He can tack left, take his punishment, try to ignore Al and Jesse, and concentrate on promoting Bush Hating guests and others in his media elite circle. They can’t pull a guy like that off the airwaves can they?
Or he could tack right…
… take his punisment, refuse to be lectured to by the Nappy Headed Race Hustlers mentioned above and call for the word “Ho” to be stricken from the english language and all “entertainment” using that word to be pulled from the shelves.
I think he should just retire. There is nothing that he can say or do that will ever allow him to be redeemed in the eyes of many. Sure, make the apologies but his career is finished. Maybe he should be finished, but I find it unsettling that there is no possibility for redemption in cases like this. I think withholding forgiveness hurts the one withholding it as much if not more as the one not getting it “forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us” and all that.
If I understand American pop-culture correctly, we’ll be hearing within one week that someone gave the old geezer a knuckle sandwich.
As far as what he should do goes, he should ask the ladies that were the target of his insults to decide on whether or not he should stay on the job. If they vote that he hits the road, then that’s it – he’s out of there!
The guy was way out of line for what he did, no question. But I can’t help but recall how Mike Tyson went on the ugliest racial tirade I ever heard a couple of days before his last “major” fight (about a year ago), and yet even though what he said to those Caucasian reporters was a billion times worse than what this fool Imus and that Mike Richards guy did, I didn’t see anyone demanding that he not be allowed to have his $30-million pay day (for which, incidentally, he took a fall and quit when it was clear that he was about to have his big mouth knocked out!).
The hatred and mistrust is worse these days in America between blacks and whites than I can ever recall it being. I don’t see any way that things will ever get better … just remain an open and ugly wound, as there’ll always be a-holes doing their thing to keep it festering. What a drag!
I’m generally an Imus-fan. He’s apologized. He should fine-tune the humor of the program without gelding it. He should take his two weeks, meet with the women, ignore Al “Pogrom” Sharpton & Jesse Jackson, and work on taking the higher road.
If he finds that the politicians & pundits & writers who had been on his show stay away in droves, then he should consider retiring.
Mike Tyson isn’t paid to talk. He’s paid to fight. And everyone knows he’s a crazy man.
Imus is paid to talk and communicate to a diverse audience. He doesn’t have a crazy schtick, but a well-spoken, intelligent, sometimes humorous one. When his schtick gets him into trouble, that means he’s not doing his job well. No one should have to forgive a guy who’s doing a bad job.
It seems like people keep bending over backwards trying to find a double-standard here. Imus isn’t Mike Tyson. He’s not a gangster rapper. He’s a reputable talk show host, so he should be compared to other talk show hosts. If Oprah called a group of dignified white women “stringy-haired, white-trash whores” and she had a history of making similar comments, you better believe her job would be on the line.
White people aren’t the victims here, nor is Imus. He didn’t make a mistake or an innocent gaff. He said something purposefully offensive and now he’s facing the consequences for that stunt. Just like any of us would, if we were in his place. He isn’t owed forgiveness or redemption just because HE says he’s a good guy. Anyone can claim inherent goodness, but that doesn’t make it so.
Meh. Honestly, I do not know what he ought to do now. From the get go on this, what he should have done was play the fool and refuse to apologize or even comment on it. Much like any other radio personality who relies on shock value occasionally, he simply should have let it blow over. Instead he backpeddled, showed weakness, and now the wolves have descended to tear his carreer apart. The whole thing is completely blown WAY out of proportion. Though I doubt it would work now, he might still be best off to take the two weeks, and not say another thing about it again.
Of course in reality the decision of what will happen to Imus will be made by the sponsors. If they leave and stay away in droves then his show is done. If they do not then it will blow over.
What should he do? Keep himself and his crew (whatever sidekicks he now uses or uses in the future) farther away from the racist/sexist material in their bits.
The calls for his being fired, not because the sponsors abandon ship but because tried to be funny and this time failed and came off hateful instead, cross the line into excessive censorship.
This does seem like hate speech. This is not “Kike” or “Nigger” or a variety of other epithets. This is the more mundane inappropriateness.
