I've never really heard Imus' program. The bits and pieces I've caught did not encourage me to listen further. His racial outburst was, needless to say, both foolish and despicable -- words that can describe previous ugly incidents in the man's career.
But: I read his apology, and it seemed both sincere and humble. Humility is a rare virtue these days, as is forgiveness, and I think both should be encouraged. I would like to believe that even louts and rotters can better themselves. My advice would be to take the apology at face value and to drop the matter.
ADDED NOTE: If you have decided that Imus has lacerated himself beyond apology's ability to mend, read this D.U. post before wallowing in self-righteousness. I did not know that the man had done so much for charity. Not that this history will matter to most, for truly Lord Buckley hath spoken:
The bad jazz that a cat blows,
Wails long after he's cut out.
The groovy is often stashed with their frames...
12 comments:
It would be one thing if this were an isolated incident by an otherwise non-racist person (Howard Cossel's infamous and hilarious "look at that little monkey run!" football commentary comes to mind). But Imus is playing us: he repeatedly makes racist comments and then -- wink-wink-nod-nod -- apologizes. Until next week when he makes the next racist comment.
A poster, tgnyc of DU, nailed it with a post that stayed at the top of the Greatest Page, detailing the many times we've gone through this song and dance before, here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=604234
The guy is a demonstrable pathological racist, who spews this stuff constantly. Moreover, as other DUers have pointed out, his show is horrible, the drugs and alcohol he consumed in prior decades have turned him into a semi-paralytic mumbling brain impaired mummy, he doesn't have numbers, and the stations could make more money with other programming. Why he still has the show is a mystery, but this is a great opportunity to get rid of this infested boil, once and for all.
i don't listen to him either, but i heard a snippet on npr, and it appeared that indeed imus has promised to clean up his racially bigoted talk in the past. and as for sincere? well, the apology i heard him giving was all in the first person plural: WE'RE sorry, WE apologize, etc. who's he talking about? him and the voices in his head? he alone made the remarks. he's not accepting the responsibility for them by using "we" in an apology. (i haven't seen a printed one - maybe he used the first person singular in that.)
c'mon man, i can see now that it is just a matter of what faith you believe in that causes you to have valid(in your mind anyways)points if views.
sincerity is even rarer, but everybody gives it a go (fake)
There's a huge commercial enterprise at risk if Imus doesn't go through the usual charade of apology, epiphany, healing and redemption. Think of the poor sponsors, the radio network denied their gravytrain, the program staff updating resumes late into the night, the agents and managers sweating bullets over their 20% deals.
When Bush says "you are either with us or against us", he divides the world into good and evil. The reality is much more complicated than that. Passing judjment on Imus as good or evil is in the same way simplistic.
I have listened to his show a few times(mostely trying to figure out where this guy fits in)and found his show to be somewhat like Howard Stern's(over the top, controversial). I don't care for Stern's show or Imus's, however these kind of shows are usually not 100% reflective of the person behind the name(kind of like Jerry Springer's show was not about who Springer is).
The question is not whether Imus is pure evil or good hearted or just a bigot or all of the above.
The question is not even whether he should be fired(Richards and Gibson were just as savagely attached). The question is whether he happened to ignite an issue(racism,sexism)that has been slowly brewing under the surface here in this country(Enron was not the only company doing unethical stuff behind closed doors either). Is he going to become the poster boy for anti bigotry? Does he deserve the title? Probably not, but there is always one that gets picked(deserved or not). How the networks behave in this situation has a lot to do with the mood of the country(as at the hight of pro-Bush pro-Fundi era, the Janet Jackson episode found a life of its own or the Dixie Chicks were smeared).
I put my bet on Imus becoming an Enron. Let's see how good I am at senseing the mood of the country.
gosh, joe, when you show such optimism and hope for humanity, i hate to disagree.
but disagree i must. and strongly.
i have occasionally of a morn watched a bit of imus, partly because i can't stand the bland morning shows, but more to get some sense of what he was about.
to his credit, he sometimes has taken a good stand. can't think of one now, but i know i remember thinking i was surprised.
and he does have all those charities, and his wife is a strong advocate of clean cleaning products, and has a line of her own alternatives. their work for kids with cancer is great. no doubt about it.
but those things do not alter the fact that he is just one step away from stern in terms of unmonitored behaviors. with imus it's not locker room sexual, but locker room racist/misogynist/homophobe.
the bottom line is locker room. adolescent. mindless snorting idiocy.
