Cliff Schecter

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

BREAKING: IMUS Fired From MSNBC

I've heard it from multiple sources now. And read it.

Advertisers were pulling out. I'm guessing the radio show is next.

Inside, I'm crying.

20 Comments:

At 7:12 PM, Anonymous said...: Wooo Hooooo! Good to see the bigot gone. I hope the door doesn't hit him in the ass on the way out...well, I hope it does, actually.

He deserves to get fired.
At 7:12 PM, Anonymous said...: The advertisers spoke. That's all it ever boiled down too. Hopefully other advertisers will now pay closer attention to the OTHER crap they sponsor.
At 7:27 PM, Anonymous said...: I thought the Steve Capus did a great job of explaining why they did this. He took no pleasure in it,but said it was the interview with the basketball coach from Rutgers that brought the reality of the hurt that was caused. Barak Obama said he would never go on his show, the advertisers were bailing out.

I think this is a good thing for Imus. Maybe he needed a hit upside the head to finally wake him up to the reality of the hurt that racial slurs cause. Maybe this will make him a better man.

I'm sure he'll do fine without this job...and I'm sure he'll write a book about it. We'll see what kind of man and how he handles this in the news media in the next few days.

Now lets see if the rest of the shock jocks out there wake up to the reality of this. There may be hope for our country yet.
At 7:35 PM, Anonymous said...: What are the chances that Ann Coulter will be next on the chopping block?
At 7:36 PM, Anonymous said...: Imus will wind up on XM or Sirius (or what ever borg product the 2 becom) lickety-split! So Davy Gregory, Timmy Russert, Craigy Crawford and all of Newsweek (male only) will still have a playground and frat party to go to.

Whomever will Maureen Dowd flirt with first thing in the morning? < /snark >
At 7:37 PM, Anonymous said...: ME - unfortunately or fortunately Ann Coulter does not have a radio show of her own- she just sleeps on everyone else's couch.
At 7:50 PM, Kerri said...: Yeah, what he said was worth firing for. But I can't help thinking there's something wrong here. I remember listening to the show now and then thinking what loud mouth jerks they were and then laughing when they abused some preening MSMer who would never get that kind of abuse on any of the regular news shows. It was refreshing. And I'm hearing he was one of those who called the response to Katrina what it really was, racist. Why doesn't this all add up to me and why does it bother me enough to worry that we may be sorry that this particular battle was won this way? Just thinking out loud.
At 8:46 PM, Anonymous said...: I don't know, Addy. You might have a point, but to sum up your post it's okay to take money from someone's left hand while he's slapping you with his right.

Yeah, he does good things. But I've been watching and listening to the man for years and I can tell you that this comment was not an isolated incident. far from it, not a day goes by that he or one of his cronies trashes somebody horribly.
At 8:56 PM, Anonymous said...: gimmeabreak

You do have to wonder what goes through this guys head when he is saying this stuff out loud. A lot of people talk about what great things he does with the Ranch and the work with kids, but is he really doing it for the kids, or for his own glory. Or, is it his wife that got that stuff started and he just basks in the glory of being considered a "great man".

When he said he was a good person who said bad things...it doesn't make sense. If you are a good person, you don't even think those things, let alone say them.

I was wondering if he was going to apologize to the basketball team for what he said because he was really sorry, or if it was an opportunity to give the appearance that he was sorry.

I wish I could give the guy the benefit of the doubt, but like you said, this wasn't an isolated incident.

