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View Full Version : Imus isn’t the real bad guy



Turbodog
04-12-07, 12:55 AM
I have heard this guy on Rome before. BTW he is black:eek:

http://www.kansascity.com/182/story/66339.html

By JASON WHITLOCK - Columnist

Thank you, Don Imus. You’ve given us (black people) an excuse to avoid our real problem.

You’ve given Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson another opportunity to pretend that the old fight, which is now the safe and lucrative fight, is still the most important fight in our push for true economic and social equality.

You’ve given Vivian Stringer and Rutgers the chance to hold a nationally televised recruiting celebration expertly disguised as a news conference to respond to your poor attempt at humor.

Thank you, Don Imus. You extended Black History Month to April, and we can once again wallow in victimhood, protest like it’s 1965 and delude ourselves into believing that fixing your hatred is more necessary than eradicating our self-hatred.

The bigots win again.

While we’re fixated on a bad joke cracked by an irrelevant, bad shock jock, I’m sure at least one of the marvelous young women on the Rutgers basketball team is somewhere snapping her fingers to the beat of 50 Cent’s or Snoop Dogg’s or Young Jeezy’s latest ode glorifying nappy-headed pimps and hos.

I ain’t saying Jesse, Al and Vivian are gold-diggas, but they don’t have the heart to mount a legitimate campaign against the real black-folk killas.

It is us. At this time, we are our own worst enemies. We have allowed our youths to buy into a culture (hip hop) that has been perverted, corrupted and overtaken by prison culture. The music, attitude and behavior expressed in this culture is anti-black, anti-education, demeaning, self-destructive, pro-drug dealing and violent.

Rather than confront this heinous enemy from within, we sit back and wait for someone like Imus to have a slip of the tongue and make the mistake of repeating the things we say about ourselves.

It’s embarrassing. Dave Chappelle was offered $50 million to make racially insensitive jokes about black and white people on TV. He was hailed as a genius. Black comedians routinely crack jokes about white and black people, and we all laugh out loud.

I’m no Don Imus apologist. He and his tiny companion Mike Lupica blasted me after I fell out with ESPN. Imus is a hack.

But, in my view, he didn’t do anything outside the norm for shock jocks and comedians. He also offered an apology. That should’ve been the end of this whole affair. Instead, it’s only the beginning. It’s an opportunity for Stringer, Jackson and Sharpton to step on victim platforms and elevate themselves and their agenda$.

I watched the Rutgers news conference and was ashamed.

Martin Luther King Jr. spoke for eight minutes in 1963 at the March on Washington. At the time, black people could be lynched and denied fundamental rights with little thought. With the comments of a talk-show host most of her players had never heard of before last week serving as her excuse, Vivian Stringer rambled on for 30 minutes about the amazing season her team had.

Somehow, we’re supposed to believe that the comments of a man with virtually no connection to the sports world ruined Rutgers’ wonderful season. Had a broadcaster with credibility and a platform in the sports world uttered the words Imus did, I could understand a level of outrage.

But an hourlong press conference over a man who has already apologized, already been suspended and is already insignificant is just plain intellectually dishonest. This is opportunism. This is a distraction.

In the grand scheme, Don Imus is no threat to us in general and no threat to black women in particular. If his words are so powerful and so destructive and must be rebuked so forcefully, then what should we do about the idiot rappers on BET, MTV and every black-owned radio station in the country who use words much more powerful and much more destructive?

I don’t listen or watch Imus’ show regularly. Has he at any point glorified selling crack cocaine to black women? Has he celebrated black men shooting each other randomly? Has he suggested in any way that it’s cool to be a baby-daddy rather than a husband and a parent? Does he tell his listeners that they’re suckers for pursuing education and that they’re selling out their race if they do?

When Imus does any of that, call me and I’ll get upset. Until then, he is what he is — a washed-up shock jock who is very easy to ignore when you’re not looking to be made a victim.

No. We all know where the real battleground is. We know that the gangsta rappers and their followers in the athletic world have far bigger platforms to negatively define us than some old white man with a bad radio show. There’s no money and lots of danger in that battle, so Jesse and Al are going to sit it out.

rabbit
04-12-07, 01:00 AM
Spot on. :thumbup:

TravelGal
04-12-07, 01:10 AM
Agreed. Courageous of him to write that.

