It might not mean much on a day in which the New York Times laid into dessicated ventriloquist dummy lookalike/erstwhile shock-person Don Imus. But while the Times‘ David Carr acts like Imus’s decades-old shtick and weird media influence is somehow something new — and neglects to mention that his paper was one of the show’s big advertisers — the Newark Star-Ledger’s Dave D’Allesandro is 1) NOT HAVING IT and 2) hip to the fact that “satirical” racism has been the I-Man’s M.O. for decades. If there was any way that a (truly excellent) Nets beat writer’s (truly excellent) blog post could possibly end a hugely successful egomaniac’s career — and there isn’t — this would pretty much be it:
You say the L’affaire Imus has nothing to do with the NBA, but that is hardly the case. For starters, that show proved that there was nothing Jayson Williams wouldn’t do for money. Secondly, it was always mind-boggling to hear members of that show get away with referring to the Knicks as crackheads (and worse), or Patrick Ewing as “Mighty Joe Young,” and that in the end, we actually felt sorry for idiots like John Rocker because they are victims of a double standard.
Somehow, we have accepted Imus’ racist/sexist/homophobic act far too long because he considers himself a satirist, which is a very convenient fallback in times such as these. One problem with that: Satire is supposed to be targeted at those in positions of power and influence, not at bunch of college kids who happen to look different from the vast majority of the Imus audience. We didn’t realize that outside of Limbaugh, that relentlessly promoting theories of racial inferiority, hatred of gays and of women in power, and comforting middle class bigots was a Swiftian pursuit in today’s radio kingdom.
The sad thing is that nothing is going to stop top-tier pundits like Chris Matthews from going on Imus’ show to talk about how icky women politicians are. Nothing is going to make Imus fire the surpassingly cretinous Bernard McGurk, who was his interlocutor in the discussion in question. Outside of the aforementioned Matthews, there is no more outwardly weird and unappealing media fixture than Imus…but as D’Allesandro hints, radio is not exactly like baseball. When John Rocker couldn’t get big league hitters out anymore, he had to go kick it with Kevin Baez and pitch to bloggers. Imus hasn’t gotten anyone out since 1993 or so, but some editor from Newsweek is going to be yukking it up with him about how Hillary Clinton’s really a dude or something similarly satirical sometime soon. When his two-week suspension is over, that is.
“The sad thing is that nothing is going to stop top-tier pundits like Chris Matthews from going on Imus’ show to talk about how icky women politicians are.”
I wouldn’t describe exposing fuckheads, even if it’s not Imus’ intent, a sad thing. Hatespeech, ignorance, etc. getting swept under the rug like this is worse than having it out in the open. I’d rather see the masses make up their own collectively stupid mind than have NBC do it for them. Especially in the very unsympathetic case of Don Imus.
I’m just surprised anyone understood anything Imus said.
“I’d rather see the masses make up their own collectively stupid mind than have NBC do it for them.”
Left-wing censorship is indeed very dangerous (and hypocritical). I’m ok with the suspension because it says that there are consequences to questionable behavior. Firing the guy or taking him off the air on commercial radio (or fining him a million dollars a’ la FCC v. Howard Stern) is censorship plain and simple. This guy’s ratings go UP everytime he says something stupid. At some point, you gotta point the ol’ finger at the listeners. Who’s listening to this crap? Answer: a lot of people. Same with politics. Bush sucks but so do the millions of people who voted for him…TWICE.
I also wanted to add that these Rutgers players are a bit over the top in milking this. I know it’s not great form to comment on this since I wasn’t the one offended but if a week later they still are deeply hurt over a comment someone who they did not know made, then they need to grab a self-esteem lesson.
Imus still is a shmuck and i wouldn’t shed a tear if he gets canned.
I saw the Rutgers press conference this morning and I was outraged. How did Sid Rosenberg escape being mentioned?
Back in the WNBC days, the station ran a TV ad where a leering Imus looked straight into the camera and intoned….”you know….Magic Johnson is a really good name for a basketball player.” ha ha?
Of course, this was years before the I-Fuck became the greatest thing to happen to the publishing industry other than Oprah Winfrey.
I took awhile to respond to this, mostly because I’m kind of tired of it. And tired of looking at Imus’s nightmarish face, too, although I’m sure that’s probably kind of a national issue at this point. But I liked the comments, so thought I should dip in.
