RKMBs Forums .::Important::. Politics and Current Events Imus and the "nappy headed hos"

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."

thats just...wrong. Damn wrong.

This is why you never take political shock jock radio hosts seriously. All they want is ratings, at whatever cost.

Imus is still on the air?

sadly yes...

so it's not okay to call nappy headed hos, nappy headed hos anymore?

I still have g-man on ignore. That quote of his is the reason why. Making up lies about me does not make him right or me wrong.

You're right, rex. What was I thinking?

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rex said:
Jon Stewart is god.

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Jon Stewart and the daily show gang were on c-span last night promoting their book. It was hilarious. Swearing, agruing, and much more. I don't know if they will replay it, but its worth watching again.

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rex said:
I disagree with probably 75% of what the daily show says.
But I still watch it every night.

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rex said:
What I'm reading...Jon Stewart:
Naked Pictures of Famous People

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Jon Stewart is my hero.

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NEW YORK - Don Imus will appear on the Rev. Al Sharpton's radio show Monday, five days after Imus made racially charged comments on his own show about the Rutgers women's basketball team, Sharpton and MSNBC announced Sunday.

Despite Imus' scheduled appearance, Sharpton said his position was unchanged: He wants Imus fired and intends to write the Federal Communications Commission about the matter.

"Somewhere we must draw the line in what is tolerable in mainstream media," Sharpton said Sunday. "We cannot keep going through offending us and then apologizing and then acting like it never happened. Somewhere we've got to stop this."

The Rev. Jesse Jackson said his RainbowPUSH Coalition plans to protest Monday in Chicago outside the offices of NBC, which owns MSNBC, over the remark Imus made last Wednesday during his show.

Imus said members of the mostly black Rutgers University women's basketball team were "nappy-headed hos."

The team, which includes eight black women, had lost the day before in the NCAA women's championship game. Imus was speaking with producer Bernard McGuirk about the game when the exchange began on the show, which is broadcast to millions of people on more than 70 stations and the MSNBC television network.

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

"Some hardcore hos," McGuirk said.

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

Jackson said protests are being planned across the country.

"If he has a right to use that platform to insult and degrade then we have a moral obligation to picket NBC and to protest," Jackson said. "If he can violate us in that platform in the name of free speech we'll be picketing NBC in the name of free speech."

James E. Harris, president of the New Jersey chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, demanded Sunday that Imus "resign or be terminated immediately."

Allison Gollust, a spokeswoman for MSNBC, which simulcasts "Imus in the Morning," said the network considers Imus' comments "deplorable" and is reviewing the matter.

Karen Mateo, a spokeswoman for CBS Radio, Imus' employer and the owner of WFAN-AM, said the company was "disappointed" in Imus' actions and characterized his comments as "completely inappropriate."

Imus, who has not been publicly disciplined, apologized on the air Friday.

"It was completely inappropriate, and we can understand why people were offended. Our characterization was thoughtless and stupid, and we are sorry," Imus said, according to a transcript on MSNBC's Web site.

Offend black people and go on Sharpton's show. It's getting to be a national pastime.

Wow. And here I thought nobody gave a rat's ass about ANYTHING Imus said anymore.





Howard Stern at least has the Robin Quivers safety net. If he makes a joke about black people and she laughs, then everything's kosher!

I don't get this whole notion of saying something offensive and people cry for you to be fired so you apologize and speak with leaders from the community to make ammends.
Why not just say he's a racist, Gibson is anti-semitic, Richards is racist and leave it at that. If black people want to do something, stop watching his show.
Apologies to save your job are empty and shallow and people need to stop being fucking pussies about things.



I like to apologize to Pariah. I meant no ill will against pussies and I fully respect pussies like him. I think I should go to rehab and examine where my anti-pussy sentiments came from.

CBS Radio, MSNBC to Suspend Imus 2 Weeks
By DAVID BAUDER, AP Television Writer
29 minutes ago

NEW YORK - CBS Radio and MSNBC both said Monday they were suspending Don Imus' morning talk show for two weeks as a protest grew about his reference last week to members of the Rutgers women's basketball team as "nappy-headed hos."

The suspension begins next Monday.

MSNBC, which telecasts the radio show, said Imus' expressions of regret and embarrassment, coupled with his stated dedication to changing the show's discourse, made it believe suspension was the appropriate response.

"Our future relationship with Imus is contingent on his ability to live up to his word," the network said.

Imus, who has made a career of cranky insults in the morning, was fighting for his job following the joke that by his own admission went "way too far." He continued to apologize Monday, both on his show and on a syndicated radio program hosted by the Rev. Al Sharpton, who is among several black leaders demanding his ouster.

Imus could be in real danger if the outcry causes advertisers to shy away from him, said Tom Taylor, editor of the trade publication Inside Radio. The National Organization for Women is also seeking Imus' ouster.

"Everyone is on tenterhooks waiting to see whether it grows and whether the protest gets picked up more broadly," Taylor said.

Imus isn't the most popular radio talk-show host _ the trade publication Talkers ranks him the 14th most influential _ but his audience is heavy on the political and media elite that advertisers pay a premium to reach. Authors, journalists and politicians are frequent guests _ and targets for insults.

