Warner Wolf about "Pacman" Jones: "arrested six times since he was drafted by Tennessee in 2005"
Imus: "What color is he?"
Wolf: "He's African-American."
Imus: "Well, there you go. Now we know."
You can hear this exchange with your own ears, as well as Imus's explanation today that what he was saying about Jones was that, of course he was arrested six times, African-Americans are subject to unfair treatment by police, in the video below.
I don't believe it. Imus has a record of racist comments going back long before his labeling the Rutgers women's basketball team last year "nappy-headed ho's" - including calling African-American broadcast journalist Gwen Ifill a "cleaning lady". What he said yesterday was clearly just more of the same, and unacceptable.
As I indicated last year, this is not a question of First Amendment rights - no government agency is fining Imus or his radio station. But neither does Imus have a right to be paid millions of dollars to spew his racist garbage - Citadel, the owner of WABC Radio, has every right to fire him.
Frankly, Citadel should not have put Imus back on the air in the first place. They ought to do the right thing now, and put Imus out of his racist citadel. Otherwise, Citadel will be regarded as as racist as Imus. But I'm not holding my breath.
7 comments:
I'd rather have a beer with Gwen Ifills any time. She wrote a rockin' op ed in the NYT after the last racist Imus scandal.
Me too.
Welcome to Infinite Regress, Nancy.
Whatever happened to the marketplace of ideas? If people are offended by Imus, they can stop listening. Forcing him off the air is against free speech, and it's embarssing for levinson to support such an action. I suspect levinson is the type who also supports speech codes on college campuses.
Your suspicions are completely wrong, Marcus.
And here's happened to the marketplace of ideas: it allows people like me, in fact, any one, to denounce Imus as a racist, and Citadel, too, if they don't take him off the air.
Free speech means that anyone can say or write whatever they please, without fear of governmental censorship, fine, or reprisal.
It does not mean that a given speaker, such as Imus, is entitled to earn millions of dollars for his speech. That's for his employer, and his audience, and the people at large decide, to decide.
I'm urging, as part of the people at large, that Imus be taken off the air. But I would fight the FCC tooth and nail if it fined Citadel or Imus for Imus's remarks, or insisted that Imus be taken off the air.
As someone who believes strongly in free speech and its sanctity under the First Amendment, I'm not at all embarrassed by that position - I'm proud of it.
PS - Maybe this might help to make my position more clear: I think broadcasters have an ethical obligation (not a legal obligation) not to blare forth racist insults.
And I think the public at large has a right to point when broadcasters are failing this ethical obligation.
Further, I think individuals (including Imus) have a right to say whatever they believe. But there's a big ethical difference between saying something, and saying it on radio.
1) Free speech is very important. Racism is just another form of hatred, which is something that we have on our political airwaves from both sides all the time. So to say someone ethically should be taken off the air because of A means I think other people (again, from both sides) should also be taken off the air. Where do we draw the line? Worse, who gets to decide that??
Assuming he is racist, he isn't using his shows as a platform to promote racism, he's just a grumpy old man making an observation.
2) Speaking of said observation, instead of covering our mouths and gasping while pointing our fingers in shame, don't you think we should look into the social implications of his remark? Yes, its not right to stereotype like that the facts do support his nasty comments.
Why are so many young black males being arrested so many times.
This isn't some kid out of the hood with no hopes for the future, it's a professional athlete making 6 figures, why WAS he arrested 6 times. Sadly, it's not that that we discuss, it's just the comments of some inconsequential old man.
Thanks for the 2 cents worth, 2 cents...
First, about why I'm discussing Imus and not the content of his comment - like everyone, I have only a limited amount of time to write. So I tend to focus on what most interests me.
And why a racist continues to have a microphone does interest me than the reasons that a football star, African-American or otherwise, has been arrested six times. But that's just me - I certainly wouldn't discourage anyone from looking into that.
As far as where to draw the line about taking people off the air? I think the better question is who should take people off the air, not where the line should be drawn.
And my view is that government should never, ever do this, because that leads to dictatorship, loss of freedom, etc.
But certainly Imus's employer can.
If Citadel views Imus's comments as ok, or not very objectionable, they won't fire him (apparently the case). But then I think that the public should pressure Citadel, speak out against Citadel, if they find Imus's comments unacceptable.
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