Partners in Crime

I know I said that, despite writing about the whole Imus controversy, I wasn't really that interested in it, but Friday's New York Times had an article that intrigued me. It appears that Imus is threatening to sue CBS for breach of contract. His lawyer made the argument.

The lawyer, Martin Garbus of Manhattan, said CBS violated a clause in Mr. Imus's contract that specifically encouraged him to engage in what the clause called "extraordinary," "irreverent" and "controversial" topics on his program.

. . .
Mr. Garbus said the language in the clause he cited proved "they were creating a shock jock." He said Mr. Imus was doing "exactly what they wanted him to do."

Mr. Garbus also said that CBS had agreed to give Mr. Imus an official warning after one incident of offensive language before taking action, and that "both CBS and MSNBC had a delay button and neither of them used them in this case."

This is an interesting tactic, putting it right back on CBS's plate. I have little doubt that Imus was giving CBS and MSNBC what they wanted. As I asked at the time, given all the other offensive comments Imus had made, why was this the one that finally got him booted off the air? The easy answer is that it was the one that caused the networks problems. I started to write, "CBS and MSNBC were obviously complicit in keeping Imus on the air in his current form," but that's just stupid. They weren't complicit--they were entirely in control! He was there because they were making a lot of money giving the public what they wanted. He's there no longer because the nets were afraid that he'd start costing them money.

If Imus has to bear the brunt of his comments (as he should), CBS and MSNBC--his enablers and supporters--should have some price to pay, as well. They scheduled him and promoted him--they're hardly the innocent bystanders they'd like us to believe them to be.

I doubt this is going to get much traction in the press, though. Imus quickly became detritus better forgotten, and no one's going to want to pay much attention to him now, whether he's got a valid point to make or not.