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 25 of 25)
361. I'm surprised that another error of Mario's
was not caught by those who claimed superior educa-
tion. "Jessie and Sharpton should be shot on site"
should be shot on "sight." It is after all a western cliche "to shoot someone on sight" "Site" means a specific location and almost works, but not
quite.
Old profs do not fade away.....
I do think that someone had a good point that the
PC Patrol wastes its energy on tut-tutting over racist remarks rather than trying to improve the
conditions that spawn so much crime by blacks.
I don't mean more governmental handouts, but programs where teens learn real skills, literacy and self-respect and good parenting. This would involve many positive role models from successful, giving,
and real people from business, not celebrities.
Retprof at 3:36PM on May 5th 2007
362. Imus was wrong, maybe treated unjust at the end, but his comment was totally out of place. If justice is to come from all of this I would ask that we all, black, white, whatever, come to realize that to permit the things we allow our children to see, on TV, then we are to blame. We are watching what we all want to watch, secretively, in the name of free speech. Let us take the Imus scenario and turn it in to a positive. Rise up Americans all, and demand that Videos displaying women and men in compromising situations, language that has no place in our society, rap music with total volgarity, shows with no regard to family or neighborhood, be removed.
The time has come for the pendulum to swing back to days where we respected one another, age, leadership, religion, community, country with regard to language use in front of ladies, children, elders and ourselves. Take hard lessons right up to the most recent one with Imus and lets learn from them. We may not agree with one another, but out of respect for one another, lets be mindful of all. Is that too much to work on? No, if we do, we can take back our society with honor and with respect.
Jim T at 12:33PM on May 9th 2007
363. OH, POOR GWEN IFILL. ALWAYS THE VICTIM, AND A RACIST. I DON'T AGREE WITH WHAT IMUS SAID ABOUT GWEN IFILL,BUT HIS CONTRACT AS A SHOCK JOCK, WANTED HIM TO MAKE CONTROVERSIAL REMARKS. HE CERTAINLY, DID NOT DESERVE TO LOSE HIS JOB. THE GIRLS BASKETBALL TEAM FROM RUTGERS FORGAVE IMUS! BUT YOU KNOW, IT IS ALWAYS THE LOW-LIFE'S LIKE AL SHARPTON THAT COME CRAWLING OUT OF THE SEWERS. HE HAS DONE A FEW POSITIVE THINGS FOR CIVIL RIGHTS, BUT HE IS ALWAYS THE FIRST TO CALL THE RACE CARD,EVEN WHEN IT IS NOT CORRECT. HE IS A JERK! NO DOUBT ABOUT IT! I AM SURE GWEN IFILL, HAS DONE VERY WELL FOR SELF! I HAVE ABSOLUTLEY ZERO SYMPATHY FOR HER. SHE IS A HATER OF ANY WHITE PERSON WHO WOULD STAND UP TO HER. BY THE WAY, IS THERE SOMETHING WRONG WITH CLEANING HOUSES? I KNOW PLENTY OF WHITE PEOPLE WHO DO NOT SEEM TO MIND CLEANING HOUSES, AS A WAY OF SUPPLEMENTING INCOME TO SUPPORT A SECOND JOB!
patricia metcalf at 5:46PM on May 9th 2007
364. Jeez, mario you really put your foot in your mouth, just like imus, only you really meant it, he was trying to be funny, and it slapped him in the face. He was doing his job, and added some ill-advised humor, but lets see here, there are black hoods singing about nI77er$ and calling their women whores, and making millions. so let me ask you this, where is Jackson and Sharpton? are they trying to get these people (Who just so happens to be the same race)to do the right thing, or try to get them fired for spewing hate against their own people. People what this is about is that a white man tried to be funny, and These so called reverends slamed the white guy. Do I think Imus was cool for saying this? nope. it was stupid.But I believe that the so called revrends are media whores and thrive on anything that smacks of racism . especially if it caomes from a non-black. Do you really think Imus is suffering because of this? heck he's fishing, having a cocktail and laughing at everyone.If you pay attetion america you will not see "The Rev's" defend a white girl raped by blacks, but they sure showed up when a black girl cried rape,By three white guys, (this girl happened to have DNA from other men in her panties, and not from the accused)Media whores who by the way are really not helping their people, they are just adding fuel to the fire, It.s like "lets just find all things that whites do against blacks, forget about black on black.
trtlsdadnc at 7:27PM on May 9th 2007
365. Just a few thoughts to ponder.....
Why is it that some people act as though they and they alone are the only race to fall victim to slavery. They may be the only race to be sold into slavery by their own people, but probably not. I seriously doubt that they were sold as slaves because of the color of their skin since their captors had the same skin color. Therefore racism was not the reason or the root cause of their slavery. Why do they cling to the mindset of victimhood so deeply that they are blinded by their own hatred toward anyone born with a certain color of skin? If the latter mentioned person responds in kind to this issue of racism why are they deemed to be themselve a racist? Hmmm...
It is so easy to identify the true racists here because they almost always mention the color of their skin and the superiority of their race. Always bringing up skin color in a debate over social issues tells me that that person not only isn't genuinely interested in resolving those social issues but possibly has something to gain in worsoning or prolonging the social problem(s) at hand. Any thoughts on this? Name-calling or personal attacks by those disagreeing with me will only prove me right!
Being a better speller doesn't give you the right to ridicule others, maybe you should be held to the same standards Imus was a at 1:52AM on May 10th 2007
366. So let me understand: NBC and CBS employees both protested Imus's remarks and refused to allow a mere two-week suspension to stand, which encouraged the management of those entities to let the old whitey go. One wonders then why the black employees of ABC didn't picket when Rush Limbaugh recently did a parody of Barack Obama using an Al Sharpton voice entitled "Barack the Magic Negro?" What, Is Rush too white and too powerful and too young for black outrage? Oh no, I get it: you go to war against the old whitey you can, not the old whitey you want.
PS, the Bobster is right. According to Stanley Crouch, a respected black journalist, over 40,000 African - American youth have died in this country over the past five years due to gang violence and shootings. What, no organized Sharpton-Jackson outrage over that? Or is one 66 year-old white man's scalp worth more than 40, 000 of your brothers and sisters lives?
THE SAGE
The Sage at 1:42AM on May 13th 2007
367. Fear drives hate, hate is an expression of reflection,and self-reflection is critical if we are ever to understand that all of us are first individual people whom are given god given rights that no one has the right to deminish.
WHollis at 10:06AM on May 14th 2007
368. Black activists have always been hated by whites. Always. One measure of the effectiveness of the Black activist is by the level of hatred he or she draws from whites. Watch them come unhinged, using that particular Black activist as the target of their racist venom. Sharpton and Jackson are no different. Conscious Blacks know this.
jaclarkejr at 7:42AM on May 15th 2007