I’m not a listener of hip-hop or rap (I don’t even have any idea what the dif is)… nor am I up on the big media conglomerates.
I understand there is a link between the two mentioned above who are on Imus’ back and the music biz that promote or enable the use of nasty words like “Ho”, “bitch” and “nigga” alot.
Is that correct and how direct are those links?
It wouldn’t be surprising. All the networks knew how to capitalize on shock culture. It is my humble opinion that Fox along with the boom of cable networks forced them to go this route. Personally, I blame Fox as the point of origin for what TV (and other forms of media) and now-sensationalized news reporting have both become. Maybe Fox didn’t start the fire, but they sure did a lot to fan the flames!
Just the opinion of one,
You know what’s really comical? In this “life in the fast lane fear factor to the max” world, we are now bleeping out the occasional bad word in 30 year old classic rock songs! Oh, so suddenly the networks have a conscience about this, but no conscience about any of the hard-core trash they promote by what they chose to air?
You know, the real culprits here are the suits. Imus was just a stupid puppet who simply pushed the envelope too far. The suits will find themselves some other puppet to exploit.
The Columbia Journalism Review runs a “Who Owns What” site that details media empires.
Viacom used to own CBS. Unfortunately that site doesn’t look to have been updated since 2004. Technically CBS Corporation was split off into a separate publicly owned company on Dec. 31, 2005 and I don’t fully understand the links between it and Viacom. It kept the Viacom name for many of its company after the split, but is now rebranding them.
General Electric owns NBC Universal.
The only music company directly owned is Viacom’s Famous Music Publishing, but of course it also owns MTV and its subsidiary networks.
Neither GE nor CBS appear to own any record firms directly, although they have in the past.
I disagree with every one of Jinx’s opinions, BTW. The world changed, and it wasn’t Fox who did it. Cable television made a difference because it never was policed by the FCC, but it wasn’t the suits who forced it. And obviously this has nothing to do with radio or the record business.
Who’s at fault? The audience. The audience is always the driving force. They vote by numbers. If it didn’t sell big, the suits wouldn’t provide it. Period.
Fancy chart from MediaChannel.org.
Who Owns the Media from FreePress.net.
Who Controls the Media from N.O.W.
Exapno: Blame the audience?? Well, mebbe. But there was a report a few days back that the number of sponsors swearing off Imus was approaching 100. Now that will get the attention of the Empty Suits faster than a well-aimed cattle prod.
Please. Imus has been doing the same schtick for decades and the advertisers were crawling all over each other to support him. Why? Because he delivered big audiences.
Same for Howard Stern, and Opie & Anthony, and Mancow, and all the other shock jocks.
Same for Rush Limbaugh, and Glenn Beck, and Michael Savage and all the other right-wing hate-mongers.
It’s only when one of the things they say blows up into a national incident that the advertisers suddenly crawl back under their rocks.
Until then, the audience decides who stays and who goes and what’s acceptable and what isn’t.
Keith Olbermann I think showed the other night where the New York Times who was calling for Imus’ firing in their music review column will sometimes praise a rap album with lyrics much worse than what Imus said.
Not debating anything here, just providing some similar info to the OP.
I think there is a distinction between what is broadcast over the airwaves and what someone decides to buy in a store. While advertising support is the “X” factor, there is a difference between choosing to buy something and an outside entity paying to push it on you. Imus is now radioactive to advertisers and that’s a good thing. The fact is that Stern (who is a bottom feeding scum) is insulated because people do have to pay to receive his dribble. Imus will probably end up on satellite radio and then he can do what he wants.
If any good can come from this, it may force the black community to hold the rap music producers accountable for their irresponsibility. BTW, the tools like Snoop Dog that say it is OK for them and not anybody else are total hypocrites.
Imus is a playground bully that finally got brought down. Enough is enough, now let’s see if the pompous ones are ready to take on the real perps.
That is a direct result of the current administration’s appointments to the FCC. Following the stupid “wardrobe malfunction” incident (and various actions by the Department of Justice that seem to indicate that pornography is a bigger threat to the Republic than Islamist terrorism), the recently appointed head of the FCC vowed to crack down on broadcasters corrupting the public. They refuse to provide a list (or even a guideline) of what they will deem acceptable or unacceptable, (claiming that they do not want to engage in “prior restraint”), so radio and TV shows are self-censoring in the hopes of avoiding huge fines. Forget 30 year old rock songs, the networks are beeping words in a huge number of TV comedies from ten years ago or fewer so that they do not get retroactively fined.
Do you happen to have a citation and context (expressed in General Questions language), for Snoop claiming that he should be permitted expressions denied to others?
How about movies? Depictions of rape, racial slurs, sexism…
I mean, if we are going to look at hip-hop as if it shouldn’t be using that language, then movies should be held to the same standard.
Any real fan of hip-hop knows that the things the rappers say is not real. Their story changes from song to song! One song, he murdered hundreds, next song, he is a ‘lover not a fighter’.
I think that movies and hip-hop should be held to the same standard. In other words, both art forms should be allowed to use any language they please.
Here you go:
Well, he did not say that it was reserved to only rap artists and “not anybody else.” He said that it was prohibited to old white guys using it to be disrespectful to young black women. In fact, Snoop pretty much indicated (whether honestly or disingenuously, I do not know) that the word “ho” was reserved for either prostitutes or prostitutes and golddiggers in the 'hood. I suppose that one can criticize Snoop’s distinctions, but they do not appear to be quite as hypocritical as you claimed.
I agree 100%. The rap station here bleeps out words such as panties, gun, and liquor. It’s also clear that someone not particularly familiar with street slang is doing the bleeping, because while the get most drug, booze, and gun references, they miss quite a few too. I assume you can see all these things on shows such as 24.
And you have to distinguish between Snoop Dog the rapper from the individual.
In case surprises you, it’s possible for an entertainer to express opinions in their work that do not reflect their own. In other news, Johnny Cash never shot a man in Reno, whether it was to watch him die or otherwise. Arnold Schwartzenegger didn’t really kill all of those policemen in "The Terminator ", and Anthony Perkins didn’t really perform taxidermy on his mother.
When Imus called the team “nappy headed hos” he was speaking as himself for himself.
That’s getting tough to do these days. In latest Snoop news he just barely kept his sorry ass out of jail on felony weapons and drug charges.
Imus was fired because his show was losing all its sponsors. Political correctness had nothing to do with it. It was a business decision. Looking for ethical or ideological motivations in the corporate world is a waste of time. They are incapable of moral hypocrisy because they are incapable of any moral viewpoint at all. Where they are unfailingly consistent is in maximizing the bottom line. Firing Imus and producing rap music are both geared towards that same goal.
By the way, I do think there’s a double standard with regards to how some language is used by white people and black people but I think the double standard is justified. Some white people might think it’s unfair but the history isn’t fair. Life isn’t fair. Too bad. Suck it up.
Which is exactly what slang is all about! It is a language that others outside of the culture would have a hard time understanding, so why do they bother to bleep what they do understand? You can bleep ‘ho’, but then you let, ‘pop-off’ go through. Well, guess what? Same word!
And if movies can get away with it, so can hip-hop. And if hip-hop can, so can shock jocks.
Dio, surely you realize that the sponsors were leaving because of Political Correctness? It may have been indirect but it had alot to do with it.