2008 Woodie Awards
Return of Don Imus represents coup for the freedom to tune out
Issue date: 12/3/07 Section: Soap Box
Today, Don Imus will be returning to the air for the first time since April 12. Instead of being heard on WNBC, Imus has new territory, and will now be broadcast via WABC. Imus had a strong constituency of supporters and most of them will probably be listening eagerly to his return. Others will not. There are people who dislike his style of humor, or do not agree with things he has said in the past. Those people will keep their radio dials to a different station, and no one will be the worse for it.
The disgrace of Don Imus was a media circus back in April, drawing responses from everyone from Bill Maher to Hillary Clinton. During an exchange in which Imus and his executive producer were mocking "street slang" and discussing the Rutgers women's basketball team's loss to Tennessee, the phrase "nappy-headed hos" fell out. The phrase was taken from its context and plastered all across America for the weeks to come.
What followed was a parade of apologies and finger-pointing; the former from Imus, and the latter from public figures such as Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. Don Imus was evil, they said, the scum of the earth who didn't deserve to be heard. It was irrelevant that Don Imus owned and managed a ranch for children with cancer, or that half of the children who visited that ranch were racial minorities. No, he said a bad thing and must be silenced forever, they said.
Imus apologized to those he had hurt with his comments: the Rutgers women's basketball team. For some reason this did not stop Sharpton and Jackson in their vendettas. They yelled and screamed and stamped their feet until they got their way, which was long after the Rutgers girls had decided to go on with their lives.
That is the real crime here. Don Imus made a mistake; he caused some hurt. However, he then did what is expected of any person who makes a mistake: he apologized, he took the necessary steps to heal the wounds and his apologies were accepted. That should have been the end of it. What the public and what people like Sharpton and Jackson did was to claw at those wounds that Imus had caused and rip them open for the world to see, never resting until their own personal agenda was completed.
The disgrace of Don Imus was a media circus back in April, drawing responses from everyone from Bill Maher to Hillary Clinton. During an exchange in which Imus and his executive producer were mocking "street slang" and discussing the Rutgers women's basketball team's loss to Tennessee, the phrase "nappy-headed hos" fell out. The phrase was taken from its context and plastered all across America for the weeks to come.
What followed was a parade of apologies and finger-pointing; the former from Imus, and the latter from public figures such as Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. Don Imus was evil, they said, the scum of the earth who didn't deserve to be heard. It was irrelevant that Don Imus owned and managed a ranch for children with cancer, or that half of the children who visited that ranch were racial minorities. No, he said a bad thing and must be silenced forever, they said.
Imus apologized to those he had hurt with his comments: the Rutgers women's basketball team. For some reason this did not stop Sharpton and Jackson in their vendettas. They yelled and screamed and stamped their feet until they got their way, which was long after the Rutgers girls had decided to go on with their lives.
That is the real crime here. Don Imus made a mistake; he caused some hurt. However, he then did what is expected of any person who makes a mistake: he apologized, he took the necessary steps to heal the wounds and his apologies were accepted. That should have been the end of it. What the public and what people like Sharpton and Jackson did was to claw at those wounds that Imus had caused and rip them open for the world to see, never resting until their own personal agenda was completed.
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