Sunday, April 15, 2007

Can This Be The End of Imus? (Part II) - Vol. 3 Issue 47

Last week I posed the question. This week the immediate answer is clear. Imus has been fired and disgraced, while the Rutgers women’s basketball team has been fully vindicated. Despite other big stories (Karl Rove’s deletion of RNC emails, the continuing failure of “the Surge” in Iraq and the deepening crisis of Attorney General Gonzales mishandling of the Justice Department), the major news organizations continued to focus on the Imus drama all week. For obvious reasons, Tim Russert of “Meet The Press” had his panel discuss ONLY the larger questions raised by the Imus incident.

Among the issues raised by the talking heads was the obvious double standard in the Imus case. Has Dave Chappelle been fired? Has Martin Lawrence? How about the South Park guys? Perhaps the record industry should fire 50 Cent, Ludicrous, Jay Z, Puffy Combs (or whatever his name is now) and Nelly? In response to the “double standard” argument, former NBC White Correspondent, Gwen Ifill, made several good points. The fact that Imus’s Rutgers comment was not a first, second, or even third offense, and that the victims in this case were the very people in society we want to encourage, were among Ifill’s thoughtful responses. Also, Ifill was careful to point out that over the last few years, there have been calls from within black community for a halt to the use of offensive and demeaning ghetto language in Hip-Hip and the entertainment culture.

Still, for many people it is tough to take Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson as the prosecutors of Don Imus. Personally, I consider them to be no better than Imus. In addition, Imus has actually helped many people along the way. Finally, it is difficult to argue that Sharpton and Jackson are in Imus’s league, when it comes to charitable contributions and humanitarian acts. Nevertheless, MSNBC and CBS had a perfect right to fire Mr. Imus. Just because the prosecutors lacked character, doesn’t mean that the defendant should “get off.” We have not heard the last of Imus. Yes, he’ll be back, most likely on Satellite. Perhaps our national discussion of race and race relations has really begun in earnest. There is nothing more central to our democracy and nothing more crucial to our future as a democracy.

Looking forward to the discussion, I remain

Savant