Rog says: “Firing him is censorship, plain and simple.” I think that’s wrong. I mean, fining him is fining him — that’s the FCC’s prerogative, and another story entirely — but the network has the last word in this. They wouldn’t be censoring Imus by firing him, exactly (and wouldn’t be silencing him, either, most likely, since he’d show up on XM/Sirius right quick), but would rather be actually living up to what are almost certainly their own internal standards. If you worked at NBC and offended someone by popping off in an Imusian way in the lunchroom, you’d be subject to firing, per those rules of conduct. Companies have them. Whether you like them or not, there’s a broad standard that can be applied here, and as long as it’s applied from within rather than without (i.e. through a mandate from the state), I don’t think it’s censorship. Standards are important; what’s sad about this is the almost certain likelihood that it will not be enforced equally. A racist mailroom dude would be fired if he’d been as persistent with this shit as Imus. Imus, I’d bet, will not be.
Josh says “Rutgers…milking.” I agree with this, actually, and think it’s an important point in the way this is being talked about. Imus, who is a hack and a doofus and personally unpleasant, can basically batten down the hatches and wait until this orgy of sanctimony makes him look like a martyr. It’s fucked up that that’s the way it works, but this ritualized process through which famous people repent in public is strictly repellent, and the sanctimony looks terrible on those clamoring for a mic into which to voice their offendedness. It doesn’t make their feelings less legitimate — it is, here, I think and anyway I’m of the mind that you can feel what you want — but the way in which it all gets packaged sure makes it look that way. There’s no rehab for idiocy, and seeing Imus dragged before Sharpton et al for ritual apologetics is a bummer and a half. Mostly because I don’t believe he believes his apologies — I think he’s so out of touch that he actually believes that he’s not racist. I also think this is probably how many guys of that generation talk off-air. But there’s something nastily false and disheartening about these fake apologies, trips to rehab, etc. The onus is indeed on the consumer in cases like this: if you don’t like Imus, don’t listen to him. The broader responsibility — on NBC, or those other corporations who employ and get rich off f-cakes like the I-Man — has been so thoroughly and obviously abdicated that it’s depressing. And the way in which the media talks about all this, the fake debates about what “should” happen between millionaires who don’t really care very much, is even more so. The ignorance is sad; its persistence is more so, regardless of whether it (as HSCS points out in his silver lining) unintentionally lets us know that Chris Matthews really is as cretinous as we suspected.
David, you make very good points about ‘standards of conduct.’ I just hold the listenership to even higher standards. The people condone and even propagate these problems by jacking up his arbitron ratings. I just think we’re focused on the wrong problem. I’m all about pointing out the people though I guess it’s easier to point at one old dude or one corporation as ‘the problem.’ I think the American public is the real problem.
from the NY Times’ Jacques Steinberg :
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/11/business/media/11imus.html
That Don Imus can be abrasive and offensive is undeniable, but he is also one of the most successful and influential pitchmen in the history of radio, if not broadcasting.
In the last few weeks, Mr. Imus has provided a forum for a Democratic presidential aspirant, Christopher J. Dodd, to announce his candidacy and promoted a book from Simon & Schuster (“Green This! Volume 1â€) that his wife, Deirdre, wrote about cleaning products she conceived. He also pumped sales for a country singer, Martina McBride, and raised millions of dollars for an Army medical facility in Texas.
His program generates in excess of $20 million in annual revenue for CBS Radio, his primary employer, and his flagship New York station, WFAN, according to two people apprised of the show’s finances who spoke on condition of anonymity. When advertising revenue for affiliates and MSNBC, which simulcasts the program, is included, the figure exceeds $50 million.
The program, which draws an estimated two million listeners and viewers each day, is lucrative for Mr. Imus’s bosses, which could well be what saves him.
It is also lucrative for Mr. Imus — he earns an estimated $10 million a year, and has signed a five-year contract extension — and, at least until recently, his show had provided a lift to any number of ventures.
That may be at least partly why many of those who have gained from their associations with Mr. Imus — whether politically, financially or through the abundant publicity — were sticking by him yesterday.
one more thing to add: the idea that the comment is somehow worse because they are just college athletes is pretty silly and probably sexist. When you sign up to play division one sports, you leave yourself open to criticism and plenty of shitty commentary from journalists, fans, etc. Plenty of people called Chris Webber a fucking idiot for calling timeout when Michigan had none and no one felt to bad doing it just because he was 18. I’m not trying to equate a generic insult with a racist one, but I just fear these Rutgers players and Stringer are playing up being a victim so much that it will backfire. When they say they are scarred for life because of Imus they sound like they are playing to the cameras.