Why This Straw?

Why did the Imus thing blow up as big as it did? I was somewhat surprised yesterday when MSNBC fired him from the TV simulcast they did of his morning radio show, but I was much more surprised today when CBS fired him from the radio. This was a big money show for them--the CBS report estimated that it brought $15 million in to the network. Yes, some advertisers were bailing, but Imus still had a pretty hefty listening audience. And not to diminish what he said about the Rutgers women's basketball team, but this wasn't particularly different from what he said much of the time.

What made it catch this time? Maybe it's because the Rutgers team was seen as unassuming and innocent. There were in the public eye because they'd been an NCAA Cinderella team--they had gone much farther in the NCAA tournament, all the way to the finals, than they'd had any expectation to go. They'd played great basketball and had faltered only at the final hurdle. They were much admired. And then Imus went and insulted them for no apparent reason. They'd done nothing to deserve it, nothing to bring it on themselves.

A further reason I think this theory has viability is that, although it was simmering along, it didn't really start to boil over until the basketball team had their own press conference. (Part 1 of it is here, and you click through for part two once you're there). They didn't look like "nappy-headed hos."

I'm not sure any of it really matters, though. Imus gets a lot of people tuning in to hear him. Now that he's gone from CBS, he'll do whatever penance is necessary, and then he'll be back at some other media outlet. He's old enough that he may just decide to retire, but if he doesn't, he'll be back in the mix before the end of the year.