Despite apology, critics want Imus out

By LARRY McSHANE, Associated Press WriterSat Apr 7, 7:44 PM ET




Unimpressed by his on-air apology or corporate promises of a tighter leash, angry critics of nationally syndicated radio host Don Imus called Saturday for his dismissal over his racially charged comments about the mostly black Rutgers women's basketball team.

"I accept his apology, just as I want his bosses to accept his resignation," said the Rev. Al Sharpton. He promised to picket Imus' New York radio home, WFAN-AM, unless the veteran of nearly 40 years of anything-goes broadcasting is gone within a week.

Sharpton was not alone in his anger over Imus' description of the Rutgers' women as "nappy headed hos" during a Wednesday morning segment of his show, which airs for millions of listeners on more than 70 stations and the MSNBC television network.

On Friday, after Imus delivered an on-air apology, both WFAN and MSNBC condemned his remarks. WFAN issued a statement promising to "monitor the program's content" but Imus, a member of the National Broadcasters Hall of Fame, was not publicly disciplined.
The National Association of Black Journalists, the editor-in-chief of Essence magazine and a New York sports columnist joined the chorus against Imus.

"What he has said has deeply hurt too many people — black and white, male and female," said NABJ President Bryan Monroe. "His so-called apology comes two days after the fact, and it is too little, too late."

Angela Burt Murray, of Essence magazine, called on Imus' bosses to take a harder stance over his "unacceptable" remarks. "It needs to be made clear that this type of behavior is offensive and will not be tolerated without severe consequences," Murray said.
Columnist Filip Bondy of the Daily News, in a column headlined "Imus spews hate, should be fired," said the radio star "should be axed for one of the most despicable comments ever uttered on the air."

The Rutgers team, which includes eight black women, lost the NCAA women's championship game Tuesday, and Imus was discussing the game with producer Bernard McGuirk.

"That's some rough girls from Rutgers," Imus said. "Man, they got tattoos ..."
"Some hardcore hos," said McGuirk.

"That's some nappy headed hos there, I'm going to tell you that," Imus said.

Karen Mateo, a spokeswoman for WFAN's parent company CBS Radio, said Saturday there was no additional comment on the Imus situation.

Imus' success has often been a a result of his on-air barbs.

"That Imus is in trouble for being politically incorrect is certainly not new," said Tom Taylor, editor of the trade publication Inside Radio. "He's lived his life in and out of trouble ... This is something CBS will be watching very carefully."

Recent controversies involving Imus focused on a member of his morning team, Sid Rosenberg, who was fired two years ago after a particularly vile crack about cancer-stricken singer Kylie Minogue. Before that, a racially tinged comment by Rosenberg about Venus and Serena Williams stirred another controversy.

The NABJ cited two other incidents in which Imus himself insulted two black journalists. Imus has called PBS' Gwen Ifill a "cleaning lady" and described William Rhoden of The New York Times as "a quota hire," the group said.

Sharpton said he was writing to the Federal Communications Commission about Imus' remarks.

"This is not some unemployed comic like Michael Richards," Sharpton said, referring to the "Seinfeld" actor who used the N-word and referred to lynching in a rant last year. "This is an established figure, allowed to use the airwaves for sexist and racist remarks."



Copyright © 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070407/ap_on_en_ot/imus_apology
ADAOMA

From: Makemba X <makemba007@hotmail.com>
To: <theblacklist@lists.riseup.net>
Subject: RE: [TheBlackList] 4/9 is Dump Don Imus Day!
Date: Sun, 8 Apr 2007 07:43:15 -0400
Importance: Normal

To this I add, WHERE IS THE NBA ON THIS? WHERE ARE THE BLACK
BASKETBALL PLAYERS ON THIS???? WHERE IS MIKE????? WHERE IS PATRICK???????
WHERE IS KOBE?????? WHERE IS SPREWILL????
WHERE IS THE BASKETBALL PLAYERS UNION??????????


This happened on a so called sports show. If these Black basketball
and Black sports players are not indignant about letting these vile,
nasty, decrepit and ugly white racist men degrade these beautiful, young,
Black sisters and Black womanhood, then that will be even more
shameful.

So I say call the National Basketball Players Association also. The
director of that is Billy Hunter, a Black man. All the Black basketball
players have to do is say that they will not grant anymore interviews
to NBC as long as Imus and his Klan are on their airwaves. This will be
over.

I remember a few years back during the Ilian Gonzalez spectacle, when
the Cuban community in Miami called for all the Cubans to strike for one
day, the Cuban baseball players on the Miami Marlins refused to play
ball that day. So if they can do that (and I always said Ilian belonged
with his father) this is the least the Black sports players can do.
And we better demand that of them.