STD
04-12-07, 01:26 AM
Jason has never had a problem being provocative and providing a strong counterpoint to contemplate.
This time he nailed it in all facets imo.

coolhand
04-12-07, 02:23 AM
Hard not to agree. Good points. I did not think about the recruiting angle.

Andrew Longman
04-12-07, 09:54 AM
True Dat.

Ironically, the nappy hair ho comment was spoofing Gangsta culture more than the RU team. And the jigaboo and wannabe comment was drawn from a Spike Lee movie spoofing black culture.

I read a quote from yesterday's RU press conference saying Imus' comment was the equivilant of the bullet that killed MLK. Now THAT's offensive.

Happily we are not hearing too much from the players themselves. They are a talented and hardworking bunch who have been treated as pawns, trotted out to all these press conferences when they should be enjoying spring break and celebrating their season with their families.

It's also ironic that Imus has call the Knicks thugs, gangster, and pimps for years. Mostly because they tended beat up women in nightclubs from time to time (they've been better of late). No one complained about that.

rabbit
04-12-07, 10:12 AM
On his show this morning, Imus asked when Al Sharpton was going to apologize to the Duke lacrosse team. :laugh:

Ankf00
04-12-07, 10:18 AM
On his show this morning, Imus asked when Al Sharpton was going to apologize to the Duke lacrosse team. :laugh:

we'll see polar reversal first.

Whitlock's generally a clueless blowhard when it comes to sports, but his non-sports rants tend to be spot on.

Easy
04-12-07, 10:34 AM
we'll see polar reversal first.

Whitlock's generally a clueless blowhard when it comes to sports, but his non-sports rants tend to be spot on.

Whitlock knows little enough about sports to even be fired by espn.com. Thats an achievment given that the sites highest profile writer has a weekly article kissing Tom Brady's ass, being a whiny Beantown sports fan in general then telling everyone about celebrity encounters at the Kimmel Show.

KLang
04-12-07, 11:14 AM
On his show this morning, Imus asked when Al Sharpton was going to apologize to the Duke lacrosse team. :laugh:

CNN posed a similar question to Jesse Jackson yesterday. His reply was that he didn't owe anyone one as the boys shouldn't have been hiring 'nekkid women' in the first place. :laugh: or :shakehead or :rolleyes: , I can't decide.

Ankf00
04-12-07, 11:38 AM
being a whiny Beantown sports fan in general then telling everyone about celebrity encounters at the Kimmel Show.

he's the east coast inspiration for SI's Arash Markazi, only Markazi doesn't bitch about college football. speaking of, why can't the FBI detain and deport him already?

http://www2.hornfans.com/wwwthreads/images/icons/pukey.gif

STD
04-12-07, 12:10 PM
Whitlock's generally a clueless blowhard when it comes to sports, but his non-sports rants tend to be spot on.

Very true.
Ever read his takes on the spilt? Painful and lost, but hey, he grew up in Indy so he knows... :rolleyes:

Jason is abrasive, self centered and likes to twist the screws, easy to find his like daily on the interweb.
His overall points on sports related subjects often get lost behind that personality.

On the subject at hand he has been steadfast for years and has repeatedly voiced himself clearly no matter the amount of outrage incurred or from what sources that outrage have come.
I will continue to commend him for that.

Andrew Longman
04-12-07, 12:15 PM
On his show this morning, Imus asked when Al Sharpton was going to apologize to the Duke lacrosse team. :laugh:

Glad to see he has his mojo back

Methanolandbrats
04-12-07, 12:24 PM
Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson........F em both. Tawana Brawley ring a bell? Hymietown ring another bell. They are both hypocritical *******s. Bill Cosby is the only black leader who pointed out that black culture is it's own worst enemy. A white guy cracks a stupid joke and he's responsible for perpetuating racism and black oppression? ********. Public figures from minority groups get away with all kinds of racist crap and are not held accountable while they refuse to address the real problems for fear of taking a paycut. Black "leaders" have to shake themselves because their "leadership" is not accomplishing anything of value for their people. I'm sure if Imus spends the next ten years on his ranch and off the airwaves that teen pregnency, single motherhood, high school dropout rates, the rate of incarceration for black youth, unemployment and gang violence will all be solved. :rolleyes:

Ziggy
04-12-07, 01:23 PM
Its all Whiteys fault :cry:

TKGAngel
04-12-07, 04:54 PM
Imus' show has been canceled immediately, per CNN.com.

