This morning, I had a chance to listen to Tim Russert on Meet the Press. One of his guests was Gwen Ifill. I have watched her presentations on PBS over the years. She was good. Today, she was great. Her comments were controlled and not emotional. She didn't throw bouquets at Tim Russert before telling him that he was part of the club.
The guests on the show brought up all the points that have been articulated on the blogs. Others do it. We listen to it. He has been doing it for years and finally that "shock jocks" are successful because of how politically incorrect they are. Despite how hateful their comments might be. Gwen Ifill threw it right back on Russert and one of his other guests, David Brooks, She said: "There has been radio silence from a lot of people who have done this program who could have spoken up and said, I find this offensive or I didn't know. These people didn't speak up. Tim, we didn't hear from you. David, we didn't hear from you."
In a recent article, Ms. Ifill wrote about how she had been a target of Imus. Many years ago, it has been alleged that Imus said, "Isn't The Times wonderful, it lets the cleaning lady cover the White House."
A couple of days ago, I wrote that the firing of Don Imus was wrong. Today, I listed to Gwen Ifill and realized that I was wrong. It was not all about Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson. Long ago, Don Imus crossed the line and in the past he took care of his mistakes by apologizing. This time, the apology didn't work. You see, after apologies of the past, Imus never changed. He continued to say hurtful things about people and races that were just not true. Yes, Imus should have been fired.
Reader Comments ( Page 1 of 25)
1. None of us is innocent, or perfect. Hopefully, once all the finger pointing subsides, conditions will improve through positive action. Who knows, Imus may end up as the poster boy for racial and ethnic tolerance.
We don't have the thought police yet, so we can still think whatever comes to mind, as long as we don't speak evil.
Steve Bonomo at 4:51PM on Apr 15th 2007
2. Consider me to fill the time slow of Imus. I'm willing.
I've been wanting to host my own radio show for years, and here's an opportunity.
I'm putting my hat in the ring.
Call to interview me.
meredith gardner at 5:44PM on Apr 15th 2007
3. I do agree that Imus should have been fired, but, a LONG time ago.....how is it that he, Howard Stern/ Wendy Williams....and ALL shock jocks are aloowed to remain on the air? Because, as Ms. Ifil put it, not anyone has ever stood up and said "ENOUGH ALREADY!" and sent their butts packing.....but, the communities should also stop buying the explicit lyrics found in music these days also.....and the music videos need to stop portraying women as pieces of flesh to be used and thrown out....ALL of this has a negative impact on children/women, irregardless of your race.....it needs to put out there the harmful effects of stereotypes that only fuel the state of racial affairs in this country.
Carole at 4:19PM on Apr 16th 2007
4. What's the big thing ? as far as I'm concerned Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson
should be shot on site. These two black
scumbags,are nothing but two uneducated
racist phonies living off the backs of
dumb blacks.Blacks will never be excepted in white society,as long as they continue raping,murdering ,assualting and drug tafficing.Just look at those TV shows
MTV and VH1 they are discussing,it shows
the animals that they really are.
Mario Hepp at 2:40PM on Apr 16th 2007
5. Good job MARIO, you just added to the mass racism in the USA. THINK before you open your PIE-HOLE. I agree that JESSIE and SHAP should not be allowed to have a say in what BLACK AMERICA does or thinks. But PLEASE, if you don't know what you're talking about KEEP YOUR PIE-HOLE SHUT. I am a well educated BLACK MAN you got it. We are not all like you.
Phill at 3:47PM on Apr 16th 2007
6. Hey MARIO, oyu seem to watch alot of TV, do you have a job? It's your kind of thinking that puts us back 40 years. SHUT YOUR PIE-HOLE, and READ sometime instead of WATCHING TV.
Phill at 3:48PM on Apr 16th 2007
7. To Mario Hepp,
You sound a bit racist,violent crimes are committed by people who are not black also,most serial killers and mass murderers are white.drug dealers also come in many shades
Soni
Sonya M. Pannell at 4:02PM on Apr 17th 2007
8. i myself have never listened to don imus but i have a friend who listened all the time and he thought imus was funny. I think all the racism is a bunch of crap. there are good and bad in every race. black white red brown yellow dont matter. God made us all. As far as him losing his job i think it was overboard. so many others say crap like that and dont get fired. thats just my opinion, right or wrong. diana
diana clarke at 3:02PM on Apr 16th 2007
9. Yes, Imus is a pig; but you don't have to be black or female to be insulted by him or his peers. No, this isn't about racism or freedom of speech. It's about human dignity and corporate hypocrisy.
