Don Imus, host of a radio show today was fired by MSNBC for referring to the Rutgers women’s basketball team as “nappy headed hoes.” MSNBC’s announcement comes after a two-week suspension of his show.
It is not clear to me why this comes as a surprise to people though, Imus has a long track record for making racist and sexist comments. Over 20 ago, he referred to an African American PBS anchor (Gwen Ifill) as a “cleaning lady” and an African American sports (Bill Rhoden) columnist as “NY Time quota hire.”
It’s difficult to say whether or not he deserved it. Even though it was obviously very rude, he is a comedian, and comedy can often time offend people. His free speech rights should be protected. Imus’ show had a strong following, and if his comments truly offended his viewers, then they should simply stop listening. There plenty of people and groups I think things would be better without, the KKK, NBPP, NRA, Phyllis Schlafly, etc but that is not why we have democracy, it’s like Justice Kennedy pointed out, the First Amendment is often inconvenient, but that is besides the point. Inconvenience does not absolve the government, or in this case, society, of its obligation to tolerate speech
He probably could have avoided being fired. He made one apology after another showing his weakness, specially after the Rutgers athletes started making public appearances to respond. Imus should have come out and said it’s a comedy show, and the show is supposed to be funny, sometimes jokes can go too far and offend people, which in this case they did. Imus did this, but he should have stopped there without so many apologizes, perhaps then there wouldn’t have been as much public outcry, and sponsors wouldn’t have left, and he wouldn’t been dismissed. The story would have been over with the next day. Imus need to take lessons from Dan Rather, who made similar mistakes some tie ago when dismissed by CBS for incorrectly reporting President Bush’s National Guard service.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/TV/04/11/imus.rutgers/index.html?eref=rss_topstories
It is not clear to me why this comes as a surprise to people though, Imus has a long track record for making racist and sexist comments. Over 20 ago, he referred to an African American PBS anchor (Gwen Ifill) as a “cleaning lady” and an African American sports (Bill Rhoden) columnist as “NY Time quota hire.”
It’s difficult to say whether or not he deserved it. Even though it was obviously very rude, he is a comedian, and comedy can often time offend people. His free speech rights should be protected. Imus’ show had a strong following, and if his comments truly offended his viewers, then they should simply stop listening. There plenty of people and groups I think things would be better without, the KKK, NBPP, NRA, Phyllis Schlafly, etc but that is not why we have democracy, it’s like Justice Kennedy pointed out, the First Amendment is often inconvenient, but that is besides the point. Inconvenience does not absolve the government, or in this case, society, of its obligation to tolerate speech
He probably could have avoided being fired. He made one apology after another showing his weakness, specially after the Rutgers athletes started making public appearances to respond. Imus should have come out and said it’s a comedy show, and the show is supposed to be funny, sometimes jokes can go too far and offend people, which in this case they did. Imus did this, but he should have stopped there without so many apologizes, perhaps then there wouldn’t have been as much public outcry, and sponsors wouldn’t have left, and he wouldn’t been dismissed. The story would have been over with the next day. Imus need to take lessons from Dan Rather, who made similar mistakes some tie ago when dismissed by CBS for incorrectly reporting President Bush’s National Guard service.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/TV/04/11/imus.rutgers/index.html?eref=rss_topstories
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