Imus lashed out at the Rutgers female basketball team by calling them a racial and sexist slur. Breaking news is that he has been fired by MSNBC for his behavior (And this Thursday morning by NBC). This is big news because Imus is the center of a MULTIMILLION dollar business. And yet the big networks fired him and all major advertisers pulled out--making Rudy Guiliani look like a dork for accepting his apology. (You heard right, Rudy Guiliani actually said he "accepted" his apology and said he would appear on his show in the future--I guess he got over being called a "nappy-headed ho").
Colossal moron Bush didn't condemn the remarks, just congratulated Imus for apologizing. (Heck of a job, Imee). Romney at least said he would tell Imus how bad the remarks are IF he went back on the show... not seeing the irony of last month's embrace of Ann Coulter.
Which brings me to the crux of my diary...
If what Imus did was SO offensive, then how the hell can anyone justify the presence on our TVs, newspaper columns, and radio waves of hatemongers Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh?
Rush Limbaugh has made fun of blacks, hispanics, immigrants, women, and more recently, the handicapped. Ann Coulter completed the circle by making repulsive comments about arabs, asians, native americans and gays. And unlike Imus, neither was ever forced to apologize for their hateful remarks. Neither was ever disciplined. Quite the contrary.
Both receive million dollar royalties and invitations to speak at conservative forums and even the White House.
The liberal side has no one this hateful. The right has tried to make Michael Moore our demon, but Michael Moore hardly engages in hate speech (what ethnic group has he attacked? his movie thanked the troops for their sacrifice and made Bush look like the unprepared idiot he his---is this the same as telling an African-American to "take the bone" out of his nose (Limbaugh) or saying asians, particularly North Koreans, should be "nuked for fun" (Ann)?)
Both of these hateful bigots don't command the audience or money that IMUS does, but he didn't have the one thing he needed -- conservative cover.
If he is smart, he will take to the airways next week on his new show at FOX NEWS network screaming racist rhetoric but this time coupling it with swipes at the Democratic Congress. He will be back on top in no time, and won't ever again have to face Al Sharpton.
Don't you find it interesting that Mel Gibson is still making movies and people are paying to see them, Michael Richards is no doubt playing some comedy club right now, Jesse Jackson lives with his slur about NY Jews and Al Sharpton bears the brunt in a law case about a 15 year old named Tawana Brawley and Don Imus gets fired.
ReplyDeleteI'm not an Imus fan but he made a BIG mistake and has apologized over and over and taken responsibility for his actions (not like some of the above) and he gets fired. I believe part of that is the bottom line, he lost his sponsors and we all know what the bottom line means to big business.
It was a turning point--people are fed up with racism. It's about time.
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