Spicoli
04-12-07, 05:05 PM
Imus' show has been canceled immediately, per CNN.com.:thumbup:

Sean O'Gorman
04-12-07, 05:12 PM
This is a dark day for free speech.

rabbit
04-12-07, 05:17 PM
If he would have just made fun of the way Asians talk, he would probably still have his job. Because that is apparently the only acceptable form of racism.

Kahauna Dreamer
04-12-07, 05:23 PM
Its all Whiteys fault :cry:

zigger, please... :rofl: :tony: :D

KLang
04-12-07, 05:28 PM
I've never watched or listened to Imus but I think it sucks that the networks gave in to Sharpton and Jackson. :thumdown:

Ankf00
04-12-07, 05:36 PM
I've never watched or listened to Imus but I think it sucks that the networks gave in to Sharpton and Jackson. :thumdown:

sponsor $$$


If he would have just made fun of the way Asians talk, he would probably still have his job. Because that is apparently the only acceptable form of racism.

herro? what yoo mean? shut up, you! :D

Andrew Longman
04-12-07, 05:42 PM
Imus' show has been canceled immediately, per CNN.com.


MSNBC. not radio.

His syndicated radio show has millions more listeners than the several 100K on MSNBC (even though it was the top rated morning cable television show)

Gnam
04-12-07, 05:48 PM
MSNBC. not radio.
Both.

Herro? Dis CBS Radio. Imus? He no here.

extramundane
04-12-07, 06:08 PM
This is a dark day for free speech.

If he'd just been axed over the initial comment, perhaps. But he dug his own grave by going on and on with his "But some of my best friends are black!" apologies. If he'd shut his trap, gone on immediate "vacation" then resurfaced a couple weeks later, he'd still have a show.

He'd still have no listeners under the age of 93, but he'd still have a show.

Sean O'Gorman
04-12-07, 06:17 PM
He should have never apologized in the first place.

ferrarigod
04-12-07, 06:35 PM
The writer is on CNN right now.


He should have never apologized in the first place.

mark the date, i agree with a clevelanderian.

dando
04-12-07, 06:36 PM
No more radio either. :(

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/04/12/national/main2675273.shtml

As a friend of mine likes to say, I love my country, I just don't like it very much these days. :(

Imus is not a hero, but neither are Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. :thumdown:

-Kevin

dando
04-12-07, 06:39 PM
Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson........F em both. Tawana Brawley ring a bell? Hymietown ring another bell. They are both hypocritical *******s. Bill Cosby is the only black leader who pointed out that black culture is it's own worst enemy. A white guy cracks a stupid joke and he's responsible for perpetuating racism and black oppression? ********. Public figures from minority groups get away with all kinds of racist crap and are not held accountable while they refuse to address the real problems for fear of taking a paycut. Black "leaders" have to shake themselves because their "leadership" is not accomplishing anything of value for their people. I'm sure if Imus spends the next ten years on his ranch and off the airwaves that teen pregnency, single motherhood, high school dropout rates, the rate of incarceration for black youth, unemployment and gang violence will all be solved. :rolleyes:

Damn, I agree with SOG and M&B oin the same day. Must be a record of sorts. ;)

For those that don't remember Cosby calling the black community:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pound_Cake_speech

:thumbup: :thumbup:

-Kevin

coolhand
04-12-07, 06:51 PM
http://wcbstv.com/topstories/local_story_102163935.html

I seen CBS head Moonves was consult by Jackson and Sharpton on the firing

coolhand
04-12-07, 06:52 PM
If he would have just made fun of the way Asians talk, he would probably still have his job. Because that is apparently the only acceptable form of racism.

no no no
If Imus was gay it would be OK for him to say these things

Indy
04-12-07, 11:05 PM
Excellent article.

Amazing, isn't it, that virtually all of us can agree on the fundamental problems here, yet the media ceaselessly focusses on the irrelevant, hypocritical accusations and threats coming from Jackson and Sharpton.

