this article is from phil mushnick from the ny post.
HEY, as long as we're at it, why not make every second week of April National Hypocrites Week? Yeah, a week in salute to those who teach us that identifying the difference between wrong and right should only be a matter of timing.
MSNBC on Wednesday fired Don Imus. That clearly indicates that on the day in 1996 when MSNBC hired him, its decision-makers had absolutely no idea what his show was about. I did. You did. But MSNBC didn't? MSNBC attached its name and financing to a five-day-a-week program that its execs had never before heard? Fascinating.
MSNBC didn't know that when Imus finishes playing cleaned-up patty-cake with media and political bigwigs, his show returns to "Dig Through the Dumpster with Don"? How odd. Everyone else, including his big-shot guests, knew for years.
Same with the advertisers who jumped Imus' barge the day before he was sacked. All that time they pumped millions into his show they had no clue? They got blind-sided? Remarkable.
And yesterday, Imus, heard here over WFAN, was canned by CBS Radio, which owns WFAN and whose execs apparently didn't know what the Imus show was about even longer than MSNBC's execs.
Those young women on Rutgers' basketball team? It's hardly surprising that they'd be deeply offended by Imus' characterization of them as "nappy-headed ho's." Exactly who was supposed to be amused by such a comment, anyway? And it's admirable that they'd be moved to speak their outrage during a university-facilitated news conference.
We can only presume, then, that none of them are in possession of music performed by, among many others, Jay-Z, Snoop Dogg and 50 Cent, artists who regularly refer to young women as "ho's" and "bitches" while black men are as regularly called "niggas."
As low as Imus has aimed, little can compare to much of the violent, bigoted stuff heard from so many popular rappers - and sold at a mall near you!
So it's not possible, is it, that even one of these young women has any of that racist and misogynistic stuff downloaded onto her iPod, right? After all, the use of "ho's" as a substitute for "women" can in large part be directly traced to black rap artists, not Don Imus.
And we can only presume that Rutgers, a state university, had well before Imus' comment worked diligently to rid its campuses of such hateful, hurtful and harmful words as those chanted in rap music.
Why I'll bet that RU must have long ago banned concerts that would include such offensive lyrics. And surely RU students known to enjoy such disturbingly hate-filled music were ordered to sensitivity training sessions - under threat of expulsion.
And with such socially sensitive souls as Jay-Z and Snoop Dogg increasingly called upon by shoe manufacturers, phone companies, clothing labels, automakers and breweries to push product, we're sure that the advertisers who cut and ran from Imus would never allow any public hate-speaker to speak for them.
Rev. Al Sharpton? Call me crazy, but does it strike you that if there was a fair-play advocate who ostensibly represents whites exactly as Sharpton ostensibly represents blacks, Rev. Sharpton would identify him as a selectively indignant, conveniently blind, hypocritical, divisive and dangerous race hustler?
And Sharpton would be given to slamming the media for empowering such an "activist." "How," Sharpton would be moved to ask, "can this man be anointed a legitimate, fair-minded voice of white America? Can't white America do any better than this guy?"
And most Americans would agree.
And perhaps if Imus, MSNBC and CBS Radio had immediately cut a check to one of Jesse Jackson's favorite "organizations," Imus would have only been in half as much trouble.
And gosh, look how in the last few days so many TV, radio and print commentators for the first time were moved to note that Imus and Co. have this nasty habit of speaking unfunny, hate-filled words. Some additionally noted that Imus would sanitize his show only when big shots were on with him. They just got around to mentioning that?
It's easy to kick a guy when he's down. No sweat. But how many were willing to kick Imus when he was up - when it counted? How many were willing to risk his nationally televised and syndicated radio ridicule?
Yep, the second week of April every year would be a good time to salute those professionals everywhere who call it as they see it and call it as they hear it - the moment the wind changes.
HEY, as long as we're at it, why not make every second week of April National Hypocrites Week? Yeah, a week in salute to those who teach us that identifying the difference between wrong and right should only be a matter of timing.
MSNBC on Wednesday fired Don Imus. That clearly indicates that on the day in 1996 when MSNBC hired him, its decision-makers had absolutely no idea what his show was about. I did. You did. But MSNBC didn't? MSNBC attached its name and financing to a five-day-a-week program that its execs had never before heard? Fascinating.
MSNBC didn't know that when Imus finishes playing cleaned-up patty-cake with media and political bigwigs, his show returns to "Dig Through the Dumpster with Don"? How odd. Everyone else, including his big-shot guests, knew for years.
Same with the advertisers who jumped Imus' barge the day before he was sacked. All that time they pumped millions into his show they had no clue? They got blind-sided? Remarkable.
And yesterday, Imus, heard here over WFAN, was canned by CBS Radio, which owns WFAN and whose execs apparently didn't know what the Imus show was about even longer than MSNBC's execs.
Those young women on Rutgers' basketball team? It's hardly surprising that they'd be deeply offended by Imus' characterization of them as "nappy-headed ho's." Exactly who was supposed to be amused by such a comment, anyway? And it's admirable that they'd be moved to speak their outrage during a university-facilitated news conference.
We can only presume, then, that none of them are in possession of music performed by, among many others, Jay-Z, Snoop Dogg and 50 Cent, artists who regularly refer to young women as "ho's" and "bitches" while black men are as regularly called "niggas."
As low as Imus has aimed, little can compare to much of the violent, bigoted stuff heard from so many popular rappers - and sold at a mall near you!
So it's not possible, is it, that even one of these young women has any of that racist and misogynistic stuff downloaded onto her iPod, right? After all, the use of "ho's" as a substitute for "women" can in large part be directly traced to black rap artists, not Don Imus.
And we can only presume that Rutgers, a state university, had well before Imus' comment worked diligently to rid its campuses of such hateful, hurtful and harmful words as those chanted in rap music.
Why I'll bet that RU must have long ago banned concerts that would include such offensive lyrics. And surely RU students known to enjoy such disturbingly hate-filled music were ordered to sensitivity training sessions - under threat of expulsion.
And with such socially sensitive souls as Jay-Z and Snoop Dogg increasingly called upon by shoe manufacturers, phone companies, clothing labels, automakers and breweries to push product, we're sure that the advertisers who cut and ran from Imus would never allow any public hate-speaker to speak for them.
Rev. Al Sharpton? Call me crazy, but does it strike you that if there was a fair-play advocate who ostensibly represents whites exactly as Sharpton ostensibly represents blacks, Rev. Sharpton would identify him as a selectively indignant, conveniently blind, hypocritical, divisive and dangerous race hustler?
And Sharpton would be given to slamming the media for empowering such an "activist." "How," Sharpton would be moved to ask, "can this man be anointed a legitimate, fair-minded voice of white America? Can't white America do any better than this guy?"
And most Americans would agree.
And perhaps if Imus, MSNBC and CBS Radio had immediately cut a check to one of Jesse Jackson's favorite "organizations," Imus would have only been in half as much trouble.
And gosh, look how in the last few days so many TV, radio and print commentators for the first time were moved to note that Imus and Co. have this nasty habit of speaking unfunny, hate-filled words. Some additionally noted that Imus would sanitize his show only when big shots were on with him. They just got around to mentioning that?
It's easy to kick a guy when he's down. No sweat. But how many were willing to kick Imus when he was up - when it counted? How many were willing to risk his nationally televised and syndicated radio ridicule?
Yep, the second week of April every year would be a good time to salute those professionals everywhere who call it as they see it and call it as they hear it - the moment the wind changes.
