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Topic: Should Imus Be Fired For 'Nappy 'Hos' Comment?
| Author | Message |
| jillie | Posted – 4/7/2007 1:56:43 PM | show profile Should Imus and McGuirk be fired? Absolutely. They called a group of women whores on national television because they're good at basketball. It doesn't matter that the comment was meant to be amusing, it belittles the talents of the women he is insulting. The actual words used matter more than context and more than intent. Because even if joking, he's still saying that the Rutgers basketball is sub par because they players are black. And he and the producer are insulting all women by referring to the team as 'hos,' saying that women who don't sell their bodies can't be good at sports. Or else why refer to the players with the slang term for whore? It is not about being politically correct. It's realizing that words matter and are important. That the words chosen reflect on the speaker. |
| ddrabbit | Posted – 4/7/2007 5:09:34 PM | show profile Don Imus Has anyone listened to the Don Imus program lately? Even if Don Imus fell under the category of "entertainment" his remarks would still be inflammatory and stupid. But since he is neither entertaining nor funny (he apparently gets lousy ratings as well) he should be fired. He should have been canned long ago for broadcasting incompetence. Maybe this incident will be all the ammunition Infinity Broadcasting needs to boot him to the curb. |
| questoo1 | Posted – 4/7/2007 6:14:52 PM | show profile he should be fired because he's painful to listen to and even more painful to watch, but certainly not for the comment. Does anyone under my dad's age (67) even listen to the guy? |
| Nikongirl | Posted – 4/7/2007 6:15:43 PM | show profile When I first read what Imus said...... A) I was enraged and horrified. B) He should have been fired 5 minutes after the words left his mouth. Same with his producer who actually first called them ho's.... with Imus following. C) What kind of world do we live in that people are so insensitive and so proud of it, they flaunt it on the airwaves to millions of people and don't feel the important responsibility of their position? D) This is NOT acceptable, for ANY reason, including the scapegoat of being protected by the first amendment as an excuse to spew derogatory remarks about other human beings. We are all human beings, period. No distinctions in God's heart. D) I am sad that Imus feels this way, here it is 2007 and we have not moved very far down the road away from racism and bigotry. E) Freedom of speech is what it is. I do not like most things Howard Stern has to say either but he is raking in the $ like nobody's business. And since I do not like him, I do not listen to him. F) Imus should have the Rutgers' team on to discuss.... that is a great idea Mitchell. Would work for me. Public humiliation is no small thing. |
| billyD120353 | Posted – 4/7/2007 8:09:05 PM | show profile My government offends me more than Don Imus The actions of my goverment raping the taxpayers of this country offend me more than anything Don Imus might have said. |
| BurbGrrl | Posted – 4/7/2007 8:32:06 PM | show profile Nothing new under the sun I'm curious why this remark is drawing such attention when the Imus crew has been wailing on Muslims & those from the Middle East as "camel jockeys" and "towelheads" for years. He regularly spoofs Irish Catholics, latinos, Asians, and other groups. For what it's worth, as an earlier poster said, he is not an out-and-out racist. He has indeed been a huge fan of some African-American preachers, and just last a few weeks ago had one of their widows on the show -- she thanked him for supporting her husband so much. And let's not forget he was a solid supporter of Harold Ford, Jr.'s Senate race, having the Congressman on the show many times. So I don't think this is a revealing slip of the tongue. It's more of a stupid mistake, getting carried away with humor. I don't think he fully realized the power that words can have. Imus isn't a shock jock like Stern and others -- he's usually fairly intelligent and with-it -- but he certainly bills himself as an equal opportunity offender. If something like this happens again, maybe I'll be convinced, but I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. (For those news reports bringing up the earlier incident with the Williams sisters, let's remember that it wasn't Imus making those remarks -- it was his former idiot sportscaster, and the rest of the on-air staff immediately excoriated him for what he said, and I think he was suspended) As far as being fired, that's not so cut and dried. MSNBC can't "fire" him -- they pay to pick up his show, so all they could do is drop it. The only people who can really "fire" him are the programming folks at WFAN who give him his timeslot. And it's not like firing him would destroy him -- he could easily coast the rest of his life on the millions upon millions he already has in the bank. I don't think this is as bad as Michael Richards, but as a white person, that's not my call to make. Still, I'd like to suggest that this isn't as insidious as it seems. |
