student athletes who did nothing to bring it upon themselves.

It's either the use of the term or it isn't. By your logic if he'd used it to describe Barack Obama or Oprah Winfrey it would have been OK. Right.

Substitute 'jig-a-boo' for 'nigger' (or 'niggah', the term I hear used most often amongst blacks) and try to think. If that doesn't do the trick ask any black person which term is preferable.

'Jig-a-boo' was used and not even mentioned by the press or the team and I find that term equally offensive to what he was fired for. It wasn't a matter of the term so much as how it could be turned against him to the greatest effect. I'm not defending what Imus said , which should be obvious to anyone but yourself, I'm pointing out the double and triple standards of rap artists who spew worse garbage daily, Sharpton, who has said anti-semitic remarks etc and that what Imus said was not much more or less offensive than many of his past transgressions, let alone as bad as what was said in the past by some of the people condemning him.

Your head may be pliable, but don't assume that goes for everyone.

[Chris_Sax]

Imus' show has a well-documented history of racist bullshit being thrown around, there were some minor controversies, but he was never in danger of losing his show or anything like that. The reason this became what it did is because of the target he chose.

[Chris_Sax]

Um, I messed up with the above post and it won't let me edit it.

It's either the use of the term or it isn't. By your logic if he'd used it to describe Barack Obama or Oprah Winfrey it would have been OK. Right.

Listen, Dunston, I know that you are really old, so I will try to explain this to you. "Ho" is short for, "whore." Imus was calling a group of female student atheles in their early twenties and late teens whores. THAT is why this comment, as opposed to the litany of racist remarks that have taken place on his show over the years, created such a national uproar. The Professionally Offended like Sharpton and Jackson would have been up in arms regardless, but the reason they got the national support that they did and were able to do so much damage to Imus this time, as opposed to all the other past controversies, is because he targeted young women and called them whores. That is all I was saying.

You missed the point, as usual, and decided to hammer on the tired old chestnut that it's okay to say cracker but not okay to say nigger, which is a completely serparate issue. So I was not arguing against myself. Yes, that is something of a double standard, but there are OBVIOUS reasons why it exists, and you are being deliberately obtuse if you pretend that it doesn't make any sense.