Don Imus Isn't the Only Bad Guy Here

By now, everybody knows about this whole Don Imus flap. He insults the Rutgers Women's Basketball team with some racist and sexist remarks. There is a firestorm of outcry. He tries to recant with a somewhat hollow apology, and then he is fired. Obviously, Mr. Imus was way out of line with his comments, and he probably deserves all of the criticism that he gets. However, I am even more upset with this supposed moral indignation shown by many of his critics.

Let me start out by saying that, for a time, I was a regular listener to the _Imus in the Morning_ show. During the mid to late 90's, his show was part of my wakeup and morning drive routine. At times, I found it to me an interesting show. For those who don't know, the Imus show is a mixture of political and media interviews, combined with bathroom humor which probably earned him the "shock jock" moniker. Very powerful and influential people from politics and the media were frequent guests on his show, and he had an interesting way of disarming his guests with his questions in such a way that they would lower their guard and maybe divulge facts that they wouldn't normally mention on your typical interview show.

That was, of course, the highlight of the show.

Mixed in to the high-brow stuff was a lot of content which I found to be questionable and borderline offensive. He would often launch into tirades laced with personal attacks against people who disagreed with him or slighted him in some way. I don't remember any specific examples of him being racist or sexist, but I do recall times when I felt extremely uncomfortable with his words. While these attacks might have been part of some attempt to bring humor to the show, I found them to be quite un-funny to say the least. Eventually, I grew tired of this aspect of the show, and I decided to tune elsewhere in the morning.

My point here is that Imus has always been "on the edge". While you can argue over whether or not he had stepped over the line in the past, he is certainly comes across as being an insensitive adolescent on the radio. Nevertheless, many powerful people in the media and politics still went on his show, and CBS radio and MSNBC continued to give him a forum for his words.

It seems very hollow for the very same people who supported and enabled him all of these years to all of a sudden distance themselves from Mr. Imus and the content of his show. That includes both his employers, and the guest who, by appearing on the show, gave their tacit approval to his insulting ways. They act so shocked and so moral now, but it's not like his show hasn't always been like this since back when I listened to the show. His show has been filled with insensitive remarks and tirades for a long time. It just so happened that this one caused a public outcry of epic proportions. Mr. Imus just happened to insult the wrong person and the wrong time, but it is not like he hasn't been insulting for his entire career.

I am especially disappointed at CBS radio who thought it necessary to fire him ONLY AFTER all of the bad publicity. He probably should have been fired years ago, and he most definitely should have been fired the moment those words left his lips. However, by firing him almost a week later, it is just an act of cowardice, in my opinion.

I hope that Mr Imus rides off into the sunset to retire on his little ranch in the desert. However, I have no doubt that somebody out there will give him a radio show (maybe on sattelite?), so I am sure we haven't heard the last of him.