| cbco23 | Posted – 4/8/2007 1:00:43 AM | show profile while we discuss his statements, hundreds will die in the middle east. Why? |
| olegna joven | Posted – 4/8/2007 5:31:52 AM | show profile -- first amendment as an excuse to spew derogatory remarks -- Perhaps not, but freedom of speech isn't about defending unprovocative comments. Freedom of speech and expression is precisely there to defend speech and expressions that offends people. (So I disagree with a comment above: I think the First Amendment is precisely about defending things that offend you.) Personally, I think Don Imus is an irrelevant old redneck fart and I would like to see people like him get rich on US media by pandering to the "Guyarthurtthomas" types. What I would hate to see in the name of liberalism is a shift in our country toward European style media control and libel laws. I think shooting messengers simply pushed racism underground. Don Imus could not exist in France, yet France hasn't solved its problems with racial divisions. |
| writa1 | Posted – 4/8/2007 10:20:45 AM | show profile Imus Where was Al Sharpton when black leaders, including professors, were making ant-Semitic remarks? |
| writa1 | Posted – 4/8/2007 10:56:10 AM | show profile howard cosell I need to reply to Chamsah's comments about Howard Cosell: he referred to a player as a little monkey not because he was black but because he was agile. Immediately the politically correct police jumped in and called the remarks racist. BS! Cosell was one of the most visible fighters for civil rights and liberties. In the beginning, he stood almost alone in defense of I think then Cassius Clay who had his title stripped for refusing induction into the Army. Imus is a lot of bad things, but this was just a stupid joke for which he has apologized. Get over yourself. |
| Nikongirl | Posted – 4/8/2007 11:29:07 AM | show profile Guy You haved really proved that you can speak like an idiot on any topic, congratulations you racist bigot! |
| granitegirl | Posted – 4/8/2007 11:36:37 AM | show profile It does seem a tad paradoxical that when it comes to bigotry and racism, etc., there are groups in the country it's P.C> to slam. CAtholics, Muslims, Christians , to an extent, Hispanics a tad less so but only of late. Men. SAy something that slams women, blacks or is Anti-Semitic or homophobic and the whole world is suddenly watching. I wonder if other groups in this country need to be as vocal and as outraged as these groups are for this country to finally GET IT as a collective whole. |
| shortdickwhitey | Posted – 4/8/2007 12:53:26 PM | show profile | email poster Have Imus Raise $20 million for African-American Scholarship and then send him & McGuirk to broadcast shows from Tuskegee, NC Central & Grambling. Cmon people this is a guy who insults anyone & everyone including himself. He calls his wife the Green Ho but he also can generate cash for veterans hospitals, autistic children & runs a ranch for young cancer patients. Dont fire him--put him to work for a new cause. |
| drbrooks | Posted – 4/8/2007 4:22:53 PM | show profile IMUS-understand It was a racial slur. Hate speech. End of story. Imus is not a comedian, he is a broadcaster on airwaves governed by rules and regulations. If he wants to get a job on satellite radio ala Stern where he can run a Trash Talking KKK and Neo-Nazi hour in between helping disabled children, he can. But when he does it on network TV, he should be gone. If Charlie Gibson came on ABC Nightly News and dropped the F-bomb or N-bomb, he'd be gone too. Same thing. Some people don't know the definition of 'Free Speech' -- Free speech means, in it's simplest terms, if you want to say whatever the hell you want without endangering lives, go right ahead - just be prepared to be 'freed' from your job as well. That way you can have even MORE 'free' time for your 'free' speech. Knock yourself out. if you're employed as a teacher for instance, you can't racially slur a child without getting facing immediate dismissal, ditto if you're working in The Home Depot. This isn't rocket science. Funny thing is, if he had just said 'hardcore hos' like his producer, or rough ho's or even 'ugly hos' - he would have faced some criticism sure, but it wouldn't have been characterized as 'hate speech' - i.e., a definite racially charged slur that's insulting an entire populace - namely, young African American women. If Imus had just referred to THOSE women on THAT basketball team -- he would have come in for some criticism sure, but not at this level. By making it about RACE -- he includes me, my niece, Oprah Winfrey, Halle Berry, Zahara Jolie Pitt, Barack Obama's wife and kids, Astronauts, Police Officers, Lawyers, Doctors, Soldiers in the Navy, Army, Airforce and Marines fighting for Imus' old dried up cowardly ass right now, Laila Ali, Condoleeza Rice, Mariah Carey, Wanda Sykes, Soledad O'brien, and any of the other 6-8 million black women that reside in this country. |
