Imus and ethics?

So they canned Imus. Okay, on one level, I don't care. I've never liked the guy, found him offensive, unpleasant, and annoying. I haven't even heard his show in years.

But here's the thing: for some reason, a large portion of the American populace likes hearing what this guy has to say. Isn't it censorship to deny them the right to hear his opinion based on the fact that he said offensive things? Yes, he owed specifically those women and generally all women and African Americans an apology. I personally think he should be "censored," but not by being banned from the airwaves. the way to censor people like that is to stop listening to them.

Is this any better than banning sex education or non-school led prayer in school? At what point do we have to admit that being offended is a part of living in a society where people are free to voice their opinions?

Imus isn鈥檛 the real bad guy
Instead of wasting time on irrelevant shock jock, black leaders need to be fighting a growing gangster culture.
By JASON WHITLOCK - Columnist

Thank you, Don Imus. You鈥檝e given us (black people) an excuse to avoid our real problem.

You鈥檝e given Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson another opportunity to pretend that the old fight, which is now the safe and lucrative fight, is still the most important fight in our push for true economic and social equality.

You鈥檝e given Vivian Stringer and Rutgers the chance to hold a nationally televised recruiting celebration expertly disguised as a news conference to respond to your poor attempt at humor.

Thank you, Don Imus. You extended Black History Month to April, and we can once again wallow in victimhood, protest like it鈥檚 1965 and delude ourselves into believing that fixing your hatred is more necessary than eradicating our self-hatred.

The bigots win again.

While we鈥檙e fixated on a bad joke cracked by an irrelevant, bad shock jock, I鈥檓 sure at least one of the marvelous young women on the Rutgers basketball team is somewhere snapping her fingers to the beat of 50 Cent鈥檚 or Snoop Dogg鈥檚 or Young Jeezy鈥檚 latest ode glorifying nappy-headed pimps and hos.

I ain鈥檛 saying Jesse, Al and Vivian are gold-diggas, but they don鈥檛 have the heart to mount a legitimate campaign against the real black-folk killas.

It is us. At this time, we are our own worst enemies. We have allowed our youths to buy into a culture (hip hop) that has been perverted, corrupted and overtaken by prison culture. The music, attitude and behavior expressed in this culture is anti-black, anti-education, demeaning, self-destructive, pro-drug dealing and violent.

Rather than confront this heinous enemy from within, we sit back and wait for someone like Imus to have a slip of the tongue and make the mistake of repeating the things we say about ourselves.

It鈥檚 embarrassing. Dave Chappelle was offered $50 million to make racially insensitive jokes about black and white people on TV. He was hailed as a genius. Black comedians routinely crack jokes about white and black people, and we all laugh out loud.

I鈥檓 no Don Imus apologist. He and his tiny companion Mike Lupica blasted me after I fell out with ESPN. Imus is a hack.

But, in my view, he didn鈥檛 do anything outside the norm for shock jocks and comedians. He also offered an apology. That should鈥檝e been the end of this whole affair. Instead, it鈥檚 only the beginning. It鈥檚 an opportunity for Stringer, Jackson and Sharpton to step on victim platforms and elevate themselves and their agenda$.

I watched the Rutgers news conference and was ashamed.

Martin Luther King Jr. spoke for eight minutes in 1963 at the March on Washington. At the time, black people could be lynched and denied fundamental rights with little thought. With the comments of a talk-show host most of her players had never heard of before last week serving as her excuse, Vivian Stringer rambled on for 30 minutes about the amazing season her team had.

Somehow, we鈥檙e supposed to believe that the comments of a man with virtually no connection to the sports world ruined Rutgers鈥?wonderful season. Had a broadcaster with credibility and a platform in the sports world uttered the words Imus did, I could understand a level of outrage.

But an hourlong press conference over a man who has already apologized, already been suspended and is already insignificant is just plain intellectually dishonest. This is opportunism. This is a distraction.

In the grand scheme, Don Imus is no threat to us in general and no threat to black women in particular. If his words are so powerful and so destructive and must be rebuked so forcefully, then what should we do about the idiot rappers on BET, MTV and every black-owned radio station in the country who use words much more powerful and much more destructive?

