Piling on

I’ll join the chorus of the many who’ve decried the racially inappropriate remarks made by mega-radio host Don Imus last week (or the week before last.)

And I won’t defend for one moment what he said, what caused him to say it or even that it seems he was baited by his producer with a leading and very similar remark.

Some of my questions and comments are no longer new since columnist Cal Thomas has weighed in but in case you don’t read him …

If you’ve been a listener of Imus for any length of time, you have to know that neither he nor his staff are going to be politically correct about almost anything. They lampoon numerous public figures from Ted Kennedy to New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin. They pick on almost every religion and especially Catholics with the Cardinal Egan skits.

My wife made a very important distinction in this. Most of those that Imus makes fun of are public figures. Some ridicule goes (or comes) with the territory. But the Rutgers basketball team are not quite public personae yet – once they hit the WBA or whatever league is still around by then – then they will but until …

No one is safe on Imus. How do I know? I’ve been listening for several years. Let’s backtrack. I used to listen regularly in the late 90s but then it seemed that the humor got more and more sexual, more off-color etc. so I quit listening for a while.

Then of all things 9/11 happened and for some reason I was listening that day and heard his guest Warner Wolf talk about the noises he heard from his south Manhattan residence. No need to rehash the rest of that day. But just like everybody recalls where they were when JFK was shot, I think most of this generation will measure things by where they were on 9/11/01.

And from that day on I noticed a change in Imus (for awhile.) It seemed like everybody grew up a little. The guests got more serious. More Tom Friedman. More heavy-weight politicos. So between about 7:25 and 7:50 I became an almost regular. If he was talking sports or his latest crusade to clean up your home from things that may cause autism, Cardinal Egan skits and the like, I turned the dial. But if he had Harold Ford on? Heck even though he is a democrat from Tennessee, I’d probably vote for him for something.

I guess part of my question is where were all the detractors during the many years of Imus’ reign? And I recall something that I’ll bet few people (except my wife) remember from the 80s. Imus was one of the early VJs on VH1. He looked old and about to die back then but the memory related to Michael Jackson. What I recall is him having a Michael Jackson doll (that in and of itself is a scary thought!) and sticking it with large pins as if it were a so-called voodoo doll. In those days MTV (sister or brother of VH1) was considered racist because in the pre-rap days, they didn’t air much of anything by African-American artists.

My point is several-fold. I don’t know the heart of the man. And judge not lest you be … you know. But I think there may have been more than a pattern of subtle and even overt racism in his past and present.

He has apologized to the team. They accepted. One more place he needs to go. His ranch and those kids. I read today that he may have trouble finding future funding for the Imus Ranch for Kids with Cancer because of his problems. Way too bad for them. Imus will recover and if Howard Stern can find life on Sirius satellite radio, there is still a future for Imus.

But Cal Thomas points out bigger problems and double standards. You need to read his column of April 16 (go here) but he points out that one of Imus’s detractors was none other than Jesse Jackson of the infamous “Hymietown” episode some years back. And if memory serves the Rev. Al Sharpton was involved in something with a young lady named Tawana Brawley. If using a young black woman to advance yourself or your agenda is not racist, then what is or isn’t?

Mr. Thomas points out the racism and misogyny in much of rap and hip-hop music but it seems perfectly OK for those involved to make their millions at the possible expense of those of their own race.

I’ve probably added little to the discussion but if I made you think or go read Cal Thomas, then it was worth it.