| roxannekkb | Posted – 4/8/2007 4:33:33 PM | show profile Drebrooks has pinpointed the problem. Don Imus is not a stand up comic, he does not have his cable TV show, or just blogging on his own website. He is a broadcaster on public airwaves, which are governed by rules and regulations set by the FCC. Howard Stern was fined when he cursed on the air. I can't comment on what others have said about Imus insulting other groups because I don't listen to him (nor do I wish to!), but it certainly seems that he has violated set laws and should be fined. It doesn't matter than he apologized--he does not live outside the rules. ------ www.nabeepchen.com |
| treborann | Posted – 4/8/2007 6:01:17 PM | show profile Time out for Imus.................... This was not humorous and you are not untouchable. Before you open your mouth to make some derogatory remark about students think about your own son and all those children at your camp. The Rutgers athletes are striving to do thier best everyday just like Wyatt and the boys and girls at your camp. You need to put on the Dunce cap and sit in the corner for several weeks. |
| drbrooks | Posted – 4/8/2007 7:35:41 PM | show profile Look... Look, guywhateveryournameis -- not ALL black people refer to each other by the n-word, or with slang verbage. Most rational, sane and intelligent people of the caucasian persuasion are astute enough to realize that an oppressed racial minority who's had to deal with discrimination and racism for the last 300 years, just may have developed some social coping mechanisms that they, being white, are not privy to, conseqently they don't b*tch like wusses and whine at the unfairness of why they can't use the n-word too. It might have a great deal to do with the fact that whites were the ones using the word before stringing people up, selling, raping, whipping and mudering them you dumb mofo! You need to take your head out of snoop dog's ass, quit listening to hip-hop music that you will never truly understand and stupidly mimicking the cultural influences of a group of people you don't respect. You and Imus are two peas in a pod -- wanting some type of bizarre street cred among your white contemporaries in your own demo, while hating on and being rabidly jealous of those that your copying (be it music, speech, expression, or behavior). You're pathetic. You might think it makes you a badass, but in reality -- you know and I know, and everyone HERE knows, that you are just one more wuss who wouldn't be caught dead making a peep IRL (in real life), about the self same subjects you're crazily ranting on about here. You're hilarious. For Imus and this guyartwhateverthef*ck person, it's just their way of trying to appropriate the coolness, slang verbage and colorful expressive language they see and hear within hip-hop culture (which spans the globe), while at the same time, they are secretly resenting the influence and creativity of the people they could never in their wildness dreams originate their damn selves. In other words you big dummy, neither YOU, nor Imus, is Eminem, and even though he might have a 'ghetto pass' as we say in Detroit, even HE wouldn't dare use certain words. UNLIKE you, and Imus, he has respect for African American people and culture. People like Imus and YOU, try to imitate it -- as it makes you THINK you're a bad ass. These types are about as transparent as they come....just more sad impotent wannabes who immerse themselves in a culture they're OBSESSED with and are intent on appropriating, while at the same time hating it and it's people. That's when conditions become ripe for octogenarian crypt keeper looking UNHIP white guys who have one foot in the grave, to try and attempt to keep it 'young and hip' by using language they have no clue about. Thus, they inadvertently slur an entire populace. Well, it's too late - the horse is outta the barn. Imus will have to pay the piper in some form or fashion. |
| tmark58 | Posted – 4/8/2007 8:21:01 PM | show profile MSNBC Reputation on the Line Mike Saveage was fired for anti- gay comments. Oh oh Holy MSNBC - you did the right thing - But this? Imus does not work for us - but he makes us money - so no biggie The jiggaboo network - that's what we should call MSNBC - no big deal Let's get back to bashing Bush. Good job guys! |
