Oh My God! Who would have guessed?
Thatch-headed shock jock, Don Imus, was suspended by MSNBC and CBS for a whole whopping two weeks following a conversation with resident twerp and Executive Producer, Bernie McGuirk (and on the phone with none other than fired Sid Rosenberg), in which Imus referred women of Rutgers University basketball team as “nappy-headed hos”.
Where to begin with the absurdity? For Imus to be mocking anyone’s hair is as ludicrous as if it was Donald Trump doing it.
But more fascinating, is the sudden controversy, since Imus has been spewing hateful garbage for years and years.
My editorial, Imus and the Flies, detailed the bizarre relationship between Imus and the news properties that wholeheartedly endorse his brand of minority-bashing content, as well as the string of washed-out, yet high profile guests, ranging from John McCain to Tim Russert, who seem to think that turning a blind eye doesn’t taint them with the same filthy brush.
The supposed contrition, aside from reducing Imus to the same stature as Seinfeld comedian Michael Richards, who also apologized with a laughable sincerity and requisite faux pas, underscored the very sentiments he aimed to defuse, which is the real, tragic joke.
News coverage have focused on Imus’ tax-sheltered Imus Ranch, for “Kids with Cancer” or the money he raises for SIDS as a demonstration of how charitable he is, as if that even relates to Imus’ own claim that he’s not a racist. “What I did was make a stupid, idiotic mistake in a comedy context,” he claimed. Hilarious, isn’t it?
Characterizing Imus’ comments as “racist and sexist remarks that are deplorable, despicable and unconscionable.” Rutgers women’s basketball coach, C. Vivian Stringer’s response demonstrated the dignity and grace Don Imus will never come close to.
Perhaps as disturbing as Imus' remarks was watching MSNBC’s General Manager, Dan Abrams, attempt to spin that the punishment fits the crime, only after berating the equally minority-offending Fox News, for being hypocritical and playing politics over their reaction to Imus. The fact that genocide existed long before the Third Reich doesn’t make it any more palatable. The comparisons are a baseless deflection that viewers should treat with the same skepticism as they do Imus’ remorse.
Imus also revealed his sincerity, claiming “I may be a white man, but I know that these young women and young black women all through that society are demeaned and degraded by their own black men and that they are called that name.” The apology with the caveat.
Censorship is not the answer. It’s simply a matter of discernment. MSNBC’s initial response – that Imus in the Morning is simply a simulcast is about as disingenuous as it gets. Do they donate the money they generate from the show? Or are they just, well, hos?
In conversations with, ironically, Al Sharpton, and amidst demonstrations led, ironically, by Jesse Jackson, the two run-to male figures on the redemption circuit that appear to represent a whole diverse community of black people, Imus has suggested he might add a black person to his team. Females or better yet, lesbians shouldn’t hold their breath though.
In a race card society, the real whores, (namely the brass at MSNBC and CBS) are far more concerned with ratings and money than who is trampled on in the process. So women and gays can still expect as much deference as the attention the Jews lavished on Mel Gibson’s use of the word “sugartits” in his infamous anti-Semitic, drunk tirade. Ask singer Kylie Minogue just how exactly MSNBC and CBS responded when, following her breast cancer diagnosis, Sid Rosenberg joked: “She won't look so pretty when she's bald with one titty."
Rest assured, misogyny and homophobia are alive and well on Imus in the Morning.
