Imus Link Roundup

It seems that almost everybody in the left blogosphere is talking about Don Imus. He insulted the members of the Rutgers women's basketball team last week after they lost the national championship to Tennessee (and go read the transcript at that link for the context--the insult he's being upbraided for is even worse in its full context). I have to admit that I've never really gotten the whole genre of shock jocks or Imus's place in that. He gets all the big-time political guests on: senators, members of Congress, and pretty much the whole Washington commentariat. He gets good ratings, and he's got a fair bit of clout when it comes to plugging political books, so that part of why they participate is obvious, but it still seems that they get slimed by the locker-room atmosphere. But is it just a bottom-line thing? Is nothing off-limits when you're whoring your latest book?

Hmmm. Maybe that's a rhetorical question. It's been interesting to see what some of the African-American reporters and commentators have had to say. In The New York Times, Gwen Ifill discusses the insult Imus leveled at her several years ago when she didn't accept his invitation to appear on the show. Eugene Robinson reflects on shock radio as a whole and then focuses more on the sexual aspects of Imus's insult, an aspect that seems to be getting somewhat short shrift. Even Al Roker calls for him to be fired. On The NewsHour yesterday, Clarence Page described an instance several years ago in which he made Imus pledge on the air not to do racist-tinged material anymore. He said he hasn't been asked back, and needless to say, Imus hasn't kept the pledge (at Slate, Timothy Noah has an archive of offensive statements Imus has made on the air over the years).

Although Imus initially tried to blow the whole controversy off, he quickly realized that it wasn't going away, so he's looking for ways to do penance. The Washington Post's Lisa de Moraes describes the beginning of his mea culpa tour with an appearance on Al Sharpton's radio show. It's amazing how thin skinned the guy is.

At one point Imus chastised the participants in Sharpton's show for not supporting him when he was trying to educate his audience about sickle cell anemia.

[Brian] Monroe[, head of the National Association of Black Journalists and editor of Ebony and Jet magazines], took issue with that, saying Ebony magazine "has been writing and covering sickle cell anemia for decades . . . back when you were still doing radio spots for used cars."

Imus was outraged.

"Don't come on this radio program and insult me, because I'm not insulting you," he said, with, we regret to report, no indication that he saw how wildly ironic it was for him to make that comment on this particular show on this particular day.

"I'm not going to sit here and let you insult me!" he snarled.

"You can keep talking all you want," he said as Monroe continued. "You are not going to insult me. Don't insult me. I have not insulted you. Don't talk to me about doing used-car commercials."

And then, he added:

"I will bet you I have slept in a house with more black children who were not related to me than you have!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! What is that supposed to mean?" Sharpton wondered, naturally.

"I don't have to put up with a man getting in my face like this," Imus said, "because I didn't call him any names! . . . I didn't come here to get slapped around."

If not to get slapped around, then I'm not quite sure why he bothered showing up. But how many people would agree that being accused of doing used car commercials is far more insulting than being called a nappy-headed ho?

To underscore how high feelings ran on this, General JC Christian broke his own format to write a post that's not funny or ironic in the least.