[Vision2020] Imus Looses His Job

Sat Apr 14 20:36:48 PDT 2007

I too support the decision to not give Imus a public forum. i would be all for denying such a 
forum to other shock jocks, including O'reilly and Limbaugh. When it is OK to make 
allegations, accusations, vicious insults, and innuendos about ANYONE, it follows that we can 
attack EVERYONE in this way. The boundaries of decency and civility get lost, and we all 
become less human. Imus made comments in a public forum that reflect the racism embedded 
in our culture, believing there would be no repercussions. How did he get to that belief? 
Because no one stopped him, O'Reilly, Rush, and others when they made the same sorts of 
remarks about women, gays, democrats, anti-war protestors, the 9/11 widows, etc. ad 
naseum. No facts, just nastiness. That's not limited to those on the far right---the far left has 
done the same thing. We have become a nation of polarized attack dogs, bereft of dignity, and 
incapable of recognizing any step too far in bringing down our identified enemy in the opinion 
wars.

Of course Imus thought it was OK to use that language in describing hard-working student 
athletes. That sort of usage of language is the common tongue in the US. 

Debi R-S

From:           	"Tom Hansen" <thansen at moscow.com>
To:             	"'J Ford'" <privatejf32 at hotmail.com>, <vision2020 at moscow.com>
Date sent:      	Thu, 12 Apr 2007 15:14:18 -0700
Subject:        	Re: [Vision2020] Imus Looses His Job

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I fully support the termination of Don Imus from MSNBC.

Referring to a predominantly black women's basketball team as "nappy
headed ho's" is not only inappropriate.  It is racist.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ui1jPNDWArM

By his own admission on NBC's Today Show, during an interview with
Matt Lauer, this is not the first time that Don Imus has used
inappropriate language on the air.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62PmW-6bk2E

Simply put, inappropriate language is unacceptable originating from an
on-air personality, whether it is "hidden" in comedic references (as
suggested by Don Imus) and followed by an apology or not, the
instigator of such language should be dealt with severely.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

*****************************************************************

"Sins can be committed in ignorance, and the fact that they were
committed in ignorance doesn't cause the sin to just disappear . . . "

- Princess Sushitushi (September 10, 2006)

*****************************************************************

-----Original Message-----

From: vision2020-bounces at moscow.com
[mailto:vision2020-bounces at moscow.com] On Behalf Of J Ford Sent:
Thursday, April 12, 2007 2:55 PM To: vision2020 at moscow.com Subject:
[Vision2020] Imus Looses His Job

This is what happens when all that is done is a comment is made.  I am
NOT saying the comment was a good one or should be allowed; but this
guy should NOT have lost his job over it, especially given rappers,
actors, and other blacks/negros/"African Americans" use even worse
terms and language and THEY

ARE PAID for it.

This is just wrong!  Suspend the guy for a couple of weeks without
pay, but taking his job away is just not right.

NEW YORK - CBS fired Don Imus from his radio program Thursday, the
finale to

a stunning fall for one of the nation's most prominent broadcasters.
ADVERTISEMENT

Imus initially was given a two-week suspension for calling the Rutgers
women's basketball team "nappy-headed hos" on the air last week, but
outrage

continued to grow and advertisers bolted from his CBS radio show and
its MSNBC simulcast.

"There has been much discussion of the effect language like this has
on our young people, particularly young women of color trying to make
their way in this society," CBS President and Chief Executive Officer
Leslie Moonves said

in announcing the decision. "That consideration has weighed most
heavily on our minds as we made our decision."

Rutgers women's basketball team spokeswoman Stacey Brann said the team
did not have an immediate comment on Imus' firing.

Time Magazine once named the cantankerous broadcaster as one of the 25
Most Influential People in America, and he was a member of the
National Broadcaster Hall of Fame.

But Imus found himself at the center of a storm as protests
intensified. On Wednesday, MSNBC dropped the simulcast of Imus' show.

Losing Imus will be a financial hit to CBS Radio, which also suffered
when Howard Stern departed for satellite radio. The program is worth
about $15 million in annual revenue to CBS, which owns Imus' home
radio station WFAN-AM and manages Westwood One, the company that
syndicates the show across the country.

The Rev.
Al Sharpton and
Jesse Jackson met with Moonves on Thursday to demand Imus' removal,
promising a rally outside CBS headquarters Saturday and an effort to
persuade more advertisers to abandon Imus.

Sumner Redstone, chairman of the CBS Corp. board and its chief
stockholder, told Newsweek that he had expected Moonves to "do the
right thing," although

it wasn't clear what he thought that was.

The news came down in the middle of Imus' Radiothon, which has raised
more than $40 million since 1990. The Radiothon had raised more than
$1.3 million

Thursday before Imus learned that he lost his job.

"This may be our last Radiothon, so we need to raise about $100
million," Imus cracked at the start of the event.

