I-Man Sacked By Thought Police—Who Is Next?

If you live in a society where there is free speech you are going to hear some things you don\'t like and you are going to be offended. Get over it. I\'d rather hear offensive remarks being thrown around than live in a big brotheresque, politically correct and censored society. Of course Imus shouldn\'t have said what he did, but this is one of the consequences of having the freedom of speech. If you don\'t like it move to Europe.

Nathan You are a tremendous writer! As a fan of Women\'s basketball, I was offended by Imus\'s comments. At the time, I thought,\"Why would he say that?\" Shortly thereafter, I said to myself, \"Typical I-man!\" He generally wants controversy and that explains his words.Doesn\'t make them right, but explains them. I am offended every time I hear Rush or Coulter\'s voice and I think I will seek out a crusader to bring my complaints to the public. They won\'t apologize. Imus did. Let the man live and learn. The Rutgers women will forgive him and left to their own devices probably would have already! Jesse and Al are no more important these days than Sean Penn or any other \"celebrity\" that has an opinion. Interesting characters to poke a bee\'s nest but not really relevant.

I don\'t understand how Sharpton and Jackson still exist to pull the cons they do.

I used to listen to Imus (90\'s?) on WFAN and he was/is as you described, which is why I enjoyed his show (that and Mets games). When I moved out to AZ the closest affiliate was in Tucson, so up in Phx I wasn\'t going to hear it.

This whole situation has me slightly freaked out and your post tags it exactly. Sharpton and Jackson up in the halls of the leadership of the \"Thought Police\" should be taken to task and torn down; not because I want to play the role of a citizen volunteer thought police officer, but because they yell fire in the movie theaters too often.

Sharpton and Jackson, if I recall pretty much crucified, vilified, and guiltified the Duke players…..look at the situation now….odd no? Different type of thought and acceptable I guess.

Civil Rights leaders my *SS!!!

Let me just say as a black female that neither I nor any of my personal friends perceive Jackson or Sharpton to be \"Civil Rights leaders\" or any such nonsense.

In fact we shake our heads at the people that go to them for atonement. No one in the black community has elected either of them to office nor held a meeting to agree that they would \"lead\" our race.

IMO, Imus would have been better served to immediately apologize for his statements directly to the people he degraded, the members of the basketball team.

The visit to Sharpton\'s show did nothing to help his cause, thus his firing from MSNBC.

In order to be a leader you must have followers. I do not and have not ever supported Jackson or Sharpton.

Frankly, I find it insulting when the media speaks of them as leaders of the black community. By whose vote?

Bravo Nathan!!!

I just cannot believe the hyperbole that this has created!! I love Imus, and I don\'t see anyone crying wolf when he lampoons Hillary, or John Kerry, or John McCain or Rudy Guiliani. Where\'s Als Sharpton and his civil rights crusaders when he call\'s Hillary a blond bimbo, as he has many times?

The man has apologized, his career hangs in ruins, his supporters have fled, does Al Sharpton really need his head?

Tony: \"does Al Sharpton really need his head?\" I originally misread this part of your comment to mean \'does Sharpton need his own head.\' With my misreading of this I\'ll still answer as I had originally intended, although with this preamble.

YES, Sharpton does need his head! Where would he sit without it?

I don\'t know of anyone who looked at Sharpton to come to their conclusion. I never give him a thought.

Speech is certainly free, but in this case Imus\'s speech/show is not free, his show is paid for. It appears that those involved decided they did not want to pay for the continuation a show which makes it\'s money from degrading people.

Isn\'t it great that we live in a country where Imus can now go and start a blog and spew all the hate he wants to, where he can go to Sirius radio and have those who care to pay to listen to more of the same.

This has very little to do with Al Sharpton, and people who keep bring Sharpton into it are missing the point.

No offense Cooper, but I don\'t believe you have the entire picture. It is about Sharpton becuase he\'s the wolf in the fold. He\'s the loudest of the loud and he\'s using this as a political test for a certain candidate.

