OMG! This is like so totally brilliant!
I thought I'd jump on band wagon and abuse the word "brilliant" like everyone else.
Still, it's a good piece that puts the whole "Imus as poor wittle victim" in perspective.
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The Individualist: Don Imus Sucks
Posted by Joe Rivett on 04.17.2007
For eleven years, I have never understood the appeal of Don Imus. Ever since I saw his non-telegenic face, (He makes Alan Colmes look like a sexy beast!) I asked myself how someone so awful sounding and looking could get such a nice gig.
Did he get the gig because he was funny? Imus claims that his show is a "comedy" show. Yet, MSNBC is not on par with Comedy Central. Did he get the gig because he was politically astute? I wouldn't put Imus on par with Rush or the sexy Stephanie Miller. So how the hell did this man become so popular?
A long time ago Don Imus did a morning show on WNBC in NYC. Morning shows were a lot different then because there was a lot of music and no more than a minute or two of talking. All of this took Don Imus to the top until a man named Howard Stern came along.
Howard came to the realization that any idiot can play music so it was more important to focus on the 'talk' aspect of radio. He realized listeners wanted a DJ who was honest, funny, and willing to push the envelope in the name of entertainment. Stern was able to do racial humor and make it work because he was a Jew who grew up in a black neighborhood and his sidekick was a black woman.
When Stern began to beat Imus in the ratings, Imus figured he just had to be like Howard. The problem was that white old redneck could not be as funny as a cultured Jew. To make matters worse, Imus sounded like a racist. And there was a reason why he sounded like a racist… Because he was a racist.
According to Howard Stern, Imus regularly called the WNBC black secretary a nigger to her face. If that doesn't make you a racist, I don't know what else does. Not only is he a racist but he is a misogynist too. According to Keith Olberman of MSNBC, Imus often reduced women to tears that worked for him. When Imus was hospitalized with a collapsed lung, he referred to the nurses as whores and complained that his private chef could cook better than the hospital food.
When I heard Imus refer to the Rutgers women's basketball team as "nappy headed hoes," I wasn't surprised. What made this worse than other incidents is that the racist term "nappy headed" sounds Jim Crowish (If that makes sense). Plus, as Snoop Dogg eloquently put it, he only refers to hos as hos whereas Imus called college educated women hos and said the Tennessee team was better looking which is racist code for 'light-skinned blacks.'
To make matters worse, Imus decided to go on Al Sharpton's radio show to apologize. Did he really think Al Sharpton would accept his apology? And what a show Imus tried to put on. He tried to hoodwink America. Did you notice he didn't wear that stupid cowboy hat? And now we all know why he wears that ugly hat with that hairstyle. He then tried to show his racial sensitivity by talking about how he helps black children at his ranch.
So Imus tried to use sick children to defend himself. Oh because Imus drove a black child to the hospital, that makes him racially sensitive? No, it makes you human. He tried other arguments to prove he wasn't racist by boldly stating the federal government does not spend enough on sickle cell. It seemed like Imus was apologizing to save his career. My question is why? Imus is 66-67 years old. He could have just said I'm sorry and went about his business. He was under contract and was going to get paid ten million a year whether or not he got fired.
Al Sharpton was a sleaze ball too. I'm certainly not a perfect Christian but one of the basic tenants of Christianity is forgiveness. Sharpton demanded an apology and when Imus apologized, he didn't accept it. Sharpton also seems to have forgotten Jesus' philosophy of he who has not sinned throw the first stone, (Or something like that). Sharpton has made many offensive comments throughout his career and when he ran for president, did some highly questionable things with campaign money. I'm not going to get into what he said because it out there and I don't want this column to sound like, "Well, Sharpton is racist too."
I'm happy that Sharpton did not force NBC and CBS to fire Imus but rather advertisers did. Once again ladies and gentlemen, we didn't need the FCC to fine Imus, we didn't need politicians to solve the problem, but the free market solved the problem. When Joshua White wrote about Libertarian censorship this is why I do not feel the need to have government get involved in the business of telling us what to watch and listen to.
