What nonsense. Al Sharpton and Jessie Jackson should hang their heads in shame.
By supporting the outrageous firing of Don Imus, Barack Obama has lost all chance of winning the presidency. Hillary Clinton will now be the Democratic nominee and she will be defeated by the Republican nominee, Fred Thompson. Nice work, Al and Jessie, you nappy headed idiots.
Don Imus
King Of The World
By supporting the outrageous firing of Don Imus, Barack Obama has lost all chance of winning the presidency. Hillary Clinton will now be the Democratic nominee and she will be defeated by the Republican nominee, Fred Thompson. Nice work, Al and Jessie, you nappy headed idiots.
Don ImusKing Of The World
CBS fires Don Imus
April 12, 2007, 5:45 PM EDT
It's over.
CBS has canned Don Imus, effective immediately, abruptly ending what for him was probably the longest week in a long and often controverisal career.
In a statement released at about 5 p.m. Thursday, the network announced that the radio program, "Imus in the Morning," will "cease broadcasting...on a permanent basis."
CBS chief, Leslie Moonves, said in, in part, "From the outset, I believe all of us have been deeply upset and revulsed by the statements that were made on our air about the young women who represented Rutgers University in the NCAA Women's Basketball Championship with such class, energy and talent."
He added, "Those who have spoken with us the last few days represent people of goodwill from all segments of our society – all races, economic groups, men and women alike. In our meetings with concerned groups, 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.
"That consideration has weighed most heavily on our minds as we made our decision, as have the many emails, phone calls and personal discussions we have had with our colleagues across the CBS Corporation and our many other constituencies."
His move follows the cancellation by NBC of the MSNBC simulcast by just about 24 hours, and it was clear today that the public pressure on Imus showed no signs of letting up.
Rev. Al Sharpton met with Moonves for about a half hour Thursday before the two joined a broader coalition of civil rights leaders, including Rev. Jesse Jackson and Rep. Carolyn Kilpatrick (D-Mich.), in the network's midtown headquarters.
Sharpton said he left the meeting as it headed to a discussion of the culture that permits such racist comments.
"I want broader issues addressed, but they cannot be addressed as long as Imus is on the airwaves," Sharpton said. "CBS has as its symbol this eye, but so far when it came to racism, they blinked. We're going to march until we get that eye open for justice."
Jackson and the other leaders left a short time later, also calling for Imus to be fired and for a movement to include greater sensitivity and diversity in media of all types.
A call to a CBS spokesman said there were other details about the firing beyond the press release.
On this morning's radio show, Imus used what his last hours on CBS air to chastise the media, Sharpton, and other prominent critics of the last week.
In a transcipt compied by fishbowldc.com, Imus told his listeners, "My position on all of this is not whining about the hideously hypocritical coverage from the newspapers - from everybody or the lack of support, say, from people like Harold Ford, Jr. who I had my life threatened over supporting and all these kind of things.
"It all began, and it doesn't make any difference - like [James] Carville said - stop talking about the context, it doesn't make any difference.
"If I hadn't have said it I wouldn't be here. So let's stop whining about it...You gotta stop complaining. I said a stupid, idiotic thing that desperately hurt these kids. I'm going to apologize but we gotta move on."
He wondered aloud whether Sharpton would "apolgize" for his statements regarding the so-called Duke rape case.
He also dismissed the MSNBC cancellation, saying, "the big part of the program is radio. There's millions of people listening to the radio. At best a few hundred thousand are watching television." Meanwhile, he noted that contributions for the on-going Tomorrow's Childrens Fund were "way, way up," later adding - cryptically - "These bastards went after me. They got me. But they didn't catch me asleep."
Mike Francesa and Chris Russo began their show on WFAN radio Thursday with an impassioned, angry defense of embattled colleague Don Imus.
"What MSNBC did, as far as at least timing is concerned, was an absolute disgrace,'' said Russo.
Francesa then had his turn, calling MSNBC's timing "one of the least gracious acts I've ever seen, and cowardly acts, from a network, and a network that I have a relationship with.'' (Francesa has a show that appears on WNBC-TV Sunday nights.)
"Their action is one of the most disgraceful actions I've ever seen from a company on the night before a radiothon when it's about the kids and about the families who are going to be helped.''
Like Russo, Francesa fingered some long-time friends of Imus as "utter cowards who have shown no loyalty, I mean none . . . The ones who have run and hid, they know who they are."
Imus' friends were certainly invisible this week - many who have appeared hundreds of times on his show, like NBC's Tim Russert, released no statements with regards to the controversy, while ABC News confirmed a Radar report from Thursday that network news division stars, including Charlie Gibson, Cokie Roberts, George Stephanopoulous, and Sam Donaldson, would no no longer appear on the show.
And given NBC's cancellation Thursday, it was abundantly clear stars like Russert would not be appearing either.
The radiothon, which was to continue Friday, raises money for the Tomorrows Children's Fund, a nonprofit organization that helps children with cancer and blood disorders; the CJ Foundation for SIDS, which funds research into Sudden Infant Death Syndrome; and the Imus Ranch in Ribera, N.M., where Imus invites children who have been ill to visit.
"This may be our last radiothon, so we need to raise about $100 million," Imus said at the start of the event, which has raised more than $40 million since 1990.
Several major advertisers dropped Imus' show over last week's remark, and pressure from politicians and the public has mounted since he referred to the Rutgers basketball players as "nappy-headed hos.
But what led to this afternoon's abrupt firing? It may well have been the media coverage that he chastised: A column in the New York Times by veteran columnist Bob Herbert this morning cited a decade-old "60 Minutes" story in which Imus had used the n-word off camera to a producer. According to the transcript, when Mike Wallace challenged Imus on use of the word, he at first denied saying it, but when Wallace's producer confirmed that he had indeed said it, Imus retreated by saying the comment had been "off the record."
Copyright 2007 Newsday Inc.
