Don Imus Makes People Angry, Gets Fired

[Anal Kaboom]

This country is messed up thats for sure. Imus definitely shouldn't have gotten fired but like torgo said he was going to cost the company money so he had to go.

[torgo]

His employer wouldn't have fired him if there was tolerance for free speech.

That has nothing to do with freedom of speech.The fact that the general public is overly sensitive and whiny is another matter entirely. Imus took a risk with his freedom of speech and lost. CBS loses money because of his comment(s) and therefore fires him, strictly a business decision. CBS did nothing wrong, neither did Imus, it's just the way the general populace is. It sucks, sure, but it's not an encroachment on freedom of speech.

Had he been arrested and jailed for what he said, then you'd have a point.

[Frogacuda]

No, he was commenting on the fact that they're women and not completely feminine and weak. He does this all the time, and specifically with black women athletes.

Sorry, but he was talking about two teams of primarily black women, so that really doesn't make sense, here.

You can all say it's wrong that people are upset, but don't make the mistake of bitching at the radio station (WFAN, I think) or FreeFM. They're just businesses who answer to their customers and their advertisers.

They're not. They're panicky shitheads that would rather lose all their advertisers by having no morning show than lose a few for a month or two riding out a controversy. They allow themselves to be bullied by a tiny handful of people because when Al Sharpton opens his mouth they genuinely believe he represents all black people.

The O&A ordeal from a few years was a perfect example. They lost almost all their sponsors and everything used to replace them became a ratings black hole, stations collapsed... Clearly worse than losing a few sponsors and looking like the bad guys for a month or two. Ironically when O&A finally did meet with the president of the Catholic league, they hashed out their differences in minutes, and now he's a regular guest. If they had just done that at the time it would have been fine.

That has nothing to do with freedom of speech.

It has to do with a disrespect for free speech and a misunderstanding of free speech, certainly. Al Sharpton has been calling for the FCC to get involved. It won't go anywhere, but there's still a lot of people that think the governement is there to protect them from being offended.

[haohmaru]

Edit - re: Torgo

I have a point that you seem to be entirely missing.

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

I agree that this isn't a governmental issue. I agree that MSNBC/CBS have the right to determine what they do and don't want on their station. I agree that Imus has the right to say whatever he wants.

I do NOT agree with the intolerance of the spirit of the law by people over-analyzing a single phrase and creating such a stink that a man loses his job over excersising that right.

Furthermore, I'd say that CBS/NBC are complete fucking hypocrites considering some of the Rap artists that are in their portfolio saying shit 100x worse than Imus ever did. Where's the protest for that?

I'm saying that freedom of speech and the tolerance for viewpoints is at an all time low in this country and I *doubt* that's what our forefathers intended. Can you imagine Jefferson, Washington and Franklin tip-toeing around saying "politically correct" things? They're probably rolling in their graves as we speak.

[haohmaru]

but there's still a lot of people that think the governement is there to protect them from being offended.

*Exactly*

[Frogacuda]

The extent of people's reaction to this should just be turning their radios off. When I hear something I don't like, I don't listen. That's how rational people think. I think Rush Limbaugh is a bag of shit and would be happy if he died in a fire, but I don't boycott his sponsors. I just don't listen. I don't know why no one else can do that these days.

[Mr-K]

The extent of people's reaction to this should just be turning their radios off. When I hear something I don't like, I don't listen. That's how rational people think. I think Rush Limbaugh is a bag of shit and would be happy if he died in a fire, but I don't boycott his sponsors. I just don't listen. I don't know why no one else can do that these days.

Because it doesn't get people fired.

[Cowdisease]

Another casualty from the Imus incident.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-w.../corzine-crash

New Jersey Gov. Jon S. Corzine was in critical condition Friday but expected to recover after his SUV crashed into a guard rail while heading to a meeting between Don Imus and the Rutgers women's basketball team.

A spokesman for the governor said it appeared that Corzine was not wearing a seatbelt during the crash, despite a state law requiring it for front-seat passengers.

The crash on the Garden State Parkway broke the governor's leg, six ribs, his sternum and fractured a vertebrae. Authorities were still searching for a pickup truck driver whose actions were blamed for causing it.

Corzine, 60, did not suffer any brain damage in the crash. But he won't be able to resume his duties as governor for several days, if not weeks, and he won't walk normally for months, Dr. Robert Ostrum said performing surgery on the governor Thursday night at Cooper University Hospital.

Senate President Richard Codey became acting governor Thursday evening after being notified by fax from Corzine's office that the governor had been injured.

Ouch on the governor's injuries. The only silver lining is that the guy who's temporarily replacing Corzine is the same guy who ran New Jersey after the McGreevey brouhaha. People said that he did a good job during his interim run.

[JefmcC]

What's the likely hood of this all being a big publicity stunt?
Imus was supposedly going on and on apologizing for days before Sharpton even came into the picture. Lots of media coverage, everyone talking about it, Imus fired, and I predict a sweet deal for Don Imus in the very near future. Probably satalite radio.

[Cowdisease]

What's the likely hood of this all being a big publicity stunt?
Imus was supposedly going on and on apologizing for days before Sharpton even came into the picture. Lots of media coverage, everyone talking about it, Imus fired, and I predict a sweet deal for Don Imus in the very near future. Probably satalite radio.

No, this wasn't a publicity stunt. A couple of people took Imus' comments and made it bigger than it should have been. Even with Deidre promoting her new 'Green House Cleaning' book and Imus' cancer charity, I doubt Imus deliberately intended to get the media coverage he's getting now. Imus didn't have a good PR firm to do intelligent damage control.

As for the satellite radio deal, he's radioactive at the moment, so it won't happen immediately. Perhaps after a couple of months when this is forgotten.