I'm surprised that I did not come to Imus' defense. I am usually a disgustingly strong observer of the first amendment. I even believe it is okay to yell fire in a theater, because if no one runs out, then there is no point prosecuting someone. I am not defending Imus because I honestly believe he is a no talent hack. All he did was play music for years and Stern forced him to do something he wasn't good at: talking. He was an asshole and I don't like to defend assholes.
Every Internet columnist wants to use this incident to have a racial discussion. Now we are going to debate whether or not rappers should use the term hos. They should. Remember, art is a reflection of society. Why is rap violent, because the inner-city is violent. Why do they rap about drugs, because a lot of people are addicted. Why do they rap about gangs, because there are lots of gangs. Why do they rap about sex, because people like to have sex. If inner city rappers write songs about working in a law firm, nobody will buy it. It won't be real.
So what we should learn from Imus is that racist terminology is not accepted by the free market. Advertisers do not feel like dealing with the wrath of Al Sharpton. We don't need the FCC to police the airwaves. Remember when the Janet Jackson breast incident happened, people were outraged and we haven't seen anything close to a boob since. Asking hip hop culture to write music about what white people experience isn't going to work either. If we want rappers to write more positive music, maybe society needs to figure how to solve the problems of the inner city.
Ben here, again. I don't know who this guy is, but I like him. He's the first person, other than me, who's made sense during this whole diatribe. I've been saying all along, the whole "let's blame musicians for all the problems faced by factions of the black community" is ridiculous. During the 60's it was, let's blame rock musicians for instilling the youth of America with anti-government sentiment. The 70's was time to blame punk music for the high rate of teenage suicide and drug use. Then in the 80's it was let's blame ALL popular culture for destroying society. Performers are such great scapegoats. Blame them, and you don't have to deal with the real problems at hand. My rule of thumb has always been, avoid the easy answers. Especially when you see a lot of not so bright people standing in line behind them. These people are sheep. Don't be a sheep.
Comments
I think there are some valid points in this guy's bit; Don Imus doesn't deserve defending because he's made a career out of being an asshole, and that's a risky proposition.
At the same time, until Sharpton and Jackson apologize to the Duke lacrosse team, they don't get my time of day either. Those who claim justification for targeted hatred because justification for it exists elsewhere are no better than those they claim victimize them.
"The problem was that white old redneck could not be as funny as a cultured Jew."
This sentence puts the author on par with Imus in my eyes. Am I reading it wrong?
Two things I find a problem with: the idea that Howard Stern is a-ok because he's a Jew (cultured? Well I guess everyone's got some kind of culture... that doesn't mean high-brow) and he has a black female co-host. Unfortunately, women are some of the biggest perpetrators of misogyny out there. And somehow misogyny seems acceptable. Market forces are not ridding our culture of misogyny, that's for sure.
Secondly, gangsta rap is not about "keepin' it real." (Btw, I don't think it should be censored -- I just don't put it on a pedestal, either). Driving cadillac escalades and wearing all that bling isn't real. What's real is trying to get by on working 2+ minimum wage jobs, being faced with nothing but fast food joints instead of healthy food in your neighborhood, waiting to get a welfare check.... I will concede that sex, drugs, and the desire for money and power are real -- but having wealth and power are not presented realistically, and furthermore, it's certainly just part of the picture, so it's a totally skewed representation. In poor communities, there are a lot more people acting within the scope of the law -- scraping to get by on what they can -- than criminals. Yet it is the criminals who are glamorized and publicized. Anyway....just my opinion.
