[Peace-discuss] Imus fired from radio show

[Robert Naiman]

It's like the Army-McCarthy hearings. The arrogant bully finally went
after the wrong target.

I love how CBS waited to see how big the firestorm would be before
deciding what the ethical response was.

Imus fired from radio show

By DAVID BAUDER, AP Television Writer 8 minutes ago

CBS fired Don Imus from his radio program Thursday, the finale to a
stunning fall for one of the nation's most prominent broadcasters.

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, which was canceled Wednesday.

"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."

Imus had a long history of inflammatory remarks. But something struck
a raw nerve when he targeted the Rutgers team — which includes a class
valedictorian, a future lawyer and a musical prodigy — after they lost
in the NCAA championship game.

A spokeswoman for the team said it did not have an immediate comment
on Imus' firing.

The cantankerous Imus, once named one of the 25 Most Influential
People in America by Time magazine and a member of the National
Broadcasters Hall of Fame, issued repeated apologies as protests
intensified. But it wasn't enough as everyone from Barack Obama (news,
bio, voting record) to Oprah Winfrey joined the criticism.

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 defect.

Jackson called the firing "a victory for public decency. No one should
use the public airwaves to transmit racial or sexual degradation."

Said Sharpton: "He says he wants to be forgiven. I hope he continues
in that process. But we cannot afford a precedent established that the
airways can commercialize and mainstream sexism and racism."

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

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 phone
bank supervisor Tony Gonzalez. 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.

Sponsors that pulled out of Imus' show included American Express Co.,
Sprint Nextel Corp., Staples Inc., Procter & Gamble Co. and General
Motors Corp. 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 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."

___

Associated Press correspondents Karen Matthews, Warren Levinson, Seth
Sutel, Tara Burghart, Colleen Long and Hillel Italie contributed to
this report.