I didn't really want to comment on this. By the time I finish typing this, someone will have posted the same title to declare he has been fired. I don't have a blog. I don't have a place to state something on this matter. But after witnessing everything I am witnessing this , I just have to speak. Let me speak first in regards to the telethon that is going on as I am writing this. My wife and I have donated to that charity (the Imus Ranch for Kids With Cancer) and to be honest, its the only charity we give money to. I am very into children. I hate when they are stricken with any disease of any time. And I believe...my wife and I believe...that Cancer is probably the worst disease a human can get. Don Imus has come to where I work and has spoken about his foundation on several occasions. He has never had cameras with him. He has never had newspaper people with him. He has never had a publicity agent with him. He just showed up, spoke and left. I met with Mr. Imus a few times. We are not friends. We are not buddies. But I am in charge here and when he is here, I try to be as great a host as I can be. His wife, Deirdre Imus, is also a great, great person. What Don Imus said was not right. I understand the furor. But I have to say this. He said something that no white man should be able to say. Saying that, to call for his demise is the most disgraceful display I have ever seen. Its a public lynching at its height. To think that all of the GREAT, GREAT work this man has done is completely thrown out the window because he said what he said is not right. Is it right what he said? No. But that is why he was getting suspended. Two weeks might not be right to some. But think about when a pitcher loses 5 games. Thats like a month. When Don Imus gets suspended for two weeks, it not only hurts him. It hurts the ENTIRE RADIO STATION/TELEVISION STATION. He is the entry point of their day. He is the lead in. Its a business and the amount of ratings that will drop in his absence is a big deal. As a minority, I don't want someone to call either one of my two girls "nappy headed hoes"...if you DON'T KNOW THEM. Just let me be honest. I use the N word ALL THE TIME. When I go back to Houston, my life long friends call me by the N words 24/7...AND I AM FREAKIN LATINO! I call my wife a hoe. I call my sisters hoes. I called most of my ex girlfriends hoes or b****es...all who were black. My wife is actually the first Latina I dated. But I NEVER got my ass kicked because everyone knows that I am not a racist. Everyone I have ever been in contact with knows that I am not a biggot. My best friend is Jewish and I crack on his b**** ass on an HOURLY basis and he calls me plantano (Plantain). He says that I am dumb by nature because I am from the Dominican Republic. He says that I should be playing baseball instead of being in Finance. I say to him to do my taxes because the best accountants are Jews. It goes on and on. Nobody who hears us talking says "Oh, Almu hates Jews." I don't. IF they know who I am and know my history, they know my MOTHER married an ARAB who has a sister that has a friend who married a JEW! I mean, come on! The background and the history of the person MATTERS! Nobody goes around saying I am a racist. Nobody says I am dogging my wife when I say "My sexy beast, can you get me a Corona?" So what? I think my wife is an animal? Holy ****! This country needs an ENEMA! I don't call my boss (who is a woman) names I call my wife. I have respect. But I had a previous female boss who became a good friend who hurled insults at me that were so damn funny she could of done stand up comedy. A white woman. Saying to go to my office and eat my rice and beans. Should I have sued? Should I have gone to Sharpton or Jackson? I was single at the time and always told her that if I ever got her alone I would break her back (You know what that means). I guess she should of ran to HR and said I was sexually harrassing her. Yea. Thats it. I know that Don Imus was in front of a microphone. Public airwaves and all that. But please. I can name 5 people who use the same airwaves to spew hate and promote ideas that kill people! The man made a mistake. He now has to pay for it with is LIFE? The women at Rutgers are the victims here. Nobody cares about that seems like. Don Imus has made alot of people annoyed. He cracks on EVERYONE. And where the hell are his friends? Tim Russert? Chris Matthews? So many people who have made MILLIONS on his show don't even say a PEEP! Nothing! Like the Rockets when they lose a freakin game! Jump ship, baby! Barack Obama gets a big ole boost and see ya! Does ANYONE care that Rev. Jesse Jackson basically lynched those boys in North Carolina on NATIONAL TV and doesn't even APOLOGIZE? His excuse? Their fault. They put themselves in that situation? The hypocrisy and the double standard right along with the war criminals that lead our present government we are under make me think that this freakin country is going into the toilet fast. What the hell is going on around here? How can people that have done SO MUCH GOOD be taken down. How embarrasing was for Don Imus to go and GROVEL in front of Al Sharpton? To kiss the ring of that idiot WOULD MAKE ME PUKE ON HIM. This guy is the biggest racial divider maybe in the history of this country. I apologize that I am so angry about this. Many of the old guys around here have probably never seen me type in this manner before. But I am so damn angry. Like I said. I don't "know" this man. I know his work. And the little I spoke to him (in the privacy of my office along with my bosses), he was the SAME person as the one you see on the radio. By the way, if you wanted to know about how much money they have raised for the charity, its up to 1.7 million. That is the MOST they have raised at this same time EVER. They are talking about raising 5 million dollars in the 48 hours which will shatter the 3.9 million record they had. Unreal.