http://peregrineproject.com/balderdash/dash.html
Jeff at 3:05PM on Apr 16th 2007
10. Another crybaby throws her hat in the ring. Thats news? Blacks dumping on Imus for a stupid comment while blacks kill each other at a rate greater than one per day in Philly? Someone has her priorities mixed up. The way to "get back" at Imus is to ignore him. Nothing could hurt him worse. When blacks demand of themselves what they demand of others, then and only then will their words not fall on deaf ears. Grow up black America.
thebobster at 3:19PM on Apr 16th 2007
11. I felt compelled to respond to one of your recent bloggers Mario Hepp. It is so sad that after all of the struggles for equality and social justice, that bigotry is so evident and apparent in the minds of some as evidence by your writing.
Your level of ignorance is magnified in your writing, but I guess no one should be surprised that you were an Imus fan. His inappropriate comments are geared toward shallow thinkers such as yourself. I trust that now Imus has been removed from the earwaves you may take to listening to more conscious radio programming. One can only hope.
Ebonnie at 2:48PM on Apr 17th 2007
12. To Mario: You have the nerve to call someone uneducated when your post screams of functional illiteracy and is filled with grammatical errors. First, I know common sense will not penetrate your hate and bigotry, so I won't even try. But as an educated person, I find your comments reprehensible. You do not speak for me! There are as many, if not more, white people raping, murdering, and drug trafficking. In a racist legal system, these whites are not shown in the media and they are not locked up at the same rates as their white counterparts. And if you receive your "news" from TV and believe everything you see, then you are a sad and very ignorant individual. White trash meth users are showed on "Cops" and other similar programs but no one assumes all white people are like that. The same leniency isn't granted to blacks because of the deep roots of racism in this country. When you see a black person on a show like that, you think all blacks are like that because of your hatred and racism. Instead of hating others for the color of their skin, maybe you could learn to love yourself. Surely, if you got an education, like Mr. Sharpton and Mr. Jackson, and learned to construct a decent sentence, you might feel a bit better about yourself and maybe you'd be less willing to cast the blame for your own failings on an entire group of people. Look at yourself. You think blacks, or anyone else, want to be accepted by the likes of you? Why would any one seek acceptance from a low-class hate monger like yourself? Get over yourself. You are the scum of this society and you give whites a bad name.
Your corrected post:
What's the big thing? As far as I'm concerned, Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson should be shot on site. These two black scumbags are nothing but two uneducated racist phonies living off the backs of
dumb blacks. Blacks will never be accepted in white society as long as they continue raping, murdering, assaulting and drug tafficking. Just look at those TV shows that show the animals they really are.
[Your last two sentences were so incoherent I could barely make out your intended meaning, so I did the best I could.]
pens4swords at 3:34PM on Apr 16th 2007
13. Mario Hepp, your a big pile of monkey excrement and stupid to boot. The word you are looking for is accepted, not excepted. You got some nerve calling someone dumb. If you cannot contribute anything positive or intelligent to the conversation maybe you should stay out of it. What's next? Imus being allowed to say something negative about Asians or Hispanics as well? Would that be okay with you? Creep.
Totally Disgusted at 3:36PM on Apr 16th 2007
14. Lets not lose sight of the fact that this has all come about because of al sharpton's hate mongering of whites. Many think that this so called Rev. (really a preacher of hate) has no job. This is untrue, He is employed by black racism. He cannot afford to stop spewing his filth or he would be in the welfare lines also. I would not mind paying an extra dollar in welfare taxes if it would just make him go away. I have been reading all of the postings about IMUS the last few days. Thousands of us are tired of the reverse racism going on. We need to do more than just lipservice on here. There is enough of us to make a change. Everyone tired of this crap has a duty to e-mail; sharptons supporters and demand that they stop supporting this hate platform. Let them worry about losing dollars like msnbc did with IMUS. Some of the main ones are Walmart, McDonalds and P&G. If you really believe like most everyone posting seems to, take 10 min. of your time to send e-mails to sharptons sponsors.
DM at 3:43PM on Apr 16th 2007
15. This comment is to reply to the comments of Mario Hepp. I have never felt the need to respond to any comments until this one. First of all you seem to be the one who is uneducated. You can't even spell or use words correctly in sentences. You talk about Black people murdering and assaulting, yet you say Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton should be shot. You sound pretty violent to me. You must be Black too since only Black people shoot people. Go get yourself a better education because you are so ignorant.
Judith Williams at 4:47PM on Apr 16th 2007