I haven't written about the Imus affair here. I never listen to Imus and thus have no opinion of or particular interest in him. My main interest in the matter was simply to see how it would play out and what the outcome would say about the state of our culture.
Now that it's over, except for the comeback (presumably on a lesser media outlet), what have we learned? For one thing, we see that even in our boisterous and increasingly uncivil culture there are still limits. They may come into play only when incivility is directed at African-Americans, but it's still good to obtain confirmation that a critical mass of the public (I'm hoping it wasn't just corporate executives) is highly offended by the kind of insult Imus issued. The public's disgust was the key here, not the firing of Imus. His statement was bad enough to justify the discharge, but not so horrible as to require it. .
We also learned that has-beens Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson still get to play a role when racial controversies arise. That's unfortunate, especially in the case of Sharpton. As my Power Line partner Scott Johnson has written, "from his promotion of Tawana Brawley's hoax. . ., to his defense of the Central Park 'wilding' rapists, to his role in the pogroms leading to the murders of Yankel Rosenbaum in Crown Heights and eight victims in Freddy's Fashion Mart in Harlem, Sharpton has compiled a record that should result in his excommunication by decent people from civil society." Most recently, Sharpton promoted the miscarriage of justice represented by the prosecution of the three Duke lacrosse players. The only good I see coming from Sharpton's involvement is that by groveling before the pernicious preacher, Imus perhaps lost some of his credibility as an iconoclast. Those who forgive or are okay with his comment about the Rutgers player may be unwilling to forgive his appearance with Sharpton.
The final lesson comes from the reaction of the Rutgers basketball players. Naturally, they were insulted by Imus' comments, and could not be expected to laugh them off. But it was disappointing to see these women fall so readily into the victim role. After Imus met with the team today, the coach said that the healing process could now begin. It is a bad sign that an idiotic insult by a performing monkey would require a healing process. As one extraordinarily successful woman of hispanic national origin wrote to me in amazement, "Here are these. . .tough women on top of the world and they are so fragile that a remark knocks them down?"
Growing incivility of discourse coupled with hyper-sensitivity to insult isn't a good combination. This week's victory for civility was too circumscribed to signal a lasting set-back for the combination.
Reader Comments ( Page 9 of 9)
121. My two cents on the Don Imus issue,
So some loud mouth, talk radio talking trash speaks out and inserts foot in mouth.
Is this cause for him to get fired? Only if the paying advertisers don’t want to be associated with a loud mouth, talk radio, talking trash. Seams before they had no problem with him until of course a segment of society didn’t like what he said and banned against him and anyone else who stood by him. Think this is going to help the black community? Will this help others who are not really racist? All I see is that a guy (White or Black) said something that black people were offended by and got fired. Even if you apologies and do all the right things, your still going to get the ax. I’m not a Imus fan by all means. I never even heard his radio show. But a lot of other Americans have and there pretty big fans of Imus, so what do you think there feelings toward black Americas are going to be? Will this cause more racialism and hatred towards blacks? Will this backfire on the black community? Only time will tell.
If you listen to this clip on utube.com you’re here Imus speaking to someone that refers to blacks as jig-a-boos. Why isn’t he fired as well? Who was that other person?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RF9BjB7Bzr0
Lenny at 8:10PM on Apr 15th 2007
122.
Maybe we look at the examples set by the women from Rutgers and the men from Duke. The Rutgers ladies agreed to meet with Imus, kept their word to meet with him, then agreed to accept his apology. One of the members of the Duke lacrosse team remarked at how his experience helped him appreciate how difficult it must be for those unjustly accused like him that weren't fortunate enough to have the assests he had to defend himself. Imagine - young people that are able to embrace the priciples of forgiveness and compassion. Too bad so many of their elders are unable to do the same.
max at 12:48AM on Apr 16th 2007
123. Sure took a long time to catch up to Imus. He made a long run with his slurs, and tongue-n-cheek comments. I am sure he will be back , maybe that could be a positive thing; it will be up to him.
As far as the Jackson-Sharpton racist brigade., who knows who will be next. For sure, it will be alot more outrageous with these guys on the job.
Mike W. at 3:44AM on Apr 16th 2007
124. Don Imus was wrong with his comments. However that's his shistk. Who are Rev. Sharpton and Rev. Jachson to call for anyone's firing? Sounds like extortion to me! There is a diffenite double standard in this country.
As far as the advertisers pulling away that's fine. From the start of last week when I heard of this pull out by the advertisers I decide not to shop at STAPLES any longer us ethe American Express Card, or buy General Motors products. I will go to Office Depot use a Master Card and drive over there with a Chrysler product. No longer will I use a taxi cab if it is not a Ford or Chrysler product.
Thank you for allowing me to express my opinion. The crime I committed was being a n American citizen,white and a tax paying member of the community. Oh! I almost forgot I won't listen to CBS. or NBC any longer as well.
Ronald J. Kelpsas at 3:45AM on Apr 16th 2007
125. Geesh. I am sick of whites talking about some double standard when the Imus mess is brought up. What about the double Standard in the court room? What about the double standard in the prison justice system and banking?
It is so easy for whites to sit there and moan and complain. I wanna see one show in America where a black man sits on televison and says all day long "Ya know those are somre trailer trash white girls" "Ya know those are some po white Meth addict trash white hos"-and see how qucik people are to talk about free speech.
Mikhal G at 10:55AM on Apr 16th 2007
126. 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 4:21PM on Apr 16th 2007
127. What happened to Imus cuts right to the heart of free speech.We all know that he is a comodian or crap thrower.He has done far worse in the past.Well
I used to worry about the Moral Majority and there boycots now do we add another.CBS grow some balls and stop being politicaly correct .
Free speech is not just for some.
ethics_cop at 2:26PM on Apr 18th 2007
128. Mr. Mirengoff wrote "Now that it's over, except for the comeback (presumably on a lesser media outlet), what have we learned? For one thing, we see that even in our boisterous and increasingly uncivil culture there are still limits."
In this case, the only limts are those established by Sharpton and Jackson, and the greed of the networks. They made no secret of the fact that they went to NBC and CBS and DEMANDED that Imus be fired. The networks, after a few hours or days to cover themselves, complied.
Oh, they said all the right things, how shocked they were, and outraged at the comments, and let some of the lapdogs like Keith Oberman rant about how terrible it was, but in reality, it was all about the money.
For years they loved the dollars that Imus brought in, for far worse than this stupid joke, but once Al and Jessie threatened them with a boycott, and to boycott the sponsors, that was it.
Like Captain Renaut in Casablanca, they were shocked, shocked to find out that Imus had said bad things.. "you winnings captain"... come to mind?
A comeback, I do hope so, I miss Cardinal Egan, and i'm an Irish Catholic who is not lookin to be a victim.
Joe at 8:12PM on Apr 16th 2007
129. "with liberty and justice for all" That's what the pledge says but it's not true. In America there is a new double standard and it will only divide us more. If they fire Imus then they need to fire the rappers who say those things too. Then change the freedom of speech law to "we allow all speech that we agree with and that doesn't hurt anybody's feelings". We'll all become so politically correct will just stop communicating.
Nancy at 8:59PM on Apr 16th 2007