If people don\'t like what Imus said, they can choose not to listen or appear on his program. If his sponsors don\'t like what he said, they can pull their dollars from his show. If his employers don\'t like it, they can fire him or suspend him.

What is not necessary - is the spectacle that has been created by Al Sharpton\'s incessently nasal bitching and complaining!!!

Nathan\'s right - this is speech control run-amok. If people are offended, let them speak with their wallet and their time.

If you live in a society where there is free speech you are going to hear some things you don’t like and you are going to be offended. Get over it. I’d rather hear offensive remarks being thrown around than live in a big brotheresque, politically correct and censored society. Of course Imus shouldn’t have said what he did, but this is one of the consequences of having the freedom of speech. If you don’t like it move to Europe.

Right on Nathan.

Double-standards have no place in this country. Yet, it is exactly the pulpit that Sharpton speaks from.

Personally, I believe there are many more things worth worrying about than what Imus said. If you listen to his show and want to keep doing that, great. If you don\'t, then you probably didn\'t listen to his show before.

Nathan You are a tremendous writer! As a fan of Women’s basketball, I was offended by Imus’s comments. At the time, I thought,”Why would he say that?” Shortly thereafter, I said to myself, “Typical I-man!” He generally wants controversy and that explains his words.Doesn’t make them right, but explains them. I am offended every time I hear Rush or Coulter’s voice and I think I will seek out a crusader to bring my complaints to the public. They won’t apologize. Imus did. Let the man live and learn. The Rutgers women will forgive him and left to their own devices probably would have already! Jesse and Al are no more important these days than Sean Penn or any other “celebrity” that has an opinion. Interesting characters to poke a bee’s nest but not really relevant.

I don’t understand how Sharpton and Jackson still exist to pull the cons they do.

I used to listen to Imus (90’s?) on WFAN and he was/is as you described, which is why I enjoyed his show (that and Mets games). When I moved out to AZ the closest affiliate was in Tucson, so up in Phx I wasn’t going to hear it.

This whole situation has me slightly freaked out and your post tags it exactly. Sharpton and Jackson up in the halls of the leadership of the “Thought Police” should be taken to task and torn down; not because I want to play the role of a citizen volunteer thought police officer, but because they yell fire in the movie theaters too often.

Sharpton and Jackson, if I recall pretty much crucified, vilified, and guiltified the Duke players…..look at the situation now….odd no? Different type of thought and acceptable I guess.

Civil Rights leaders my *SS!!!

Bravo Nathan!

I’ve been thinking about this for the last couple days and I keep thinking how this is such a double-standard where Al Sharpton of all people should not be the leading voice against Imus. To have Al Sharpton lead the fight against Imus is ridiculous. Sharpton has a history of inflammatory remarks and still hasn’t apologized to the former Duke lacrosse players whose lives are forever changed because of racially-charged claims proven woefully wrong. I suggest you go to <a href=\"http://dickpolman.blogspot.com\" rel=\"nofollow\">dickpolman.blogspot.com/</a> and read his <a href=\"http://dickpolman.blogspot.com/2007/04/al-sharpto...rel=\"nofollow\">April 10th posting about Sharpton</a>. He lays out some instances where Sharpton has been woefully wrong.

By the way… if someone calls me a “honky”, I’m gonna claim I’m hurt and offened by such comments, wouldn’t y’all agree?

Jeremy,

Perhaps Sharpton will call you that after reading your post!

Shrader

What I am curious about is the sudden rise in these seeming instances…from Mel Gibson, to Michael Richards, to Biden, and now Imus.

I always like how the political right jumps all over the \"political correctness\" thing and about how the left is trying to censure free speech.

How is it different than what the right does by sometimes advocating better moral society?

Either way, its people or government trying to tell other people how they should behave.

With that said, is it not better to have a society that is more morally upright, which includes common decency, courtesy, and respect for others? I am not a \"political correctness\" fiend, but I believe in that.