What Imus said was wrong. Everyone had a right to be upset, and if he got fired, then I understand that. But I think things could have gone better. It seems like everything has snowballed and Jackson and Sharpton are going to push for all kinds of stuff, and the attention brought to it was much larger than it deserved. I think things would have been better if after Imus' apologies suspend him and let him meet with the Rutgers team, and Sharpton, Jackson, and anyone else that has taken an interest. After that play the apologies up, and show the leaders of the outrage coming together with someone who learned from their mistake, and then use Imus to speak out against racism, and push for civil rights in the future. It would have been a great picture of the offender, and the offended coming together and working to make as much positive come out of the negative as possible. I think it would have done much more good.
im demanding jamie foxx givs back his oscar..he doesnt like white people and dave chappelles "jokes" were very hurtful... ohh and the lucky charms cereal for mocking irish folklore
Omar Minaya just came on the radio...donated 100k. They are at 1.642 million. I pray one day that I am so rich that I can give more than I already have given in the last 6 years. I just can't believe I am witnessing something like this in America.
i am more and more disgusted by it every day. It will only get worse. like walton and johnson say...the pussification of america is in full effect. A revolution is necessary.
I don't understand how Imus' comments could be any worse than Glen Beck asking whether Muslim congressman Keith Elison was working "with the terrorists" on live tv.
Way to take it out of context. Did you see that episode? If not, it'd be worth it to check it out. If so, you are being purposely misleading.
http://www.slate.com/id/2163872?nav=tap3 The Great Don Imus speaks; On blacks: "William Cohen, the Mandingo deal." (Former Defense Secretary Cohen's wife is African-American.) "Wasn't in a woodpile, was he?" (Responding to news that former black militant H. Rap Brown, subsequently known as Abdullah Al-Amin, was found hiding in a shed in Alabama after exchanging gunfire with police. Imus is here alluding to the expression "****** in the woodpile.") "Knuckle-dragging moron." (Description of basketball player Patrick Ewing.) "We all have 12-inch penises." (After being asked what he has in common with Nat Turner, Malcolm X, Minister Louis Farrakhan, Latrell Sprewell from the New York Knicks, and Al Sharpton.) "Chest-thumping pimps." (Description of the New York Knicks.) "A cleaning lady." (Reference to journalist Gwen Ifill, possibly out of pique that she wouldn't appear on his show. "I certainly don't know any black journalists who will," she wrote in the April 10 New York Times. The Chicago Tribune's Clarence Page used to appear, but after he made Imus pledge not to make offensive comments in the future, he was never asked back.) On Jews: "I remember when I first had [the Blind Boys of Alabama] on a few years ago, how the Jewish management at whatever, whoever we work for, CBS, or whatever it is, were b****ing at me about it. […] I tried to put it in terms that these money-grubbing bastards could understand." "Boner-nosed … beanie-wearing Jewboy." (Description of Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post, a frequent guest.) On women: "That buck-tooth witch Satan, Hillary Clinton." […] "I never admitted it when I went down there and got in all that big jam, insulting Bill Clinton and his fat ugly wife, Satan. Did I? Did I ever say I was sorry for that?" On Native Americans: "The guy from F-Troop, Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell." (This is a reference to the zany Indian characters on the 1960s TV sitcom F-Troop. They had names like "Roaring Chicken," "Crazy Cat," and "Chief Wild Eagle.") On Japanese: "Old Kabuki's in a coma and the market's going up. […] How old is the boy? The battery's running down on that boy." (Reference to Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi, who died the following