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April 12, 2007
Imus
Imus Gets Cancelled for Racist Remarks
You don’t have to be a huge fan of radio to know the name Dan Imus, he has been the host of “Imus in the Morning” for thirty years, drawing in thousands of fans and quite a bit of revenue for CBS radio. His success was cut short today, however, when he was fired for a controversial comment that caused a national uproar. On Wednesday, April 4, Imus called the Rutger’s women’s basketball team “nappy-headed ho’s,” resulting in a constant flow of complaints and threats from important advertisers like General Motors and American Express.
Normally, I would think that an incident like this could be passed off as a mistake, cushioned by public apologies, but Imus couldn’t get it right. Even after he called his remarks “insensitive and ill-conceived,” he added, “That’s some rough girls from Rutgers. Man, they got tattoos.” He should have stopped at ill-conceived. This is obviously a man who really does have racist tendencies, and for that reason, I agree with CBS and their decision to remove him from his job. Unfortunately, however, the firing of Imus came on the same day that his radio show was supposed to do a huge fundraiser, with a goal of raising $100 million for charities supporting children with cancer and families that have lost babies to infant death syndrome.
If you can’t get enough of this story, check out The Oprah Winfrey Show from Thursday, to nobody’s surprise Oprah brought in ten of the athletes and their coach to talk about the incident.
Posted by bmking at April 12, 2007 05:06 PM