\o7D\f7ollars and sense prevailed when simple common sense should have sufficed, but the end result is what matters most: fewer speakers across our nation will put out pollution from Don Imus.
If the people responsible for putting Imus on the air were really bothered by his reference to the Rutgers women's basketball team as "nappy-headed hos" on his April 4 show, they wouldn't have waited until the following week and a growing furor to condemn them. Their first response would have been more than a token two-week suspension and it wouldn't have taken an exodus of advertisers for MSNBC to stop syndicating Imus' radio show. I don't know what CBS Radio is waiting for.
Imus should have been fired from the jump, not just because of these remarks but because his show has long been a safe haven for racist and sexist comments, and his continued employment would send a message that his bosses are fine with it.
If these comments weren't such a part of the Imus persona, there wouldn't be a section on his Wikipedia page headlined "Racism, misogyny and homophobia." You don't see that on, say, David Letterman's entry.
But on Imus' show it's acceptable for journalist Gwen Ifill to be called a "cleaning lady." Or for Venus and Serena Williams to be described as animals better suited for National Geographic than Playboy. Or for Imus to call the "Jewish management" (his description) at CBS Radio "money-grubbing bastards."
Yet none of these prompted the giant media entities to undergo the soul-searching and policy revision brought on by Janet Jackson's nipple.
Then Staples, Procter & Gamble, American Express and General Motors took a principled stand and pulled their advertising from Imus' show. (I suddenly have an urge to drive a Cadillac to buy some office supplies, then pick up some Tide on the way home and put it all on a green credit card.)
MSNBC and CBS Radio should not have had to follow anyone else's lead on this issue or be told what to do by any organization.
When former NBA player Tim Hardaway said he hated gay people in a radio interview, Commissioner David Stern quickly cut him off from league-related functions. After Albany Patroons Coach Micheal Ray Richardson rekindled stereotypes in describing his "crafty" "Jew lawyers," his contract was not renewed by the Continental Basketball Assn. team. This week NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell suspended Pacman Jones for a year and Chris Henry for half a season because of the players' lengthy list of legal troubles.