I wonder if all those other bozo's on his show were fired, too, or if MSNBC or NBC will give them other jobs. They should take some of the heat on this, too.
At 9:13 PM, Anonymous said...: ME - I got the impression from seeing video and comments from NBC and GE execs that no one was being assured that his "changes" would include any change in personnel. As we know from watching his show the Biggest Offenders were often Bernard and the oft-fired and rehired Sid Rosenberg. Neither of whom have come close to making a public apology.
At 9:30 PM, Kerri said...: Well you are correct in pointing out the weird disconnect of the thing.Again, I am having a hard time getting my head and my emotions to agree.
Anyone who has ever listened to Imus even once knew what to expect from him.Everyone was abused, and it wasn't just those who couldn't retaliate. My god I remember hearing him saying things about such and such person and thinking, why is he still alive?
And those saying people went on his show just to sell books and now are defending him because they will lose the promotions seem rather shallow. Obviously people were fond of him and some of these are people we as liberals respect. To write them off as pandering sychophants now seems wrong to me.
Again, I think he deserves a swift kick in the nuts for what he said, but to see in it some big frat boy conspiracy as Digby does seems a bit over the top. Maybe he was indeed the jackass comedian who thought he could get away with the one joke that wouldn't play. He wouldn't be the first. But a public stoning doesn't sit with me.
At 9:52 PM, Anonymous said...: Addy I hear you. I'm not too fond of think of Craig Crawford, Mike Isikoff, Maureen Dowd, Joe Biden, etc. as sychophants either. I was rather disturbed to make that connection in my own brain. I also listened to Gregory and Crawford tonight after the MSNBC announcment claim "I never heard any of that when I was on the show".

I'm not thrilled either that this became a public stoning, but the media as a whole is under alot of critisism lately. Also in the past 7 years the racism and misogeny in the MSM and right wing outlets has become much more common and accepted. PC died.
And if it boils over on Imus it is what it is. I think we're seeing so much hand-wringing over Imus because of his gold-plated guest list.

All of these white men that frequented his show or, would have liked to, must feel somehow that they may be tainted by Imus and are furiously spinning his defense.
At 10:21 PM, Ashen Shard said...: I'm a bit torn over this whole deal with Imus. Though he has a history of such comments, and they are most obviously wrong, compared to the real bigots on the radio he is nothing. I think the only reason he is falling is because he is an easy target than most others since his audience, if my perception is correct, is more politically diverse and less dogmatic than others.

I also believe he is quite a reasonable guy and hope this feeding frenzy ends soon. He wants to make amends, let him make amends. He could potentially become a powerful ally in helping bring down the likes of Limbaugh, Beck and Boortz (just to name a few). This won't happen though if people keep flogging him while he is down.
At 10:22 PM, Kerri said...: Gimmeabreak,
Yeah, it should be obvious by my posts that I am not all comfortable with how conflicted I am. On the one hand, I am all for taking down racist,sexist blowhards. On the other, there just seems more to the story. What, I don't know. Call it a gut feeling based on many years of listening to idiots and geniuses. Remember when Tom Likus went into permanent woman hating mode? That was a real interesting moment.
It just seems that there's less the boys club and more people who know each other and don't agree that Imus is a solid asshole. But that can't possibly be understood now by those who would just rather pile on and enjoy the flames. But I can understand that emotion too. It's exhilarating when someone we feel has hurt the public conversation has been put in their place. Anyways, thanks for being so understanding and not flaming me.I was uncomfortable voicing the contrarian opinion on any other blog. Here at Cliff's place you know you won't get the message sugar coated, but you feel comfortable yelling back. I suspect Cliff encourages it.:)
At 10:44 PM, Anonymous said...: I only flame trolls, addy. :)
At 10:49 PM, Anonymous said...: It is weird, the lines that are being drawn. I'm seeing Digby getting flamed by regular posters on this - same on Eschaton..

Jeez, go see how Joan Walsh is getting trashed on her post on Salon tonight.

We have Cenk Uygar, Ed Schultz, Bill Maher and Michael Isikoff lined up with Bo Dietl, Joe Scarborough and Sean Hannity on this one. It's bizzare.
At 11:54 PM, Kerri said...: You're right. I just saw Bill Maher on Scarborough. He's caliing it fake outrage to distract, which I don't agree with. However, if I did not have my trusty bottle of wine next to me this would be the day my head exploded.
At 11:59 PM, Anonymous said...: well, good for you! I'm trying to keep track without booze!
At 12:08 AM, Kerri said...: I should be watching the intake too, but desperate times call for desperate measures. And now Kurt Vonnegut is gone. Holy crap if I were religious at all I would call it the end times. Rest in peace, good good man.
At 8:34 AM, Fernando said...: I think it is fitting. Imus, left of Ann and Neal and Rush and most other wacko bigots gets axed.

I don't care if we start on the left and go right as long as all the bigots go.

Cliff Schecter

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

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