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Imus is Just the Beginning
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04/12/07 10:49 AM ET
We shouldn’t be surprised at what happened to Don Imus. It’s in the Bible. Hosea 8/7: “They sow the wind, and reap the whirlwind.”
For decades, on the radio, Don Imus sowed the winds of insult, hatred and racism. And this week — after one ugly comment that shocked an entire nation — he finally reaped the whirlwind.
Good for NBC for getting his poison off the air. The only question is: Why’d it take them so long? The Rutgers basketball champions weren’t the first women, blacks or Jews he’d offended.
Imus insisted that he and his producers were just trying to be funny. But it wasn’t funny when he called Gwen Ifill a White House “cleaning lady.” It wasn’t funny when he called the “Jewish management” of CBS a bunch of “money-grubbing bastards.” It wasn’t funny when Imus producer Bernard McGuirk said that “bitch” Hillary Clinton would have “cornrows and gold teeth before this fight with Obama is over.”
Yet MSNBC allowed Imus to get away with all that and more — until he picked on the wrong target: a talented group of young women, and their coach, who represent the best of America. And, of course, until sponsors began to cancel their advertising.
As reprehensible as Imus’s comments were, however, the sad fact is: He’s not the worst. There are far more hateful voices on the air. Like Michael Savage, a nationally syndicated talk show host, who called one listener a “Sodomite” and told him to “get AIDS and die.”
So the sacking of Don Imus is not the end of cleaning up the airwaves; it’s only a good beginning. Don Imus is gone. Next: Fire Michael Savage!
For decades, on the radio, Don Imus sowed the winds of insult, hatred and racism. And this week — after one ugly comment that shocked an entire nation — he finally reaped the whirlwind.
Good for NBC for getting his poison off the air. The only question is: Why’d it take them so long? The Rutgers basketball champions weren’t the first women, blacks or Jews he’d offended.
Imus insisted that he and his producers were just trying to be funny. But it wasn’t funny when he called Gwen Ifill a White House “cleaning lady.” It wasn’t funny when he called the “Jewish management” of CBS a bunch of “money-grubbing bastards.” It wasn’t funny when Imus producer Bernard McGuirk said that “bitch” Hillary Clinton would have “cornrows and gold teeth before this fight with Obama is over.”
Yet MSNBC allowed Imus to get away with all that and more — until he picked on the wrong target: a talented group of young women, and their coach, who represent the best of America. And, of course, until sponsors began to cancel their advertising.
As reprehensible as Imus’s comments were, however, the sad fact is: He’s not the worst. There are far more hateful voices on the air. Like Michael Savage, a nationally syndicated talk show host, who called one listener a “Sodomite” and told him to “get AIDS and die.”
So the sacking of Don Imus is not the end of cleaning up the airwaves; it’s only a good beginning. Don Imus is gone. Next: Fire Michael Savage!
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