Propoganda. Corporatism. Ruling through division.

coolhand
04-13-07, 10:09 PM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5ZQXaXmCW4&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fthebiglead%2Ecom%2F%3Fp%3D2111

Here he is on TV

dando
04-13-07, 10:41 PM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5ZQXaXmCW4&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fthebiglead%2Ecom%2F%3Fp%3D2111

Here he is on TV

Tucker Carlson is a weenie. :irked:

Whitlock is spot on. :thumbup:

-Kevin

oddlycalm
04-14-07, 07:08 PM
virtually all of us can agree on the fundamental problems here, yet the media ceaselessly focusses on the irrelevant Doesn't matter what the issue is, you can apply this phrase to almost any news story and be correct. Ironically, even if we disagreed on the fundamental issue your statement would still be correct. :laugh:

That's the problem with media ownership consolidation, you end up with the same half dozen media conglomerates controlling the public discourse. Their only concern is profit. They gotta be concerned about their microwave oven division or theme parks so they will avoid reporting real issues in a common sense manner like the plague. Unfortunately the 24hr news channels are worse yet because there is rarely enough real news to fill 24hrs so they turn molehills into mountains with their magnifying glass coverage. The only upside I see is that the news industry provides an easy target for the comedians.:gomer:

oc

Jag_Warrior
04-14-07, 07:55 PM
Imus was a garden variety tool, who secured a well paying gig by shocking and entertaining members of the LCD (least common denominator). In addition to the above excellent points made by Oddlycalm and Indy, I would say that people like Imus, Howard Stern, Paris Hilton, the producers of South Park, et al, know that there is money to be made by playing the dancing bear for the hayseeds... and their corporate masters know it too. No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public. Mencken scored a bullseye with that one.

IMO, unless Imus walks into the middle of Times Square, rests a Colt 1911 across his lower lip and squeezes the trigger, nothing he says or does deserves the attention he's getting. But like the dead wh*re, who slept with so many men that no one is quite sure who might be the baby daddy... like Howard Stern's ridiculous stock deal with Sirius... like Paris Hilton's inability to wear panties and yet, splay open her legs when she gets out of low slung cars... for every dancing bear who miscalculates and crosses the blurred, unseen line of what is and is not socially acceptable, there will always be those who will mourn their passing.

Not to worry. Hollyweird or Madison Avenue will produce another social parasite in short order. And the hayseeds will have their opiate again.

datachicane
04-14-07, 08:22 PM
Mostly agree, but don't be dissin' the dancing bears...


http://www.4antennaball.com/bin/img/product/0080202_antenna_topper_greatful_dead_green_bear_ba ll_animal_60s.jpg

Jag_Warrior
04-14-07, 08:44 PM
Yeah, I guess I also owe an apology to Captain Kangaroo's old pal. :laugh:

http://www.chitarivera.com/images/chita%20river%20captain%20kangaroo%20small.jpg

Sean O'Gorman
05-15-07, 10:02 PM
Bump for Opie & Anthony supposedly being fired from XM :flame:

Elmo T
05-15-07, 10:19 PM
Bump for Opie & Anthony supposedly being fired from XM :flame:

Suspended for 30 days from XM, but not CBS (?), as I read it. I am not an O&A fan (I tried, I really did :confused: ); but the whole thing seems like PC overkill.

extramundane
05-15-07, 11:15 PM
Bump for Opie & Anthony supposedly being fired from XM :flame:

Someone finally listened to their show and realized how much they sucked, eh?

Sean O'Gorman
05-15-07, 11:34 PM
Mock them all you want, but the censors will go after smackforum next, then it wont be so funny. :laugh:

Ankf00
05-15-07, 11:35 PM
but the whole thing seems like PC overkill.

no, those who write their paychecks just finally came to their senses

Ankf00
08-14-07, 11:01 PM
Rutgers girl suing Imus: http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/story?id=3479449&page=1



:laugh: are you serious?

chop456
08-15-07, 01:21 AM
Rutgers girl suing Imus: http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/story?id=3479449&page=1
:laugh: are you serious?


"Don Imus referred to my client as an unchaste woman. That was and is a lie."

I certainly hope so. :yuck:

coolhand
08-15-07, 01:25 AM
Funny funny

Andrew Longman
08-15-07, 07:52 AM
And yesterday WFAN hired Craig Carton and Boomer Esiason to replace Imus.

For those that don't know Carton, unlike Imus, he's actually IS a racist pig and not funny.

http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/index.ssf?/base/news-12/1187152439197510.xml&coll=1

Glad I only need to commute to my home office these days.