Well, I think it depends on how you look at it. It's definitely not politcally correct. But as someone who is a cultured Jew (yes, and I'm an Italian raised in Appalachia; enigma is my middle name) I personally didn't see it as offensive. Now if I were a white old redneck, maybe I would. But let's face it, white old rednecks are only funny to other white old rednecks. It's the difference between the Hee Haw comics on the Blue Collar Comedy show, and comedians like Gilbert Gotfried, Richard Lewis, or Larry David, who's jokes speak to a larger consensus of audience members. Like Lenny Bruce used to make a point of illustrating, "Jewishness" is a state of being. You don't have to be Jewish to be Jewish. The term foots to a liberal, urban sophistication while the term redneck is nearly synonomous with ignorance and shopping at Wal-Mart. : )
I see what you're saying. I just don't think rap music being a positive or negative force should even be an issue. In days gone by, we used to say that metal was an evil influence because it endorsed devil worship, the objectification of women, and alcohol/drugs abuse. The rock star image did, and still does, promote those things, but does that mean all music should be watered down to suit more conservative tastes? Blaming the entertainment industry, whether it's music, movies, video games, or TV, is a moronic excuse that sidesteps the real causes for the problems in society. It's always been an easy out, and it always will be. It also seems to me that labeling all rap music as being mysogynist does a disservice to those artists out there who produce thoughtful, powerful work that doesn't cop to the popular rap star image. That's like condemning all rock musicians by the long haired, promiscuous, sleazy rock star image. What about the other artists outside of that?
I don't buy the idea that racism (and especially sexism) is eliminated by the free market.
Yeah, that is a little naive. However, there's a lot of truth to the fact that the entertainment industry has its own internal checks and balances system. When an entertainer - no matter how good he/she is at grabbing publicity - scares away sponsors, then that entertainer gets canned. Especially in radio where sponsors, for good or bad, dictate everything.
It's also annoying to see people jumping to the fore to quickly shout, "Black people are racist, too! Just look at what Snoop Dog and Jesse Jackson said!" What wonderful spokesmen for the entire black community. What about asking authors like Cornell West or Toni Morrison to share their opinion on the matter? Well, that wouldn't grab ratings, so, instead, let's talk to the morons. How insulting and stilted. It's like the white majority suddenly feels it's being criticized via Imus' firing, and has to troop out embarrassing celebs like Snoop and Jackson to even the score. That way we can say, "Hey, racism exists equally on both sides! Yay!" I'll believe that when the media does a better job of representing intelligent black commentators.
Should he have said what he said? Yes. Its his right. I don't care how awful a person is with their speech, they should be allowed to say it. And that right should be completely defended despite the vast array of apologies to Al Sharpton that may ensue. Its that freedom of speech that keeps people from bottling up things inside, thus making it easier for the rest of us to identify the assholes.
Awful people happen, Imus is one of them.
It just seems to me to be one more pointless distraction to pull our focus away from the things we should be focused on: Avian flu, the war, the proliferation of nuclear weapons, climatic aberrations . . . the list goes on and on. Right now we have a war that's bleeding out economy and destabilizing the Middle East day by day, like some terminal illness. A flu that world medical experts predict will eventually - and sooner than later - kill off about 2,000,000 Americans alone. That should be all we're talking about. Instead, it's debating whether or not rap music should be censored. Should Imus have lost his job? Blah, blah, blah.
Did I mention that I'm a downer lately? I'm a downer.
Its hard not to be a downer these days. Focus is always on tragedy. I just try to find some kind of middle ground and keep my eyes out for good things (they do happen). After all, its better to be depressed for a moment and admit it, then reorient yourself instead of becoming a bitter cynic.
Jesus. Who do you work for, the C.I.A.? Nevermind, don't answer that.
Well, great. Now I'm even more freaked out. I thought I was being a downer, man, but you out-downed me. I just want to curl up with a pillow and watch cartoons.
Working at home is a plus.
Since I have to take a contrary position with whatever other people say (otherwise I can't be cool and angst-ridden) you have forced me to disagree with myself. But since I really like myself, and I know that myself is from a tough background with a lot of demons to exorcise, I will take it easy on myself. Also, myself is just so damned cute. At-at . . . let's end the discussion on that note.
I had a lot more respect for Vonnegut than I did Anna Nicole, but to be honest, his death wasn't quite as shocking as hers. He was a fairly old man.
I'm not so adept at the reorienting of self. Like Vonnegut, I am a bitter cynic. And Pottymouth has me convinced that the Apocalypse is starting in August. I'm all freaked out now. I want ice cream.
and a stripper.
That's some promising news. Unless it's all lies being used to placate us.
Damn birds.