Kurtz lied when he said that he didn't know what was going on during
Imus' show.
He declined to address the
Imus matter, as did station execs.
During his show,
Imus called the Rutger's mostly Black women's basketball team "nappy-headed hos." With his sacking imminent, contextualizing
Imus's racism and its source took precedence in the news.
Both the Duke players and
Imus were called innocent victims of political correctness.
For important authors with important books to sell, appearances on the factory floor with
Imus drummed up more business than did interviews with Charlie Rose, and if from time to time the cowboy hat referred to Arabs as "towel-heads" or to a Washington Post reporter as a "boner-nosed beanie-wearing Jew boy" the exhaust fumes could be excused or overlooked in the interest of the greater commercial good.
If you emphasized the downfall of
Imus, the saga of Anna Nicole Smith from death to funeral to paternity, the astronaut love triangle, the escapades of Paris Hilton, and Alec Baldwin's private phone messages, you hereby are sworn in as the producer of any popular cable or celebrity news program.
I would recommend listening to Jeff Greenfield's appearance on the
Imus program.
And although MSNBC and CBS Radio say their decision to fire him was ultimately based on the conversations that took place within their respective organizations--with employees voicing their displeasure over
Imus's remark and his past track record--it was clear to me while listening to senior officials at both organizations talk about the Rutgers press conference that they were moved by what the young women had to say.
Once major corporations like Staples and Proctor & Gamble began pulling from his show,
Imus was as cooked as a Stouffer's chicken dinner.
PRINCETON, NJ -- Last week, CBS suspended, and later fired, radio talk show host Don
Imus from his radio program after making offensive racial comments on air about the Rutgers women's basketball team.
Bosses at the CBS network had first suspended
Imus - who has built a 30-year career on outrage - for calling the New Jersey team "nappy-headed hos".