Question is, why the decay of morals and common decency and courtesy?

Let me just say as a black female that neither I nor any of my personal friends perceive Jackson or Sharpton to be “Civil Rights leaders” or any such nonsense.

In fact we shake our heads at the people that go to them for atonement. No one in the black community has elected either of them to office nor held a meeting to agree that they would “lead” our race.

IMO, Imus would have been better served to immediately apologize for his statements directly to the people he degraded, the members of the basketball team.

The visit to Sharpton’s show did nothing to help his cause, thus his firing from MSNBC.

In order to be a leader you must have followers. I do not and have not ever supported Jackson or Sharpton.

Frankly, I find it insulting when the media speaks of them as leaders of the black community. By whose vote?

Bravo Nathan!!!

I just cannot believe the hyperbole that this has created!! I love Imus, and I don’t see anyone crying wolf when he lampoons Hillary, or John Kerry, or John McCain or Rudy Guiliani. Where’s Als Sharpton and his civil rights crusaders when he call’s Hillary a blond bimbo, as he has many times?

The man has apologized, his career hangs in ruins, his supporters have fled, does Al Sharpton really need his head?

Tony: “does Al Sharpton really need his head?” I originally misread this part of your comment to mean ‘does Sharpton need his own head.’ With my misreading of this I’ll still answer as I had originally intended, although with this preamble.

YES, Sharpton does need his head! Where would he sit without it?

I understand the whole Sharpton thing. I just don\'t think Imus was sacked because of Sharpton or his like.

I think that the girls basketball team coming out and having a news conference placed of a human face on all the verbal indignity and provoked his removal.

There is plenty that goes on that should be addressed, especially in forums such as Imus\'s where politics, reporting, and satire are unfortunately sometimes all meshed into one thing (when they are not one thing).

In this case it was everyone looking at real people and getting the connection between the words and the people. Maybe it is the first time this has happened on such a large scale and maybe everyone finally realized how ugly it is.

That, of course, is just my opinion.

I don’t know of anyone who looked at Sharpton to come to their conclusion. I never give him a thought.

Speech is certainly free, but in this case Imus’s speech/show is not free, his show is paid for. It appears that those involved decided they did not want to pay for the continuation a show which makes it’s money from degrading people.

Isn’t it great that we live in a country where Imus can now go and start a blog and spew all the hate he wants to, where he can go to Sirius radio and have those who care to pay to listen to more of the same.

This has very little to do with Al Sharpton, and people who keep bring Sharpton into it are missing the point.

I just saw that the knuckleheads running CBS (Moonves) have canned the I-Man! Thank God that I don\'t watch anything on CBS… or I would have to boycott.

No offense Cooper, but I don’t believe you have the entire picture. It is about Sharpton becuase he’s the wolf in the fold. He’s the loudest of the loud and he’s using this as a political test for a certain candidate.

If people don’t like what Imus said, they can choose not to listen or appear on his program. If his sponsors don’t like what he said, they can pull their dollars from his show. If his employers don’t like it, they can fire him or suspend him.

What is not necessary - is the spectacle that has been created by Al Sharpton’s incessently nasal bitching and complaining!!!

Nathan’s right - this is speech control run-amok. If people are offended, let them speak with their wallet and their time.

MSNBC and CBS craved in to public opinion. Who else is willing to <b>bet good money</b> that the majority of the public and those outrage know nothing about Imus\'s program. He was trying to make a joke. If you have access to Comedy Central, watch ONE of their shows, and see how much racism, sexism, or whatever-ism is in it. They\'re just trying to get people to laugh, not to hurt people\'s feelings. If it hurts you so badly, you can just go cry in the corner ;).

Can you believe they canned him?