I don鈥檛 listen or watch Imus鈥?show regularly. Has he at any point glorified selling crack cocaine to black women? Has he celebrated black men shooting each other randomly? Has he suggested in any way that it鈥檚 cool to be a baby-daddy rather than a husband and a parent? Does he tell his listeners that they鈥檙e suckers for pursuing education and that they鈥檙e selling out their race if they do?

When Imus does any of that, call me and I鈥檒l get upset. Until then, he is what he is 鈥?a washed-up shock jock who is very easy to ignore when you鈥檙e not looking to be made a victim.

No. We all know where the real battleground is. We know that the gangsta rappers and their followers in the athletic world have far bigger platforms to negatively define us than some old white man with a bad radio show. There鈥檚 no money and lots of danger in that battle, so Jesse and Al are going to sit it out.
To reach Jason Whitlock, call (816) 234-4869 or send e-mail to jwhitlock@kcstar.com. For previous columns, go to KansasCity.com

No. He was fired because the sponsors paying for his show pulled out.

That is simply good business.

WHile someone has the right to free speech, they don't have the right to be immune from the consequences of that free speech.

I never liked him either, but I think its pretty messed up to find out that he's been outright fired after 30 or 40 years.

What he said was outright stupid... but there are (sometimes most unfortunately) no laws against stupidity or ignorance. Ignorance may be no excuse when it comes to law, but it sure does float lots of people's boats each day.

Good point from Ricky T.

CBS and MSNBC are private companies and are regulated by the FCC.
Public schools are government funded and are regulated by the Constitution.

Private broadcast companies have the right to put whatever they want or remove whatever they want from their airwaves - as long as they follow the guidelines of the FCC.

I agree with you, but I also agree with Ricky T. I hate the guy myself Imus, but another network will pick him up again in a year or so. I think it was pressure from the media that he got fired. Who cares right?

Without saying what I really want to (don't need to offend anyone here today), I agree with you wholeheartedly.

People, in general, need to understand that people are going to say things that we do not particulary like, want to agree with, or want to hear. In regards to Imus, what he said was inappropriate.

How can we judge what one person says, but turn our back on countless other examples?

(1) The word, I believe, is "censured" (reprimanded) not "censored" (which implies striking out objectionable words... Imus was "censored" when he lost his job).

(2) This isn't sex education or prayer in school, which involves GOVERNMENT ACTORS. The First Amendment (generally) applies only to the Government - "Congress shall make no law.. abridging the freedom of Speech..." In other words, Congress couldn't write a law saying "Imus must be imprisoned for his words alone". But MSNBC can fire him for making statements they don't like.

(3) Media is business. Imus said things that caused MSNBC to lose sponsors. It was not economically viable for them to keep him on.

(4) He is more than able to start his own Internet site, podcast, or get hired by someone else who will appreciate his risky comments. (This happens all the time).

(5) Your real question is whether MSNBC should have stuck to their host, said what he did was wrong, but refused to back down in the face of increasing pressure, under the idea that we all say offensive things, but sometimes offensive things need to be said. But that's just a reflection on MSNBC and your personal opinion of where you come down free speech / loyalty / vs. willing to condone harmful, racist statements.

I don't particularly like him, but I think it was a bit extreme to fire him. I think you are right, people will be offended in a society where there is free speech..it's inevitable but we do have to face consequences of that free speech too. I'm sure Imus isn't too broken up about it, he has plenty of $$ & if he wants I'm sure he will find another job in a few years.

I agree with you and I am black.. People have the right to say whatever they want. He did apologize, so what is the big damn deal.. Who cares..

People who offends other races specifically black people has issues. He needs to look in the mirror and really analyze himself before talking about anyone. He is a hideous mother f*cker. The main thing is I forgive him because it was a bad joke.. Oh well, They should not have fired him over this bullshit.. I think that he was fired because the network does not want to deal with any of the media...