Here is the contact info for the National Basketball Players
Association:

For information and any other questions please contact us at
info@nbpa.com.
Our mailing address is:
National Basketball Players Association
2 Penn Plaza, Suite 2430
New York, NY 10121
Phone: (212) 655-0880
Fax (212) 655-0881

Contact Information for NBC:
1-818-840-4444
nbcsports@nbcuni.com

------------------------------------

> Date: Sat, 7 Apr 2007 22:38:02 -0700
> To: theblacklist@lists.riseup.net
> From: theblacklist@earthlink.net
> Subject: [TheBlackList] 4/9 is Dump Don Imus Day!
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_
The author/submitter alone is responsible for

To FCC regulators ( fccinfo@fcc.gov ),

Chairman Kevin J. Martin: KJMWEB@fcc.gov
Commissioner Michael J. Copps: Michael.Copps@fcc.gov
Commissioner Jonathan S. Adelstein: Jonathan.Adelstein@fcc.gov
Commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate: dtaylortateweb@fcc.gov
Commissioner Robert McDowell: Robert.McDowell@fcc.gov

This week on his show, Don Imus and his executive producer, Bernard McGuirk referred to the women on the Rutgers Basketball team as "Nappy headed whores" and "hard core whores."

Mr. Imus' comments are demeaning, inappropriate, extremely offensive and irresponsible and Imus' forced apology three days later is not contrition enough or commensurate with the unconscienability and irresponsibility of such a racist, sexist and asocial comment about a whole group of innocent human beings.

Mr. Imus must be fired. And if MSNBC still wishes to air his show, or if CBS Radio continues to produces Imus' hateful show, they both should be sanctioned and fined, or otherwise dealt with by the FCC for airing and promoting obscene and indecent materials on the public airwaves in violation with FCC licensing standards.

An apology is not enough:
There must be consequences commensurate with the offense of spreading hate, making disparaging statements about a group of people - here, Black women and feeding into hateful stereotypes that damage the image and value of Black women overall in society.

Both CBS Radio and MSNBC did not public ally reprimand Mr. Imus although they denounce his remarks but that doesn't take away the damage. He should at least have been suspended without pay for a period of time. But he felt no real pressure from his employers for such a grave offense. This may only embolden others of Mr. Imus' ilk and insensitivity, who will take this as a license, a signal that to attack Black women, to attack young black women student athletes is fine because the perpetrator won't face any consequences if they subsequently just "apologize." We demand that the FCC does what's necessary to effectively take Mr. Imus's license away to freely demean Black women and Black women athletes on federally regulated FCC airwaves in the US that is also streammed worldwide on the Internet.

If CBS radio and MSNBC continue to finance, promote and air the Don Imus show, thereby evidencing their refusal to follow the obscenity broadcast rules, FCC must sanctioned them as demanded by FCC obscenity laws and standards. ( http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/obscene.html)

Marguerite Laurent, Esq.
Chair and Founder, The Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network
PO Box 3573
Stamford, Connecticut 06905
203 829 7210
erzilidanto@yahoo,com

Apedemak,

I didn't like what he said, either. I think that he should be fired because this isn't his first time making the remarks. While I'm not crazy about anybody making offensive racial remarks about us, the problem that I have with him is the amountof time he has made the same remarks. Just like Al Sharpton said, when people like him, make the remark and keep " apologizing" for them, they are going to think that it is ok to indiscreetly offend them. That is not what we should except from NBC execs . Another problem that I have with Imus, or moreso, the Execs is that they are double standard. People like Imus get a slap on their wrist, for saying those words, but thought Isaiah Washington is with ABC, people wanted him banished fromhis ( Grey's anatomy)and their execs were attempting to do itshow because of the remarks that he made about Gay people. Both were wrong in doing what they did, but the punishments are not fair. In general, Black people get worst punishments than their white counterparts for thesame thing.

While we are talking about Don Imus, I must also play devil's advocate. Don't get me wrong, I think that the man needs to be off the air, but he also said something interesting that always thinking about us. He unjustiably said that he got the remark" nappy haired hoes" from listenting to some people use it. on the TODAY"S show. Much as he put his foot in his mouth, we also need to do our part in letting people know that we respect ourselves and respect comes from what we say to eachother. Imus said that his executive producer of his show is African-American and to me, if he was responsible for letting Imus get away with those words, he also need to be held accountable for words and be punished for it.

I remembered reading in Jet book about a New York representative wanting to bant people using the " N" word in his city and I could not Blame him. It is highly disgraceful word and one that will cause us to look and think when another person of another race use it. When we use it, how do we get on Imus's case for using it ( the nappy haired hoes in this case)and I don't want to hear about " with us it's frieldy gesture"---ah no I will not accept it. Anytime you use terms of disrespect, you are not hurting yourselves, but future generations inthe process. I'll also level with about another reason why I'm so against people doing it. As an African-American woman, I wondered about my own heritage. At one pointI felt a sense of " Cultural emptiness" . I Just could not get how an African-American could consider themselves to be such but down the very features that make them who they are. At one point I wasn't feeling my culture because of it. To me, you cannot say that Black is beautiful when were disgracing with words like that. How can we expect for our chidlren to feel good about themsleves, when there are non- Blacks like Imus, and ourselves doing the same thing?