you are right. i am very glad to see him get called out for this...and penalized. it's time we act as if human beings deserve respect, even when brown. but why do the full-time haters get a pass?? it's really enough to make you feel a drop of pity for the "I-Man."

almost.

___________________________
.delusions of un mundo mejor.

I don't have much to add to the already overdone commentary on this issue, except that I think the problem with the Imus show was that it did not fit neatly into a particular format. It was neither fish nor fowl - at times serious, at times jokey. It's not a format that sits well with the public. They usually want one or the other. I personally liked the show for its irreverence. I disliked it for its gratuitous cruelty. That cruelty was directed as much at Imus's own colleagues (Chris, the sports guy, for example) as at public figures. There was also sexism and nastiness toward the "weather girl". It was locker room stuff.

What happened last week was over the line. It started with that hateful shit, Bernie, by the way. Imus then riffed on what Bernie said. I happened to be watching at the time, and I remember thinking, "WTF?" You can't say on the air what you might say in the locker room, jokingly, half-jokingly, or in earnest. It's just plain bad taste, especially against young female athletes.

Having said that, I'm also sick of all the misogynist violence coming out of the rap world, and tired of the nasty shit which gets put out on the public airwaves on MTV, etc. Let's hope we get down to that discussion soon. This guys have been pissing me off for years now.

Finally, this has been a big ego trip for Al Sharpton. I generally like Al, but he has gone down in my estimation this week. Big mess... nobody comes out of this looking good.

downstreamer

I mean, at least they didn't soil themselves by joining the whole episode.

Maybe Imus will end up going on a satellite, too. And Tweety et all will cheerfully go there to sell their books.

Eek.

Jeebus, something's wrong in the locker room, isn't it? More than towel snapping frat boys.

No authoritarians were tortured in the writing of this post.

Here we are, blogs on the internet talking about Imus' downfall as a radio personality. It may have changed some but about five years ago, it was said that porn and X-rated sites took the biggest share of that great cloud called the internet. That might still be the case. I don't know. If you are so inclined, you can view images and videos of thousands of women and teenage girls baring everything, and letting us see them engaged in all sorts of sexual activities imagined and otherwise. By definition, these girls are ho's and I think: why would you do that? I have always wondered, and this goes back to when there wasn't internet and naked women's images were printed on decks of playing cards, why a woman would do such a thing. I'm not prudish, far from it but if I was a woman, I wouldn't choose to be a ho. Never having talked to, or used the services of a "ho", prostitute, whore, hooker etc., I have always wondered why a woman would make that choice. And, actually I think I know the reasons and conclude that it is demeaning and dispiriting to be out there on the street or in the red light district or wherever, with your pimp or madam running your show; nappy headed, bleach blonde headed, any kind of headed, doing these sorts of things for money with men (or, I guess, women) who are strangers and who you don't love or even care about and you might even be repulsed by but you do it anyways. Damn! Being a "ho" is fucked up. So as a flawed and delusional progressive egalitarian, I'm thinking that hardly any woman would choose to be a whore and given better circumstances, they wouldn't. They might choose to play basketball for Rutgers or the cello for Julliard or the market for themselves but my tendency is to believe they would not choose to be ho's.
So as a flawed and delusional progressive egalitarian I think we, as a society, utilizing government, are responsible to make sure that everyone; men, women and in particular, the less fortunate or less prosperous, who may or may not, be nappy headed should have the freedom and the capability to make as many choices, other than "professional sex workers" as they can, and I interpret the Preamble to the Constitution as saying as much.
I don't care about Don Imus, (although I liked his irreverence but not the locker room stuff when McGurk or Detle opened their bigoted mouths) and am tired of reading about him and his problems and all the permutations of this story on these blogs. I care that, not so long ago; the U.S.A. held some promise of fairness for everyone. It was a flawed process I thought. Needed some fixing, maybe, and was a good thing for the most part, but that's gone now, stolen by the rich and greedy, by the stupid, arrogant and belligerent and it bums me out that the "nappy headed hos" in this story got dissed and overlooked by everyone. This is a faceless and demeaned demographic identity in this story, even in the minds of the righteous and politically correct. They got fucked and didn't even get paid for their service.
Opportunity, healthcare, education, affordable housing, healthy environment. That's what is needed. Not war, not excessive profits, not mouthy influential radio and TV personalities that thrive and get rich being assholes. Just saying.

Never could stand the guy. I thought he was a wrong-o the first time I listened and turned him off that was that. I never went back.

Ran into his show accidentally on the dial the other day for the very first time. There's something really wrong with his voice. It's creepy.

No authoritarians were tortured in the writing of this post.

I've listened to/watched Imus for...(computing how long ago I moved out east...borrows extra fingers) damn near 20 years. All on radio for the majority of the time. His show was actually the first time I ever heard what's now called "talk radio". Before that the only thing I knew radio was used for was music. Or news I guess, NPR serious interview type stuff.

How does anybody do a live broadcast for 3 hours at a time, 5 days a week? Year after year? *I* for damn sure don't think I could do it, even with a crew of characters to do some of the talking/performing. He managed to do it though, even to the point of getting a double-dipping TV-radio combination to work. Leaving aside any, um, flaws in the product itself, you gotta admit it's a hell of an accomplishment. He was certainly never a Limbaugh pumping hate the whole time at least.

But the most basic, elementary thing about Imus is that he's an addict. I hate it when that becomes the defining issue of a person's life (is there anything more tedious than an ex-smoker? Or an obsessive AA'er?) but there are certain personality traits common to people who become addicts in the first place, and they don't lose them just because they "go into recovery."

The list varies from person to person but to generalize, for alkies it's insecurity and for cokeheads its self-destructiveness, suicidal tendencies to be more blunt about it. The drug is self-medication for self-dislike, and giving up the drug means the inclination has to be held at bay by some other means. And the fact that he finally used the only weapon he had left--his voice--to perform an act of self-destruction can hardly be found all that surprising, at least in retrospect. Like you said about his voice Lambert--he was wearing out.

/amateur psychoanalysis off.

Actually the creepiest thing I ever saw about Imus was his kid. He had the boy on the show one time and my first impulse was to cast him in the next remake of the story about the kid whose every whim had to be satisfied or else he would wish you into the cornfield. "Spoiled brat" is an extreme understatement.

No it's not fair to judge anyone, particularly a child, on the basis of one ten minute view during an involuntary appearance on TV. I still say the kid is creepy and I feel nothing but pity for him. First stint in rehab will most likely come by about age 12.

except that I didn't exactly lie because this isn't another comment from me, it's Frank Rich's Comment On Imus, dragged out from behind the Evil NYT Paywall by the lovely folk at dohiyimir, a fine DFH if ever there was one.

Now if I can only find a similar way to get at Krugman's latest.... (sigh. Death to paywalls!)

From Welcome to Pottersville:

The infiltration of the federal government by large numbers of people seeking to impose a religious agenda — which is very different from simply being people of faith — is one of the most important stories of the last six years. It’s also a story that tends to go underreported, perhaps because journalists are afraid of sounding like conspiracy theorists.

But this conspiracy is no theory. The official platform of the Texas Republican Party pledges to “dispel the myth of the separation of church and state.” And the Texas Republicans now running the country are doing their best to fulfill that pledge.

www.vastleft.com

I can never remember the "potterville" name and am always looking for it under "welcome to jurassicporkville."

Good Krug too. Will be posting it mainpage later unless somebody else beats me to it.