It wasnt the gov't censuring him. IT was his sponsors that walked away with their money that did. I personally think he should have been canned anyway. I dont know about anyone else here, but if i were to say the stuff that he did, I would get fired from my job for harassment. I think its perfectly fair that he get fired too. If i cant be a bad joke making jerk, then neither can he. Think about it this way, if you were at work, and heard someone begin a joke with... A nappy-haired black guy......In some places you can get away with crap like that, but I think most people would end up in the managers office or HR department, either getting fired, suspended, or sent to "sensitivity training". Thats jsut my 2 pennies.

I had never heard of him till now. What saddens me is that he has been on the air for at least a decade spewing a lot of offensive things and no one had ever done anything. They just kept on giving him money. What he said that day he might have said the n-word, because those "nice, pretty" mostly all white team were beaten by those "nappy headed hos" from rutgers who are (I believe) an all white team. Hell we might as well have the KKK have their own radio show. Yes we do have free speech but not when it is hurtful slander.

Imus was really killed off by all the people at CBS & in the broadcasting business who can't stand him & finally got their chance to get him. It's too bad that a creep like Sharpton got the credit & the chance to get some blood in his mouth. Now he'll be going after everybody who says something he doesn't like.

I think people are just too sensitive, and now that the sensitive people have grown up and assumed management positions and executive positions in big business, super-sensitivity is the new community standard. Political correctness is the bane of free speech, but even more so when it is made into public policy. I couldn't care less what Imus said. I'm just surprised that the girls he referred to took it so seriously and so hard. People have no sense of humor anymore; even if it wasn't funny, it isn't like Imus set off a bomb in the subway or something. I think there is too much made of this; advertisers are super-sensitive and pull their support at the least hint of scandal. It just shows how deeply the cancer of "PC" has penetrated into the everyday workings of our society.

I always turned the channel when he came on . But I also do that with Jackson and Sharpton. I don`t agee with him being fired. He apology.

For the most part, I feel that you are exactly right. Dead on. For the most part. It is true, for whatever (unfathomable to me) reason, people did/do like to listen to Imus. Not me, and I decide what I will put up with on my own time. (My employer's time is another thing entirely.) It is true that living in a free society, we can expect to be offended. Lately, it seems, we can expect to be offended A LOT. We do not have to put up with those by whom we are offended,on our own time. "Society" has a way of dealing with the untolerable. Majority rule, you know? And of course, individual choice. I think you mix the old "apples and oranges" there, lumping a "shock- jock" with public education, (insuring that young people have the information they need to protect themselves and -ultimately- make their own, informed decisions. Surely noone thinks a second-grader is ready to vote in the the general elections, hmmm? Prayer is a thing specifically addressed in the Constitution, for reasons our founders thought good and sufficient, as is freedom of speech. And noone is prohibiting Don Imus from speaking as freely as he chooses to. The people who own the forum he formerly spoke from DO have a right to tell him he can't use their podium anymore. Whenever they choose. For WHYever they choose. And apparently, this was too far. The purpose of that podium was to make money. Apparently they decided Imus was no longer a viable (profitable) proposition. Their choice. Your choice will be to spend, or not spend, your money with their sponsors after this. Your choice. Imus has not been banned from the airways. (pity) He has most certainly been banned from that particular venue. I think we can all agree it was a stupid, hurtful, inexplicable thing to have done. And Don Imus has YEARS of experience to guide him. Oops. If you offended the people your employer makes their money from would they shrug it off with "freedom of speech"? Ha.! Where's the concern for the young women who suffered this unprovoked attack? There is where our concern should lie. They have a right to go unmolested in the world. Nope, sorry. No pity/concern for Imus. He knows the rules better than anybody. He's broken enough of them. And, just so we are all clear here, noone can say just ANY old thing they like. There are laws: libel, slander, inciting to riot, inciting to violence, etc. etc. Also for good and sufficient reason. Thanks! I really enjoyed your question! Now I know how I feel!

He wasn't banned from the airwave...his employer fired him..as is their right

If another broadcaster picks him up as I assume will happen soon he is allow to continue broadcasting.