week.) On gays: "I didn't know that Allan Bloom was coming in from the back end." (The homosexuality of the author of The Closing of the American Mind became widely known when Saul Bellow published Ravelstein, a novel whose protagonist was based on Bloom, who by then was deceased.) "The enormously attractive [NBC political correspondent] Chip Reid, I can say without being accused of being some limp-wristed 'mo." On the handicapped: "Janet Reno's having a press conference. Ms. Reno, of course, has Parkinson's disease, has a noticeable tremor. […] I don't know how she gets that lipstick on (laughter) looking like a rodeo clown." Every one of these statements came directly out of Imus' mouth on his program. That's striking because Imus usually leaves it to other show regulars (especially McGuirk, the aforementioned point man on "******" jokes) to say the most offensive stuff, with Imus feeding them straight lines. It's safer that way. *Correction, April 11, 2007: An earlier version of this column misspelled Colbert's first name and referred erroneously to "Sacha Baron 'Ali G.' Cohen," which suggested the comedian's last name was "Cohen." His last name is "Baron Cohen." Click here to return to the corrected sentence. ... he'll be coming to radio station somewhere on yah dial, too many folks love his style, no need for tears!
Almu, I'd agree with you if this was an isolated incident. This is not the first time that he has said things to this extent publicly or in private. Keith Olbermann on the Dan Patrick Show today was telling stories about how he goes out of his way to make extremely sexist remarks to the female employees around him. What he does with his ranch is commendable. However, he is a d*** and this was bound to happen.
They weren't worse. He was just an easier target. There are plenty of other people such as Rush and Savage who have said worse things as well.
He is not banned, he is not put in jail. He lost a job built on happy advertisers who had every right to say they want no part of continuing to support his openly racist, bigoted and homophobic dialogue. He is not censored, he is free to find another outlet for his work--he probably will find one, be it in a more fringe market or whatever. That is more options than Pacman Jones has to do what he does best before his case is even handled in the court of law. And before we hear about the "double standard" again, remember Michael Ray got fired too. Racist, bigoted, and homophobic dialogue (in particular aimed at marginalized and historically discriminated groups) should not be legitimized. Maybe the real problem is took this event for CBS and their sponsors to be pressured enough to can Imus. Nice guy in person or not, great fundraiser for great causes or not, Imus public comments on his show is what this decision is based on and what he takes responsibility for. Maybe he will grow from it and see the damage his comments did (to the Rutgers girls, to society--this is different than diologue with friends and loved ones in context, Almu I assume you don't say those types of things to people you don't know), and be more focused on being a more positive influence while he builds that charity even better. We can only hope.
No, it's much worse. Glenn Beck was respectful the entire time to Ellison. He asked that about a specific statement that Ellison had made. Ellison has been back on Beck's radio show since. Rush has definitely said worse, but money speaks in that situation.
Imus wasn't serious though. Beck's remark was serious, when simply because Ellison was a Muslim he wanted Ellison to prove he wasn't working with the enemy. Imus' pushing the envelope went over the line, and his remarks were racist. I don't have a problem with him being fired, but I still think Beck's comment was worse. To imply that a person because they are a practicing muslim should have to prove their loyalty is way worse.
The angry mob giveth and it taketh away. Imus built his career on these types of remarks. He's a remnant of a past bygone era. Cynically, Sharpton and Jackson scored easy influence points.