| MDSAL | Posted – 4/8/2007 10:24:51 PM | show profile Guy: You are truly a moron. It blows my mind that so many American journalists are so utterly and completely biased, provincial, stupid, and ill informed. Don Imus and his ilk are simply a reflection of our esteemed culture. We are regressing at warp speed. |
| Bleak Spouse | Posted – 4/9/2007 1:31:55 AM | show profile I wish they fired him before he appears on Sharpton's radio show. There's a sickening pattern of racist celebs letting their racist comments fly, and then seeking forgiveness from Sharpton and Jesse Jackson. Pathetic. |
| drbrooks | Posted – 4/9/2007 1:48:24 AM | show profile Guy or Gal No actually, if I were as ignorant and bigoted as you, I might say that anglo saxon culture is not about about "discovery and invention" - but more about death, destruction and oppression. A person who was as bigoted as you, might add that everything anglo-saxons ever THOUGHT they discovered had been discovered FIRST by others thousands of years before them. Anglos just failed to recognize that fact in THEIR history books because they were people of color. ....or do you REALLY think that Native Americans celebrate Columbus Day too? Indians: Hello Columbus, I'd like you to meet North America Columbus: Is someone talking to me?? Oh! Look what I discovered! The 'New World!' Columbus' new rule: Indians aren't people - therefore I am the first person to arrive in this brand New World (cue Disney music). Soooooo.... one might say, If they were as racist and bigoted as you, that the anglo-saxon footprint was cast in colonizing through war, pillaging, mass genocide, and enslavement of people across the globe, and that their only accomplishment has been in historical thievery of every OTHER CULTURE known to man, on a massive scale. ....and by the way, science and mathematics - the very basis of civilization and an industrialized nation anywhere on the planet -- was INVENTED by people of color on the continent of Africa. Egyptians and Nubians were charting the terrestial skies, when the Germanic people were just starting to walk upright babe, hate to burst your redneck bubble....but that's the truth. Read a book sometime, and think about THAT the next time you want to crow over the very short span of occupied time within the universe, that your particular racial classification was the head overseer in charge. The world is a lot older than the span of time in which you feel 'your team' has reigned supreme as top imperialist. Oh, and I wouldn't go around saying you 'slap black boy b*tches' if I were you - that sounds incredibly wussified. Suddenly your hostility and insane rage towards black males makes all the sense in the world...shorty. |
| MDSAL | Posted – 4/9/2007 8:15:35 AM | show profile I agree with Bleak Spouse about Sharpton and Jackson. I am so tired of them, I could scream. They cheapen whatever controversy they are involved in and allow idiots like Imus to get off the hook. I also can't help wondering if they're paid for their race rep roles. Not cool. |
| unc1dmo | Posted – 4/9/2007 9:01:56 AM | show profile bad posse... it's a shame on the one hand because of all the great work he does for the war wounded....for the cancer ranch he and his wife run...and the autism campaign..... but i have always said .......any and all banter with his idiot studio posse is nothing but trouble and tedious to listen to..... bernard needs to be fired or DE-miked forever....and the guy that does the characters....NO REASON for being..... Thus remarks, like last week...the bad negates the good....... |
| jilliensg | Posted – 4/9/2007 9:30:57 AM | show profile | email poster Fire Imus Imus should be fired. I don't understand what the qualifications are these days to bec considered a racist. If you said it, you obviously were thinking it, so therefore you are a racist. He also is in an influential position to persuade listeners by having an outlit that is the media. I don't feel that he should be ion this place of power any longer unless this is what his station wants to be associated with. |
| Nikongirl | Posted – 4/9/2007 9:31:53 AM | show profile >>As far as you need, to believe I haven't bitch slapped a few black boys back into proper respect...sorry but I have more than once. But it wasn't because they were black, they just happen to be black but needed a lesson in respect. For the record I have had to do that to people of all races from time to time. << It is hard to believe that you would come on here bragging about what a racist, bigot you are but to brag about also being abusive to others while you sit in judgment and think you deserve respect is laughable. You disgust me with your attitude. You should really be ashamed of yourself. Go learn how to be a human being. People like you are always the ones who create trouble. Nasty man, do you beat your wife and kids too? |