Sorry, but I can’t feel too bad for these Rutger athletes. There is a long tradition of female athletes being the butt of jokes based on their appearances rather than their performance. No, it is not right, but most female athletes, White or Black or other, good looking or not, are ford to endure it as part of the price they pay. They answer it by either playing up their looks and posing for Playboy and dressing provocatively. Or they answer it by ignoring it and concentrating on their game. Their call.
To Imus these girls looked street tough. He tried to make an edgy joke based on that just like Leno would’ve made a joke about another set of athletes’ looks. He failed. Badly. And with a clumsy combination of racist and sexist words. But to react like he was using hate speech is a bit much.
I understand that racially motivated comments made by quasi-celebrities are newsworthy. However, I file this right under “what brittney wore yesterday” and “who is Paris dating now?” An ignorant jerk said something massively ignorant and jerky. Surprise! Who cares!?
I just wish this would blow over so that my morning news would stop being interrupted by this crap.
Fired? If I were in charge of the world, this guy would have been replaced ages ago by a much more intelligent and deserving trained chimp. Then we could all pay attention to something that really matters.
One of these days, I hope that a celebrity engaged in one of these gaffes (actually, I don’t think gaffe is the right word. Imus knew what he was saying) takes the opportunity to delve into the issue of racism. Imus, like Michael Richards, Mel Gibson, etc. etc. claims he isn’t a racist person, has Black friends, and so on. So why are so many seemingly nonracist people caught up in these shenanigans? Make a documentary. Discuss your own experience grappling with race. Use your celebrity to make others aware of this latent racism that seems to be so pervasive in America today.
I don’t know if Imus has the temperament, ability, or interest in such a project. But I would actually respect someone who committed to that kind of analysis of their behavior.
He should say something like “If you don’t like me or my show anymore, stop watching it. But if enough people still want to watch it such that it’s economically feasible, let them.”
Plain and simple there are too many 60-something western rich white guys that absolutely love the guy. He’s not going anywhere except on a brief sunny trip to Sedona with his son Wyatt. He’ll be right back on the airwaves doing the exact same thing he was before the “nappy headed” comment.
I think he should ask forgiveness from the team, and tell them he will resign if they want him to. It is likely he will have to resign anyway, and this would create an opportunity for the team to appear magnanimous. But if they decide not to ask for his resignation, it would completely defuse any call for his termination by Sharpton, et al. If the true victim here can forgive him, and not call for his head, it makes everyone else look petty and vindictive.
This whole Imus thing makes me feel like there was some major cultural force that I’d never heard of. I had heard of Imus before, but never so much that I’d attributed any importance to him. A couple of weeks ago, I would have been surprised that he would have garnered this much media attention outside his own show(s) even if he had burned a cross on the Rutgers quad.
That’s not to excuse what he said, perhaps he should be fired, but I’m just surprised to see such a fuss everywhere I turn.
I see the word “forgiveness” used a lot, but that’s a term I use for moral/ethical crimes and indiscretions. You could argue that this is what Imus committed, but I see it in a different way.
Imus showed incompetence as a reputable broadcaster when he used that language. So while the student atheletes may choose to accept Imus’ apology, that really has nothing to do whether Imus’ deserves to stay on the air. He might be a saint at heart. It doesn’t matter.
If I were him, I’d probably do a big mea culpea press conference and then announce my retirement. He’s been in the business for a long time and regardless of whether he leaves now or in a few more years, I suspect these remarks will put a dark cloud over him. At least if he retires now, he comes off looking like he’s truly sorry and repetent, and the public flogging can stop. If he stays on, people will continue to talk about him and the incident, MSNBC and CBS will continue to be hounded, he will have to worry about keeping sponsorship, and his show will be so scrutinized that he won’t be able to carry on with the same schtick anyway. Not worth it, in my opinion.
Proctor & Gamble and Staples have already pulled their advertising from his show. Several other sponsors are “mulling over their options.” He’s toast. Retire semi-gracefully and go enjoy yourself, Imus. Nobody is going to pay to advertise on your show for quite a long time.