How come Imus was fired for his statement but O'reilly wasn't?

[I Vote In Pittsburgh]

I mean, Bill said "I don't want to go on a lynching party against Michelle Obama unless there's evidence, hard facts, that say this is how the woman really feels. If that's how she really feels -- that America is a bad country or a flawed nation, whatever -- then that's legit."

How the fuck did he get away with this? So, you can threaten to lynch people now if they find USA to be flawed? Am I wrong in thinking lynch is a racially sensitive term?

[SteppingRazor]

1. Short and easy answer: O'Reilly works for Fox. n/t

[rurallib]

2. Imus worked for a company that has a shred of integrity

Oreally works for FUX.
Note that Imus is back on the air, so FUX is not alone in its lack of integrity.

[Araxen]

3. O'Reilly = Ratings for Fox

w/o O'Reilly Fox is sunk ratings wise.

[joeybee12]

4. Well, Sharpton went after Imus big-time...it was partly a personal

vendetta because those 2 don't like each other...Bill-o is probably more offensive, though.

[ellacott]

5. Sharpton along with many others

Before Imus was fired he was losing sponsors. If people were to mobilze and target the sponsors this may prove to be effective.

[joeybee12]

7. True...Imus' comment was one of many leading up to this final straw...

...but one could say the same about Bill-o.

[ellacott]

11. Only if they hit the sponsors

That is the difference with Imus.

[TexasProgresive]

15. If Sharpton when after O'Liely Faux would

celebrate and give O a bonus.

[liberalnurse]

6. It appears that Foxx endorsed bigotry , sexism and racist behavior as do all their sponsors.

It's that simple, it's a gain for Foxx.

[ellacott]

12. Their sponsors are regulat sponsors

If they are hit in the pocketbook they would reconsider. They aren't going to do anything just because people are upset with the comments. If you had a campaign to boycott the sponsors like O'Reilly claimed he did with France there would be a different response from them.

[IntravenousDemilo]

8. It's not as if being lynched is an exclusively black phenomenon.

According to Russ Kick in the second volume of 50 Things You're Not Supposed to Know:

"ONE QUARTER OF LYNCHING VICTIMS WERE NOT BLACK

"The word 'lynch' has become synonymous with a white mob brutally killing a black person. The bulk of the time, lynchings did happen along those color lines. But not always. In a fourth of the known cases, a white, Asian, or Native person was the unfortunate victim.

"The Reader's Companion to American History cites the universally referenced figures on mob hangings, collected by the venerable Tuskegee Institute: 'Between 1882 (when reliable statistics were first collected) and 1968 (when the classic forms of lynching had disappeared), 4,743 persons died of lynching, 3,446 of them black men and women.' In other words, 27.3 per cent were of other races.

"The official website for the State of Texas says that in one of the worst years (1885), lynch mobs in the state murdered 24 white people and 19 black people. In the year with the highest number of mob hangings (1892), 30 per cent of the victims were white. In Kentucky, the over-all tally was 31 per cent white.

"Naturally, it was almost always white mobs that killed white people, though there are a minuscule number of cases in which a black mob strung up a white person.

"Also, we know of rare instances in which black mobs lynched black individuals. Eleven such incidents are known to have ocurred in Georgia alone.

"Most of the vitims classified as 'white' were US-born people of European extraction. However, this category also encompasses Mexicans (a minimum of 216 victims) and European immigrants. Some additional victims were targeted for being Jewish.

"Adding further complexity are the victims of other races, including Native Americans and Chinese immigrants.

"Although lynching was primarily white on black, the full picture -- which has yet to be drawn but is hinted at here -- shows that the contours of lynching aren't as simply rendered as we'd like to think."

[dailykoff]

9. Imus got fired for raising questions about 911,

not for his shock-jock schtick, which he was contractually obligated to perform.

[Metta]

10. O'Reilly's bosses reflect his opinions. I'm sure they don't care about what he says.

Anything this side of name calling is okay with them, just more publicity.

[blm]

13. Because Imus would also say Cheney should be hung as a war criminal.

.

[LSK]

14. they worked for different companies???

:shrug: