Don’t get me wrong. I’m certainly delighted that MSNBC has looked into its heart and suddenly found that there’s no place there for Don Imus, and his brand of casual misogynistic “humor”.
I would prefer to be able to write there’s no place there for the likes of Don Imus. Unfortunately, that’s still not true. The likes of Don Imus continue to flourish, despite what many people — including myself — regard as a history of even more objectionable speech, speech that crosses way over the line which separates sophomoric misogyny from hate speech. I’m thinking of Ann Coulter, for example. I’m thinking of Bill O’Reilly.
But let’s focus on the word “history”. Why has Imus suddenly got into so much trouble now? He has a history of similarly troubling statements, many of them similarly directed at minority women. How come Imus’s advertisers never realized before how much they despise what the man stands for and what he spouts? How come most of the rest of those who profit richly by enabling Imus to stand and spout still haven’t had this realization dawn on them? CBS Radio for example. Or CBS-owned Westwood One, his syndicators. Or “Buick, Shell, Crest, L’Oreal and Liberty Mutual”, some of Imus’s remaining advertisers. (Though, many of them may suddenly come to this realization today, to be sure.)
And what about all the fine folk, all the honorable, respectable folk, who bless Imus’s “racism and other bigotry” by regularly appearing on his show, for example “(NBC‘s) Tim Russert, (Newsweek’s) Howard Fineman, (New York Times op-ed columnist) Frank Rich and (New York Times columnist) Maureen Dowd (who) are frequent Imus guests”?
As NYT‘s David Carr wrote in an article published Monday morning:
Given that Mr. Imus spent part of last week describing the student athletes at Rutgers as “nappy-headed ho’s,†you might think he’d have trouble booking anyone, let alone A-list establishment names. But Mr. Imus, who has been given a pass for this sort of comment in the past, also generously provides airtime to those parts of the news media and political apparatus that would generally be expected to bring him to account.
[...]
Although the Web has been alive with calls for sanctions against Mr. Imus — the clip is available for all to see on YouTube — mainstream media have remained relatively silent. He is, after all, popular, good at his job and, perhaps more important, he generously provides oxygen — and an audience — to the kind of journalistic and political elites who would be expected to demand his head on a pike.He is, to borrow one of the show’s metaphors, a lawn jockey to the establishment. Few politicians, big or small, pass up a chance to bump knees with Mr. Imus, in part because his show is one of the few places where they can talk seriously and at length about public issues. Senator John Kerry has stopped by. Senator John McCain is on frequently. And Senators Joseph I. Lieberman and Joseph R. Biden are part of a legion eager to sit in the guest chair.
NBC News uses “Imus in the Morning†to promote the brands of Tim Russert, Andrea Mitchell and David Gregory. Tom Brokaw was a frequent guest, and his replacement, Brian Williams, has been sanctified by the I-man, as they call him. Chris Matthews from MSNBC has appeared, as have anchors and journalists from CNN and CBS and, on the print side, by reporters and editors from Newsweek and popular opinion columnists from The New York Times.
[...]
After Mr. Imus stepped over quite a few lines at the dinner of the Radio and Television Correspondents’ Association in 1996, Cokie Roberts, now an analyst for ABC News, said, “Now none of us can go on his show again.†But she went back; they always do.
The Don Imuses of this world are who they are because of a vast army of enablers, a veritable plague of little elves who emerge from the woodwork every night to do what needs to be done to allow Imus to keep spewing his sewage every morning to his more than ten million listeners and viewers.
You might be truly surprised at some of the people who, as of yesterday morning, had affirmed their commitment to reappear on Imus’s show:
Embattled radio host Don Imus is getting support from many of the politicians and journalists who frequently grace his show – including presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani.
Despite many calls for the shock jock’s resignation, Giuliani said he would again appear with Imus, and after talking to him on the phone he believes Imus “understands that he made a very, very big mistake.”
“I take Don at his word that he understands the gravity of what he said,” Giuliani told the Daily News. “He seems sincerely sorry about it and seems like someone who will endeavor not to do that again and I take him at his word.”
Giuliani was not the only White House hopeful to say he would again chat on air with Imus. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a frequent guest whose campaign Imus has backed, said he would continue to appear with the cranky commentator.
This little exchange from CNN‘s Situation Room last night illustrates perfectly why CBS may well be making another little announcement of their own very soon:
COSTELLO: … Wolf, I got a statement from CBS about his radio broadcast just about five minutes ago. It says Don Imus has been suspended without pay for two weeks beginning on Monday, April 16. During that time CBS Radio will continue to speak with all concerned parties and monitor the situation closely. So for now the radio show will be back on the radio after that two-week suspension.
BLITZER: All right, so unlike NBC, CBS is leaving its options open right now. Carol, thanks very much.
Ah, yes, comparisons can be odious, indeed.
But back to “Why now?” After all, the man has got into trouble before.
Imus himself has referred to African-American journalist Gwen Ifill as “a cleaning lady,” to New York Times sports reporter Bill Rhoden as “quota hire” and to tennis player Amelie Mauresmo as “a big old lesbo.” Imus called Washington Post reporter Howard Kurtz a “boner-nosed… beanie-wearing Jewboy,” referred to a disabled colleague as “the cripple,” and to an Indian men’s tennis duo as “Gunga Din and Sambo.”* In Imus’ words, the New York Knicks are “chest-thumping pimps.”
Imus’ on again/off again sidekick Sid Rosenberg was temporarily fired in 2001 for calling tennis player Venus Williams an “animal” and remarking that the Williams sisters—Venus and her tennis player sister Serena—would more likely be featured in National Geographic than in Playboy. Rosenberg insisted to New York’s Daily News (6/7/01) that his comments weren’t racist, “just zoological.” In 2004, MSNBC had to apologize when the rehired Rosenberg referred to Palestinians as “stinking animals.”
In May 2005, MSNBC let Contessa Brewer out of her short stint as a news reader on Imus’ morning show after Imus had made a daily game of crude personal attacks against her, calling her a pig, a skank, dumber than dirt and other similar felicities, all on air. MSNBC claimed they “expressed their displeasure” to the host (New York Post, 5/1/05), while noting that his “humor” was “often brilliant and provocative.”
(Funny how tolerant MSNBC has been of Imus in the past, innit?)
And the Al Sharptons and Jesse Jacksons of the world have fulminated against him before in exactly the same way. And with all due respect to the Rutgers women’s basketball team, it’s not like what Imus said this time was any worse than some of the things he’s said before.
Frankly, I have no idea whatsoever why Imus’s remark about the Rutgers women’s basketball team suddenly became such a huge issue.
I hope to hell this means that the next time Ann Coulter spews some of of her own patented sewage, or Bill O’Reilly let’s loose a particularly offensive one, the sky will fall on their heads too. But I’m not exactly going to hold my breath.
* That would be Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi; Paes is fair and Bhupathi is dark-skinned.
***Update, 2:30 pm ***
Odious comparisons got old pretty quick:
CBS Corp. said on Thursday it would permanently cancel Don Imus’ morning radio talk program, following racist and sexist comments made by the shock jock about a women’s college basketball team.