The Chris Moeller Archives

What amounts to my official Don Imus post

The Don Imus affair might be the hardest topic I've ever tried to write about on this website. Several rough drafts of the post you're reading now found their way to blogger heaven earlier tonight. There are so many diatribe-inducing aspects of the story that I can almost understand why the national news media has blown it completely out of proportion-- an aspect in itself, I guess.

It's simpler just to post some disconnected thoughts, and let them linger in cyberspace...

1) Viacom and General Electric... er, that is CBS and MSNBC.. are your typical sniveling cowards of the corporate world. They backed Imus for years despite a series of racist, sexist, and homophobic statements on par with these concerning the Rutgers University women's basketball team. It's ironic that this story only blew up big at all after MSNBC failed to punish Imus at the outset. Company execs tried to pin the responsibility for Imus on CBS, which originates the show on radio, as if NBC has been donating the profits of that simulcast back to Viacom all these years. That delay gave Jesse Jackson time to make the issue a larger and more important one about the network itself, which features NO black hosts on its 24 hour format. This story is absolutely a story about serial abuse.

2) If you suspect you'll be missing the Don Imus-type of thought-provoking comments, you'll want to know that you can still enjoy the talents of Rush Limbaugh on your radio and Glenn Beck on both radio and television. They'll only lose their jobs if they repeat Imus' mistake of trying to expand their audience beyond the hate wing of the Republican Party.

3) The first sponsor to drop from Imus was Proctor & Gamble, but take it from a former radio commercial scheduler, that announcement was a pretty meaningless development. We used to get network schedules with instructions not to place P&G ads "during any controversial programs." Their list of controversial shows included pretty much every national show I had heard of, including the entire Air America schedule. Except Paul Harvey I guess. A Profile in Courage.

4) Any Imus-related losses in corporate revenue being reported by GE's television networks are utter bullshit-- intended to project distance between Imus and his corporate pimps. GE began maneuvers to recoup losses on Tuesday by sending Matt Lauer and Meredith Viera out on "Today" to promote the hell out of the story, and casting the corporation as "concerned" and "responsible" before amputating their infected limb. It's all Don Imus, you understand, not NBC.

5) Don't let Imus' regulars off the hook either. Tim Russert, Chris Matthews, Pat Buchanan, Joe Lieberman, John McCain, and James Carville will all have to find a new venue to hock their books. They were always at the I-Man's side to lend a chuckle.

6) It's a shame this story buried news of the death of author Kurt Vonnegut, a man who truly knew how to be funny and provocative. Imus was just your all-too-common disc jockey/lowlife who tried to cover a lack of wit and talent by pandering to our worst instincts.

posted by CM @ 8:26 PM