Will Lib elites go back to enabling sL-IMUS on his new show?

[UTUSN]

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http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2007/08/27/bigotrys_cheerful_enablers/

Bigotry's cheerful enablers

By Richard Lipez | August 27, 2007

IT'S STILL uncertain when or where shock-jock Don Imus will return to the airwaves, now that he has settled his suit with CBS. But a more interesting question is this: When Imus does come back, will distinguished American media personages such as Frank Rich, Doris Kearns Goodwin, and Tom Brokaw continue to show up on his show, lending him respectability and cover for his racist, misogynistic, and gay-baiting rants?

The willingness of apparently decent people, some of them liberal icons, to serve as Imus's cheerful enablers has been one of the more depressing features of the media landscape over the past decade. Tim Russert, Howard Kurtz, Jeff Greenfield, and James Carville all tut-tutted over the "nappy-headed ho's" remark about the Rutgers women's basketball team that got Imus fired last spring. But not one of these people had ever challenged Imus's long history of making or encouraging similar slurs against blacks, women, and gays. African-American journalist Clarence Page did once ask Imus on the air to cut that stuff out. Page was never asked back on the program. ....

The media elite who went on Imus likely had pecuniary reasons for reaching his sizable audience -- flogging their books or their own brand names -- but they seemed to enjoy themselves, too. In a thoughtful online anti-Imus screed, the African-American writer Ishmael Reed quotes Washington Post and CNN media critic Howard Kurtz in his 1995 book "Hot Air." Kurtz maintained that Imus's routines were what many journalists joked about in private and "some of us relish his naughtiness."

I'd hate to think that's so. At NBC, does Tom Brokaw sneer at "that fag" after a gay newsman or woman leaves the room? Does Doris Kearns Goodwin call the black men she knows "dingos"? Would Howard Kurtz refer to a non-Caucasian as a "gook" or "zipperhead"? I hope not. But given the unwillingness of all these fine folks to call Imus and his crew on any of this mean and stupid garbage, how are we to know? Imus is expected to return to the airwaves in the fall, and we'll find out then how many of his old media cronies will resume their pastimes as bigotry's enablers.

Richard Lipez writes the Don Strachey gay private eye novels under the name Richard Stevenson.

© Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company.

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This is from wingnut tool Elia KAZAN's "A Face in the Crowd":



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http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050371/

Lonesome Rhodes: Listen, I'm not through yet. You know what's gonna to happen to me?

Mel Miller: Suppose I tell you exactly what's gonna happen to you. You're gonna be back in television. Only it won't be quite the same as it was before. There'll be a reasonable cooling-off period and then somebody will say: "Why don't we try him again in a inexpensive format. People's memories aren't too long." And you know, in a way, he'll be right. Some of the people will forget, and some of them won't. Oh, you'll have a show. Maybe not the best hour or, you know, top 10. Maybe not even in the top 35. But you'll have a show. It just won't be quite the same as it was before. Then a couple of new fellas will come along. And pretty soon, a lot of your fans will be flocking around them. And then one day, somebody'll ask: "Whatever happened to, a, whatshisname? You know, the one who was so big. The number-one fella a couple of years ago. He was famous. How can we forget a name like that? Oh by the way, have you seen, a, Barry Mills? I think he's the greatest thing since Will Rogers."

(Mel turns and starts to leave. Then, he turns back towards Lonesome)

Mel Miller: Beanie!

(Beanie, who is manning the automatic appalause machine, instinctively pulls the switch, unleashing a massive abundance of cheers. The machanical jubilation continues as Mel joins Marcia in the waiting elevator, leaving Lonesome alone in the empty penthouse with his broken dreams)

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[sabbat hunter]

1. this is obviously

someone that never actually listened to Imus. Probably the biggest butt of the jokes on Imus in the morning was Imus himself.

while i agree that his comments crossed the line with "nappy haired ho", I also think that in today's environment a comedian like Don Rickles would never make it.

Rickles made his career on making fun of ethnics of all stripes. One line in particular to an audience member, "are you chinese? Yes you. Look at this guy, saying ( Rickles saying this in a stereotypical chinese accent) who chinese who chinese? (back to his normal voice) well if you aren't chinese you should get your eyes examined"

[Gabi Hayes]

2. one thing Imus and Rickles have in common:

not funny

never were

hockey pucks!

[UTUSN]

3. The dude is an established author. I really do believe he has listened to sL-IMUS.

And, for the past years that sL-IMUS was on MSRNC, I turned on the circus and kept being repelled. And, please, no posts about turning-it-off. I listened to criticize, to hear Frank RICH and the others. When McGUIRK did the characters, I could recognize the verbal and composition skills, wondering all the while why they were being put to the service of hate. It is a cop-out to use the "comedy" rationale. It wasn't satire, because satire has a point to make. The only point in sL-IMUS was mean spirited ridicule.

And please, not the "charity" of his ranch. Whatever good he might be doing on the side, and even that has been challenged, I compartmentalize any good out over to one side.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

4. I think Imus should have been fired.........however

....why are the pure right-wing wackos like Rush Limbaugh, Mike Weiner-Savage and Melanie Morgan allowed to spew racist bullshit under the guise of "conservative talk radio". They are not held to the same standard that Imus or other "shock jocks" are held to. It seems as if you are a comedian, or doing an entertainment show, racist comments are not allowed, and you are fired/suspended. But if you are a right winger, because you speak to the "angry American" who needs their outlet, you are ok to say whatever you want.

Imus was fired because he appeals to a wider audience (albeit smaller in actual quantity) while the Limbaughs and Hannitys can run their little broadcasts like a secret club where you can laugh at the "poor silly negroes" and "fags" like this article suggests.

[CTyankee]

5. You are right. I guess people expect garbage out of the Limbaughs of this world but

Imus seemed to have more dimension. However, as time went on his shtick got wearisome and predictable. His "nappy headed ho's" just about summarized his sick mind's thoughts about African Americans and women.

As for "political content," well, you CAN read a book or subscribe to a number of news and opinion publications as well as newspapers. So that argument is pure BS. I can certainly hear from Doris Kearns Goodwin, Clarence Page et alia on PBS and in one of my newspapers (I read opinion sections of 5 Sunday papers). You are intellectually lazy if you had to depend on Imus to hear from them and other writers.