Imus in the Morning? More like Imus Needs a Job.

Thursday, April 12, 2007 -

Just one day after MSNBC canceled the Imus in the Morning simulcast, CBS Radio has gone ahead and fired him from his radio program on WCBS.

"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," CBS President and Chief Executive Officer Leslie Moonves said in announcing the decision. "That consideration has weighed most heavily on our minds as we made our decision."

It is a stunning fall for one of the nation's most prominent broadcasters.

No, what is stunning is that people at MSNBC and CBS took this long to realize that Don Imus is an insensitive jerk. His entire program was built on making stupid snarky comments like this, it's why people listen to him in the first place. Ever since MSNBC launched the simulcast though it seems as if his show became a bar for NBC news reporters, a place where they could come and get their face on TV for a while every morning even when there wasn't anything going on.

And you know this has been stated by a couple of people elsewhere, there are far worse offenders out there on the air waves that deserve a public lashing and a subsequent firing far more than Don Imus. Oh you know, people like racist, bigot, drug abusing anti-immigrant Rush Limbaugh would be a pretty good start, followed by his sick prodigy Glenn Beck over at CNN. Their worse behavior doesn't excuse what Imus said and did, but it's ridiculous that people can overreact so severely when there are so many worse people out there.

Hate mongers like those two dominate the air while middle tier personalities such as Imus get thrashed because it makes the rest of the media elite feel righteous and good that they've "discovered" and then purged an evil one amongst their own ranks. How good for them it must feel to be free of such an intolerable savage.

Wait, did I say savage? I didn't mean Michael Savage of course, the other massive bigot that MSNBC hired for having a popular hate speech radio program a couple of years ago. Savage didn't even make it a week before his derogatory insults towards gays and women got him fired, but not from his radio program of course. No, only MSNBC dumped him that time, while I'm sure he probably got a raise for spewing hate on the radio, just like Limbaugh.

Notice you didn't exactly hear about that on the nightly news, did you? It was one of the very first things I wrote about on this blog one year ago, and while the so-called blogosphere swelled with anger over the hiring of this nutjob, it didn't even make the wire reports when he was fired. You certainly didn't see the President of NBC News apologizing for his actions. More like a nod, and a slap on the back for giving it a good try.

The truth is that while Imus was insulting and can occasionally be a moron, he is entertaining and certainly not a true racist. There are plenty of those around on CNN and Fox, so why the hell haven't they been fired yet?

Other posts from this blog: CBS, MSNBC, Radio, Don Imus, Entertainment

Like this post? Subscribe to RSS, or get daily emails:

Got something to say? Post a Comment. Got a question or a tip? Send it to me. If all else fails, you can return to the home page.