He has urged critics to recognize that his show is a comedy that spreads insults broadly. Imus or his cast have called Colin Powell a "sniffling weasel," New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson a "fat sissy" and referred to Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell of Colorado, an American Indian, as "the guy from `F Troop.'" He and his colleagues also called the New York Knicks a group of "chest-thumping pimps."

On Sharpton's program Monday, Imus said that "our agenda is to be funny and sometimes we go too far. And this time we went way too far."

Imus made his remark the day after the Rutgers team, which includes eight black women, lost the NCAA women's championship game to Tennessee. He was speaking with producer Bernard McGuirk and said "that's some rough girls from Rutgers. Man, they got tattoos ..."

"Some hardcore hos," McGuirk said.

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

The Rutgers comment has struck a chord, in part, because it was aimed at a group of young women at the pinnacle of athletic success. It also came in a different public atmosphere following the Michael Richards and Mel Gibson incidents, said Eric Deggans, columnist for the St. Petersburg Times and chairman of the media monitoring committee of the National Association of Black Journalists. The NABJ's governing board, which doesn't include Deggans, wants Imus canned.

"This may be the first time where he's done something like this in the YouTube era," Deggans said. Viewers can quickly see clips of Imus' remarks, not allowing him to redefine their context, he said.

On his show Monday, Imus called himself "a good person" who made a bad mistake.

"Here's what I've learned: that you can't make fun of everybody, because some people don't deserve it," he said. "And because the climate on this program has been what it's been for 30 years doesn't mean that it has to be that way for the next five years or whatever because that has to change, and I understand that."

New Jersey Gov. Jon S. Corzine spoke to Rutgers players Monday and said later that he strongly condemned Imus' words.

"There is absolutely no excuse for his conduct, and he is right to apologize," Corzine said. "Only the Rutgers women's basketball team, however, can decide to accept his apology. If Mr. Imus really wants to go and learn from this, he should watch how these young ladies carry themselves. He might just learn from their example."

Rutgers players said they planned to make a public statement on Tuesday.

Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain, whose presidential candidacy has been backed by Imus on the air, said he would still appear on Imus' program.

"He has apologized," McCain said. "He said that he is deeply sorry. I'm a great believer in redemption. Whether he needs to do more in order to satisfy the concerns of people like the members of that team, that's something that's between him and them. But I have made many mistakes in my life ... and I have apologized, and most people have accepted that apology."

Imus' radio show originates from WFAN in New York City and is syndicated nationally by Westwood One, both of which are managed by CBS. The show reached an estimated 361,000 viewers on MSNBC in the first three months of the year, up 39 percent from last year. That's the best competitive position it has ever achieved against CNN (372,000 viewers).

Imus' fate could ultimately rest with two of the nation's most prominent media executives: CBS Corp. chief Leslie Moonves and Jeff Zucker, head of NBC Universal.

"He will survive it if he stops apologizing so much," said Michael Harrison, publisher of Talkers. Imus clearly seems under corporate pressure to make amends, but he's nearly reached the point where he is alienating the fans who appreciate his grumpy outrageousness.

Even if he were to be fired, he's likely to land elsewhere in radio, Harrison said.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson and about 50 people marched Monday outside Chicago's NBC tower to protest Imus' comments. He said MSNBC should abandon Imus and MSNBC should hire more black pundits.

Julian Bond, chairman of the NAACP board of directors, said it is "past time his employers took him off the air."

"As long as an audience is attracted to his bigotry and politicians and pundits tolerate his racism and chauvinism to promote themselves, Don Imus will continue to be a serial apologist for prejudice," Bond said.

Imus was mostly contrite in his appearance with Sharpton, although the activist did not change his opinion that Imus should lose his job. At one point Imus seemed incredulous at Sharpton's suggestion that he might walk away from the incident unscathed.

"Unscathed?" Imus said. "How do you think I'm unscathed by this? Don't you think I'm humiliated?"

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Someone should contact Al Sharpton, I was watching MTV today and some rappers were calling women hos, we need to get a boycott going!

its not like he pointed out certain girls and called them nappy headed hos. it was a generic statement about a team, just like people do all the time at baseball games.

His comment was inappropriate and obviously racist.

With that being said, however, there's something really troubling about the fact that the man leading the charge against him (Sharpton) got away with leading chants of "Blood Sucking Jews" down the streets of New York while trying to incite a riot.

Because no one else is, really.

One thing's for sure: Imus has hammered quite a few nails in the casket of his radio career. Maybe I'm going against the grain here, but I'd say that his show is basically finished-- hell, I'm surprised that he didn't get cancelled five seconds after that 'hos' crack came out of his mouth.

I can't comment on who is and who isn't outraged, but I can say, with a feeling of pretty good certainty that Sharpton and Jesse Jackson do not speak for all of Black America.

Oh yes they do!!

Imus has a right to say what he wants, but the network also has a right to cancel or suspend him if he pisses them off.

Imus is a paid employee of a broadcasting company. That company has a right under its employment contract to fire him for saying anything they find inappropriate, offensive or even just likely to bring in bad ratings.

T.R. is a faggot though isnt he?

doesnt it make a race look weak that they have to demand a guy get fired for making a insult? i mean it seems like guys like sharpton and jesse jackson preach they want equality and yet they want someone like Imus treated as less than a blak man ie Chapelle, Chris Rock ect. It seems they dont want equality but superiority...

Too you, maybe, but that's okay.