Volunteers were getting about 200 more pledges per hour than they did
last year, with most callers expressing support for Imus, said Tony
Gonzalez, supervisor of the Radiothon phone bank. The event benefited
Tomorrows Children's Fund, the CJ Foundation for SIDS and the Imus
Ranch.

Imus, whose suspension was supposed to start next week, was in the
awkward situation of broadcasting Thursday's radio program from the
MSNBC studios in

New Jersey, even though NBC News said the night before that MSNBC
would no longer simulcast his program on television.

He didn't attack MSNBC for its decision   "I understand the pressure
they were under," he said   but complained the network was doing some
unethical things during the broadcast. He didn't elaborate.

He acknowledged again that his comments about the Rutgers women's
basketball

players a day after they had competed in the
NCAA championship game had been "really stupid." He said he had
apologized enough and wasn't going to whine about his fate.

Sharpton and Jackson emerged from a meeting with Moonves saying the
corporate chief had promised to consider their requests.

"It's not about taking Imus down," Sharpton said. "It's about lifting
decency up."

Sheila Johnson, owner of the WNBA's Washington Mystics and, with her
ex-husband Robert, co-founder of BET, called Imus' comments
reprehensible in

an interview with The Associated Press. She said she had called
Moonves to urge that CBS cut all ties with the veteran radio star, and
was worried that

what he said could hurt women's sports.

"I think what Imus has done has put a cloud over what we've tried to
do in promoting women's athletics," she said.

Several sponsors, including American Express Co., Sprint Nextel Corp.,
Staples Inc., Procter & Gamble Co., and General Motors Corp., have
said they

were pulling ads from Imus' show indefinitely. Imus made a point
Thursday to

thank one sponsor, Bigelow Tea, for sticking by him.

The list of his potential guests began to shrink, too.

Newsweek Editor Jon Meacham said the magazine's staffers would no
longer appear on Imus' show. Meacham, Jonathan Alter, Evan Thomas,
Howard Fineman and Michael Isikoff from Newsweek have been frequent
guests.

Imus has complained bitterly about a lack of support from one black
politician, Harold Ford Jr., even though he strongly backed Ford's
campaign for Senate in Tennessee last year. Ford, now head of the
Democratic Leadership Council, said Thursday he'll leave it to others
to decide Imus' future.

"I don't want to be viewed as piling on right now because Don Imus is
a good

friend and a decent man," Ford said. "However, he did a reprehensible
thing."

Imus' troubles have also affected his wife, author Deirdre Imus, whose
household cleaning guide, "Green This!" came out this week. Her
promotional tour has been called off "because of the enormous pressure
that Deirdre and her family are under," said Simon & Schuster
publicist Victoria Meyer.

People are buying it, though: An original printing of 45,000 was
increased to 55,000.

Imus still has a lot of support among radio managers across the
country, many of whom grew up listening to him, said Tom Taylor,
editor of the trade publication Inside Radio.

Yet he's clearly became a political liability for a major corporation
  CBS.

(General Electric Co. owns NBC Universal, of which MSNBC is a part.)
NBC News said anger about Imus among some of its employees had as much
to do with ending the MSNBC simulcast as the advertiser defection.

Bryan Monroe, president of the National Association of Black
Journalists and

vice president and editor director of Ebony and Jet magazines, met
with Moonves on Wednesday. It seemed clear Moonves and his aides were
struggling with a difficult decision, he said. He urged them to take
advantage of an opportunity to take a stand against the coarsening of
culture.

"Something happened in the last week around America," Monroe said.
"It's not

just what the radio host did. America said enough is enough. America
said we

don't want this kind of conversation, we don't want this kind of
vitriol, especially with teenagers."

Rutgers' team, meanwhile, appeared Thursday on "The
Oprah Winfrey Show" with their coach, C. Vivian Stringer.

At the end of their appearance, Winfrey said: "I want to borrow a line
from Maya Angelou, who is a personal mentor of mine and I know you all
also feel the same way about her. And she has said this many times,
and I say this to you, on behalf of myself and every woman that I
know, you make me proud to spell my name W-O-M-A-N. You've really
handled this beautifully."

Imus said earlier Thursday he still wants to meet with the team.

"At some point, I'm not sure when, I'm going to talk to the team," he
said. "That's all I'm interested in doing."

Rev. DeForest Soaries, who is Stringer's pastor and has been helping
negotiate the terms of the meeting with Imus, said he had not yet
talked with Imus or coach Stringer but said: "Right now, as far as I
know, the meeting is still on."

Soaries said the fact that Imus was off the air on both MSNBC and CBS
took some pressure off of the upcoming meeting with the Rutgers women.

"This removes the burden from Rutgers women to determine the status of
Imus'

employment," Soaries said in a telephone interview.

___

Associated Press correspondents Karen Matthews, Warren Levinson, Seth
Sutel,

Tara Burghart and Hillel Italie contributed to this report.

J  :]

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