The Imus ranch in Ribera, New Mexico

For those of you that don’t know, Don Imus runs a ranch in New Mexico for kids with cancer. Some of those kids are black. What does that have to do with Imus calling the Rutgers women’s basketball team “nappy-headed ‘hos”? Nothing. But Imus wants you to know that anyway.

“When these kids die, we don’t just go to the white kids’ funeral,” Imus said on his show this morning. “I know African-American children.”

“I came back from the ranch talking to politicians about sickle cell,” he continued. “No black journalists called me about that.”

“These young women [at Rutgers] need to know, not as an excuse … Not after what I’m about to say do I expect them to say ‘Oh well he works with black children or he has black friends that means he can say this,’ that’s not what I’m saying,” Imus said. “I’m a good person, who said a bad thing, and there’s a big difference.”

Imus’s personal use of the ranch has drawn scrutiny from tax and charity officials. (He and his wife and son stay at the ranch all summer to oversee the children’s programs. He and his family also visit the ranch in the off-season, including during Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, as well as occasional weekends.)

FishbowlNY’s Imus Scandal Coverage: