Some eyebrows were raised yesterday when Don Imus had this exchange, CNN reports:

Sportscaster Warner Wolf told Imus that Adam Jones wanted to change his name to disassociate himself from past legal trouble.

"He's been arrested six times since being drafted by Tennessee in 2005," Wolf said.
"What color is he?" Imus asked.

"He's African-American," Wolf responded.

"Well, there you go," Imus said. "Now we know."

There are now news reports that Don Imus will be hired by WABC in New York for their morning show. His new paycheck -- over $10 million. When you compound this with the reported $20 million payout he got from CBS when he got fired, he will have made a small fortune for getting fired. If these numbers are anywhere near true, it's an enormous reward for bad behavior.

So, Imus makes offensive comments. Imus gets $30 million. That ought to show him!

As I explain in this short video, I never thought Imus should have been fired. But I also didn't expect to get him to get millions of dollars for being an ass, either.



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So, who do you think was more deserving of being fired -- Don Imus or Michael Savage?

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Many commentators--and many responders on this blog--have correctly noted that rap music contains far more offensive material than anything Don Imus has ever said. My outrage, however, is not confined to the oafish rappers. It is also directed at the critics and intellectuals who promote and celebrate the excesses of hip-hop when they clearly should know better.

A case in point is Henry Louis Gates, who is chairman of the African American Studies department at Harvard University. Several years ago Gates offered a highbrow apologia for the rap lyrics of the group 2 Live Crew. Gates' article was called "2 Live Crew Decoded" and it appeared in the New York Times.

At first glance, the group's music might seem difficult to defend. The songs hail the pleasures of forced intercourse. "I'll break you down and dick you long. "So we try real hard just to break the walls." "I'll busy your pussy, then break your backbone." And so on. Much of the content is simply grotesque: "Suck my dick, bitch, and make it puke/ Lick my ass up and down/ Lick it till your tongue turn doo-doo brown."

The New Criterion is a conservative magazine dedicated to promoting the highest standards of art and culture, what Matthew Arnold once termed "the best that has been thought and said in the world." A recent article by its editor, Roger Kimball, unfortunately seems to embody the very cultural decadence the magazine is supposed to be fighting.

Writing on the magazine's website, Kimball gives "two cheers for Don Imus." Is it because of the great charity work the guy has done? No, it's because he called the Rutgers women basketball players "nappy headed hos." Well, not only because of that. Kimball also notes that "Imus has insulted blacks, Arabs, gays, Catholics and women. "

So what's to praise about this guy? Kimball recognizes that "your mother would probably not approve of your calling anyone a nappy-headed ho, and your mother would of course be right. Gentlemen and ladies do not use such language." In putting things this way Kimball implies that the standard involved is terribly old-fashioned. We don't talk like our mothers, and we don't think of ourselves as gentlemen and ladies, and so we needn't be bound by their strictures.

So the offense given to the female Rutgers basketball players was so grievous that it demanded Imus be fired. Fine, but what about the harm caused to the lives of those Duke lacrosse players?

The wrongly-accused Duke students did not merely endure a two-word insult. They have had to suffer through the most horrific allegations, launched in a witch-hunt atmosphere that lasted for more than a year. They got little support from the university, and virtually no cooperation from the state.

What's the appropriate punishment for Mike Nifong, the opportunistic prosecutor, who seems to have "played" the evidence to promote his career? And what about the long list of Duke professors--some African American, some white--who circulated petitions using the incident to demonstrate racism at Duke, helping in the process to create the atmosphere of racial hysteria in which the whole incident was examined?

I hold no brief for Imus and given his scumbag behavior over years, an argument can be made that he deserved what he got. But on balance I consider the Duke show-trial, thankfully now ended, to have been a much greater miscarriage of justice. The Duke professors, even more than Imus, should have known better and not abused their power. Instead they played the race card and ruined these students' lives in their own university setting. Who will hold them accountable for the pain they have caused?

1. I meant it as a compliment.

2. I've been listening to too much hip-hop. What groups would you hos, I mean folks, recommend from here on out? Maybe I should switch to country music for a while.

3. I'm an equal-opportunity offender. I hate everybody! You should see the things I say about Jews, Christians, white people. You guys actually came off lightly by my standards.

4. My words were misconstrued. I was talking to my producer, and what I meant to say is that I needed a snappy-headed hose. You won't believe the garden work I'm doing these days.

5. I missed the target. The real whores are Sharpton and Jackson, and they come at a high price too. (As for Sharpton's hair, c'mon! Nappy is an understatement.) Lots of people are paying the big bucks to these pros, and after this I guess I will be joining the list of patrons.

6. We've got serious national issues to deal with like health care and terrorism and global warming and you want to talk about this nonsense?

7. So you don't like my sense of humor! Okay, let me tell you the one about the Englishman, the Irishman and the Polack...

8. How come Coulter gets away with "faggot" and I can't get away with "ho"?

9. Even Jesse Jackson uses some of the same terms that I'm being criticized for. Remember, "Hey hey, ho ho, Western Civilization has got to go?" Just for the record, that wasn't me, it was Jesse.

10. Well, I don't have to do radio any more. I can go where my linguistic talents are more appreciated. I wonder if there's room in the music business for one more white rapper?

I"ve noticed that the Middle Eastern media is treating the Imus story--and how our little scandals travel worldwide!--with a certain degree of relish. And I think I know why. Remember the Muhammad cartoon scandal? When the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten printed the cartoons portraying the prophet Muhammad as a terrorist, many in the West viewed this solely through the lens of free speech. The media coverage suggested a confirmation of Huntington's "clash of civilizations" thesis. We believe in free speech and they don't. Many conservatives rallied to this viewpoint.

Clearly the embassy-burnings and rabid protests of the Islamic radicals showed that there is a faction in the Muslim world that completely rejects open debate. "Insult us and we will issue fatwas to kill you" is their modus operandi. But the traditional Muslims fell silent. They did not join with the radicals, but neither did they defend the cartoons. And indeed some commented that the way in which the West was treating the controversy was unfair and hypocritical.

The Imus controversy proves that these traditional Muslims were right. How often during the Imus brouhaha have you heard the words "free speech"? Hardly. Has the First Amendment even come up? Nyet. Have dozens of other radio hosts decided to echo the epithets directed at the Rutgers women's basketball team in order to affirm their solidarity with Imus and their enthusiasm for civil liberties? No, there has been an almost-universal howl of outrage. The man should be suspended! No, he should be fired! Everyone involved should have sensitivity counseling to make sure this doesn't happen again! All of this is indicative of the racism endemic in our society!

One of the issues that has come out of the Don Imus controversy is whether it's sexist to even mention a woman's attractiveness. Imus not only took a shot at the Rutgers players' race and gender, but also at their looks. These are young girls who couldn't defend themselves on-air when Imus made the comment, so it was a cheap shot.

But is it ever appropriate to comment on a woman's looks on-air? What if she isn't in the entertainment business? What if she is in politics? My personal take is that it is completely acceptable, as long as that is not the only characteristic you look at when judging a person.

We all have different sides to our being that makes up the whole. Men and women have a sexual side, but that is not all they have. They also have an intellectual, political, professional and social side as well. So, if you judge a woman (or a man) only by her (his) looks, then you are hopelessly shallow and almost certainly sexist. But if you pretend not to notice if they are attractive or not, then you are almost certainly lying.

I wouldn't be telling the truth if I told you I never considered whether Terri Hatcher was attractive. Same goes for Margaret Thatcher. But my conclusions on that front don't effect what I think of their acting or political skills.

So, is it ever appropriate to discuss whether you find people in the political or professional sphere attractive or not? I admit that I'm too scared to offer up women choices in the current atmosphere for talk show hosts. So, I will go with male politicians as my examples here.































And, finally:













(Photos: Getty Images, AP)


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I am so sick of celebrities with their fake apologies and their nonsense fake rehab visits. How do you get rehabilitated from being a jerk? Isaiah Washington went to rehab to cure hating gay people. And some people go to rehab to get cured from being gay.

I think Imus is a crabby, old ass. There is no cure for that. I think his comments were racist (there is no way in the world he would have called white or Asian players "nappy-headed"). But I also think he should keep his job.

A suspension to shake out the cobwebs might not be such a bad thing, but please whatever you do, don't send him to rehab.

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I'm surprised at the names that Imus calls people. Have you seen pictures of Imus? He's one ugly guy! Rarely do people wear their own coarseness on their face. But Imus does. I won't say whether his hair is nappy or not, but the man needs a barber, a plastic surgeon, a hygienist, and a few things besides. We can all be thankful that Imus is on radio, where he is heard but not seen.

How come I can get away insulting Imus in this way? Not just because he's asked for it, which he has. But also because I'm applying The Politically Correct Guide To Insulting People, a wonderfully useful manual that is unfortunately out of print.

Imus doesn't know the rules. That's why he violated Rule Number 1, which is that if you're going to insult someone's appearance and sexual habits, make sure it's a white guy. Imus qualifies, which is why I can glibly comment on his facial blemishes and lupine scowl. I don't want to speculate on his sexual habits, but take one look at Imus, and no one is likely to call him a "ho."

UPDATE: Imus loses sponsors

Imus got suspended for two weeks. He says that it's appropriate. He says, defensively, "it's not a slap on the wrist." He says, surreally, "I will try and serve it with some dignity." He also says, "I'm not a racist. I've demonstrated that in my deeds and work." This is, presumably, a continuation of a point he made a few days ago, when he noted that the kids at his cancer ranch are ten percent black. That doesn't prove that Imus isn't racist. It just proves that cancer isn't.

Reaction to the suspension has been mixed. Activists like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton are unhappy. Jackson has called the punishment "a slap on the wrist," though it's not clear whether he called it that before or after Imus said it wasn't one.

Now, many of the comments from yesterday's post singled out Sharpton and Jackson, noting that they have had racially complicated careers from the first. Sharpton, of course, was involved in the Tawana Brawley case, which proved to be a hoax. Jackson called New York "Hymietown." Many posters thought that neither of them has any right to object. However, that seems stupid. For starters, just because you've made errors doesn't mean that you can't criticize those errors in others. In addition, those remarks hurt Sharpton and Jackson considerably. Neither of them is taken very seriously by society at large -- they are, at this point, professional gadflies, useful for identifying hypocrisy and racism, useful for keeping the spotlight focussed, but not entirely legitimate. In yesterday's post, I mentioned that they were opportunistic, and that's still true today. They are not real legislators like Charlie Rangel or Barack Obama. They are provocateurs. But I'm still not sure how that excuses Imus.

This is a tough case for me. For obvious reasons, I think talk hosts should be given wide latitude to assert opinions, or even to make insensitive jokes. I think entertainers (even third class ones like radio talk show hosts (yes, that includes us)) should be held to a different standard than politicians. We don't represent anyone and we are not official spokespeople for any group of people. And from time to time talk show hosts even actually spur important conversations in the country, even when they say something offensive.

On the other hand, "nappy-headed hos" is clearly racial and over the line. He took awhile to apologize, but he did. On the third hand, he and his crew have a history of saying questionable things. On the fourth hand, which radio host doesn't have a history of really pissing people off in ways that go over the line?

Finally, if Imus gets fired, shouldn't Limbaugh for telling an African-American caller to take the bone out of his nose? Shouldn't Michael Savage get fired for just about every other hideous word that comes out of his mouth? I can't imagine that Michael Weiner (that's Savage's real name) has ever gone a whole show where he didn't say something far worse than what Imus said here.

In the end, I'm voting no on Imus being fired, but it isn't without reservation. What's your vote -- should Imus be fired?





















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