Bryan Monroe, president of the National Association of Black Journalists and vice president and editor director of Ebony and Jet magazines:

\"Something happened in the last week around America,\" Monroe said. \"It\'s not just what the radio host did. America said enough is enough. America said we don\'t want this kind of conversation, we don\'t want this kind of vitriol, especially with teenagers.\"

\"Sheila Johnson, owner of the WNBA\'s Washington Mystics and, with her ex-husband Robert, co-founder of BET, called Imus\' comments reprehensible in an interview with The Associated Press. She said she had called Moonves to urge that CBS cut all ties with the veteran radio star, and was worried that what he said could hurt women\'s sports.\"

\"It\'s not about taking Imus down,\" Sharpton said. \"It\'s about lifting decency up.\"

Yeah, ok Al….this is so strange….not defending what he said….just going in a very odd direction

Right on Nathan.

Double-standards have no place in this country. Yet, it is exactly the pulpit that Sharpton speaks from.

Personally, I believe there are many more things worth worrying about than what Imus said. If you listen to his show and want to keep doing that, great. If you don’t, then you probably didn’t listen to his show before.

Bravo Nathan!

I’ve been thinking about this for the last couple days and I keep thinking how this is such a double-standard where Al Sharpton of all people should not be the leading voice against Imus. To have Al Sharpton lead the fight against Imus is ridiculous. Sharpton has a history of inflammatory remarks and still hasn’t apologized to the former Duke lacrosse players whose lives are forever changed because of racially-charged claims proven woefully wrong. I suggest you go to dickpolman.blogspot.com/ and read his April 10th posting about Sharpton. He lays out some instances where Sharpton has been woefully wrong.

By the way… if someone calls me a “honky”, I’m gonna claim I’m hurt and offened by such comments, wouldn’t y’all agree?

What I am curious about is the sudden rise in these seeming instances…from Mel Gibson, to Michael Richards, to Biden, and now Imus.

I always like how the political right jumps all over the “political correctness” thing and about how the left is trying to censure free speech.

How is it different than what the right does by sometimes advocating better moral society?

Either way, its people or government trying to tell other people how they should behave.

With that said, is it not better to have a society that is more morally upright, which includes common decency, courtesy, and respect for others? I am not a “political correctness” fiend, but I believe in that.

Question is, why the decay of morals and common decency and courtesy?

I understand the whole Sharpton thing. I just don’t think Imus was sacked because of Sharpton or his like.

I think that the girls basketball team coming out and having a news conference placed of a human face on all the verbal indignity and provoked his removal.

There is plenty that goes on that should be addressed, especially in forums such as Imus’s where politics, reporting, and satire are unfortunately sometimes all meshed into one thing (when they are not one thing).

In this case it was everyone looking at real people and getting the connection between the words and the people. Maybe it is the first time this has happened on such a large scale and maybe everyone finally realized how ugly it is.

That, of course, is just my opinion.

MSNBC and CBS craved in to public opinion. Who else is willing to bet good money that the majority of the public and those outrage know nothing about Imus’s program. He was trying to make a joke. If you have access to Comedy Central, watch ONE of their shows, and see how much racism, sexism, or whatever-ism is in it. They’re just trying to get people to laugh, not to hurt people’s feelings. If it hurts you so badly, you can just go cry in the corner ;).

Can you believe they canned him?

Bryan Monroe, president of the National Association of Black Journalists and vice president and editor director of Ebony and Jet magazines:

“Something happened in the last week around America,” Monroe said. “It’s not just what the radio host did. America said enough is enough. America said we don’t want this kind of conversation, we don’t want this kind of vitriol, especially with teenagers.”

“Sheila Johnson, owner of the WNBA’s Washington Mystics and, with her ex-husband Robert, co-founder of BET, called Imus’ comments reprehensible in an interview with The Associated Press. She said she had called Moonves to urge that CBS cut all ties with the veteran radio star, and was worried that what he said could hurt women’s sports.”

“It’s not about taking Imus down,” Sharpton said. “It’s about lifting decency up.”

Yeah, ok Al….this is so strange….not defending what he said….just going in a very odd direction

Cooper has a point that requires critical approach.

Cooper has a point that requires critical approach.