Don Imus Gets Fired - TV and Radio!!! Options

[burd]

I never saw his TV show. I never listened to his radio show.
But he referred to players of the Rutgers women's basketball team as "nappy headed hos".

Al Sharpton called for his termination from NBC & CBS broadcast companies. Advertisers pulled out ... and Imus is now unemployeed! I can't believe it.

I think the comment on the surface was rude, but I don't know if it was taken out of context or not. I've heard every fucking news commentator repeat those words, but I haven't heard one true soundbyte from Imus. Was he serious? Was he joking?

I think a guy old enough to roll over & die any minute should be allowed to keep his mildly rated talk show. I think if you don't want to hear it, you don't have to listen to it. I think there are much worse things being said in lyrics, shown in movies, written in books ... but they have to pick on the little old guy so the big corporate machines won't piss off more advertisers (and won't have to deal with the annoyance of defending themselves against Al Sharpton).

What do you think?

This post has been edited by burd: Apr 12 2007, 5:33 pm

[Senghe]

First of all I want to start by saying I DESPISE political correctness. We've recently had a series of CHEWING GUM adverts banned here because... wait for it... a black comedian, a middle aged white lady at a women's insititue meeting and a white bloke who appreared to be at a bird club meeting (don't ask, it's a british thing) forget what they are doing and burst out talking in a Jamaican accent extolling the virtues of this particular brand of chewing gum. People in record numbers complained that it was highly racist and offensive and the usual Uncle Tom and Slave Trade analogies were bandied about in an irrelevant manner (I suspect by middle class white people). This is obviously ridiculous, though I'm not sorry to see the back of the adverts as they were just plain annoying.

However, I do think even in context, the phrase "Nappy headed hos" is just vile and coming out of an aged right wing white guy's mouth can only be construed as derogatory and racist. I think he'd have got just as much stick if he'd have been black and he'd called a team of white girls something like trailer trash barbies. As for all those rappers calling women hos - two wrongs don't really make a right and that's a whole other can of worms to open.

Should he have been sacked - who the hell cares - as of half an hour ago I didn't even know who he was! He should have stuck to the rough/tattoo comments and calling the other team cute - he'd have got the sack for sexism and both teams could have held hands on Oprah.

By the way, I hate the whiny "Why can they call one another by the 'n' word but we can't do it?" attitude. Basically, if you have to ask, you're at best extremely naive and at worst a racist bigot. I have black friends and I can't think of ONE SINGLE SCENARIO where it would be right, appropriate or even funny to call them a word like nigga. However, two black people using the word do it as a term of 'endearment' (and good for them turning it round and owning it) rather than as some kind of colonial insult.

p.s. Hi Trathena! How long have you been here my fellow VAST and Ours fan?

This post has been edited by Senghe: Apr 15 2007, 9:06 am

[Trathena]

p.s. Hi Trathena! How long have you been here my fellow VAST and Ours fan?

Hello Senghe! I've been around a few weeks and have posted about three times and all three times I've been grouchy. ;-)

So I'm glad to finally write a friendly post. And I agree with every word you said.

Peace!
Trathena