i heard him try to defend himself this morning to matt lauer, and he said he did not say it in anger or hatred. but what he missed was the fact that he said it with such deep disregard.
that is the problem; he has no idea how little regard he actually has for these people he deigns to grant his public respect and his charitable efforts.
but it becomes exposed in those moments.
i'm with sharpton on this one; he may well mean his apology, but he nonetheless committed the offense. saying oops sorry on the hockey ice still gets you the penalty box.
i do think two weeks is light, frankly, when his past offenses are taken into account. it will be interesting to see how he shifts his show to accommodate his stated intent, because i'm here to tell ya, it really was a stern wannabe in terms of the casual off-hand crack just like that. about EVERYthing.
i hope this IS a trend, and that it sweeps the likes o' coulter, savage, hannity, and o'really right along with it. good riddance!
See a tongue-in-cheek visual of Imus and his newfound buddy, Michael Richards, hanging out and counting sheep...here:
www.thoughttheater.com
I'm with anonymous on this, Joe. I think you'll find my blog partner's post on this at On Our Radar eye opening.
Anonymous, you might want to cross-post our post on the 1971 Imus episode at DU. DU blocks my IP, even though I only posted one innocent (I thought) post, like, three years ago.
Well the advertisers are pulling out and Keith is hinting at a bigger consequence than 2 week suspention tonight on his program.
The jury is still out but with a black man and a woman running for president, well.....let's just wait and see.
Colbert had the best take on the whole thing tonight...by far....
his take shows what is behind all of this (bigotry, racism, sexism, class-ism?...etc.)...
What is in it for me? (how do I benefit from holding unto an unjust point of view).
sofla said...
The litany of good deeds done by Imus strains hard to make him a champion for African-Americans, listing out the many things good he did that applied to ALL RACES!!! Which is mainly a stupid point as a defense, for how exactly, for instance, was Imus going to argue for one raised standard death benefit for white killed in combat, and something else for others? Most of these deeds were apparently color-blind because of how they virtually had to be, not because of a hidden wonderful Imus attitude toward A-As where he went out of his way to specifically help them, as that defender tries to imply, unsuccessfully upon analysis.
All kinds of charitable or otherwise nice enough people are fired with cause for any and all reasons at an employer's discretion, when the employer decides their continued employment is not in the interests of the corporation, period. Few people have any entitlement to their job (some of the Ford heirs perhaps to the contrary), and losing your job doesn't mean you are a horrible person, nor does being a wonderful person mean you get or keep a job. Corporations that want to guard their own image typically cut off employees without compunction at the whiff of bad publicity for the corporation.
Imus' firing would not be unusual, or unjust. The only question is whether he deserves leniency, extra slack granted, so that what is surely a clear firing offense in corporate American is granted a mulligan. It isn't as if he's a closet bigot against women, blacks, Jews, and whether his private character should get him fired. He displays this 'lack of sensitivity' basically every day to the general public, in his official capacity.
I regard this matter as a scalp served up by the resurgent left media and media critics (just as the Trent Lott matter was driven by the same non-mainstream sector until it hit eventual critical mass), and thus a welcome indicator that somebody other than the right wing mighty Wurlitzer can achieve such a public take down of execrable behavior. However, as an alternative analysis, consider that perhaps Imus lost his GE/NBC mojo and protective shield when he so aggressively went after the Bush administration's failures, talked about Rumsfeld as a war criminal, etc.
You know what's good about being an everyday Joe/Joe-ann?
You see and feel things the way they are for the average Joe/Joe-ann.
I am not a journalist or a doctor and I am not even a geek. I am not an athiest and I am certainly not a "Fundi" of any kind (apply the word to any religion and you get the same bunch of closed minded absolutists-my way or the highway).
I am not a high school drop out or a PHD (however you spell that).
I am not rich nor poor (somewhere in the middle of the vast spectrum of middle class-not worrying about losing my house nowdays but worrying about bills and the price of gas).
I am not a Republican (God forbid) but I am not a true Democrat either (I don't trust anyone with 100 million dollars to spend on any election).
I am not an optimist (always beliveing in the glass half full theory- or that our government never lies to us), but I don't believe that anyone is pure evil either (if you analyze most acts of violence, you discover a frail and frightened human behind it).
What I am is an average Joe/ann.
Last November I said that my gut (not the same thing as Bush's gut) tells me that the Democrats will win(check back on my comments) and a couple of days ago I said that Imus will be the "Enron" of bigtry.
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