It Wasn’t What He Said
The world must apparently struggle along with one fewer white guy on the radio. Most of us already felt there was a surplus of rich, middle-aged, drunks and junkies on the air waves, but the rich white guy demographic that makes up the punditry will go through a period of ashes and sack cloth.
[I know that I’m supposed to refer to rich white guys who abuse drugs and alcohol as Mr. President…whoops chemical dependent, because they get to go to spas and call it rehabilitation, while non-rich, non-white people get thrown in jail, but screw them. I refused to act like I empathize with people who “can’t deal with fame and fortune,’ or to consider it as a better excuse than being poor and desperate.]
I know that it is going to be blamed on the vicious attacks of Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, who just couldn’t be satisfied with an apology, well, sorry, but Al and Jesse don’t have that kind of pull. As Steve M. of No More Mister Nice Blog notes, Al and Jesse have been going after rappers for two years without success.
So what happened?
Kevin Drum almost had it in his Imus and rappers post: “A slur aimed at specific people is obviously different than a generic slur in a rap song, but it’s not that different.” Au contraire, in the laws covering libel and slander, who the “slur” targets is very important, and in fact changes many of the basic premises.
New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254 (1964) brought in the actual malice standard that “a public person” must prove, but that standard doesn’t apply to private individuals.
Pudentilla at skippy the bush kangaroo whispers the three magic words, slander per se, that cost him his job. Because of who the plaintiffs are, 10 young women, there is an assumption of defamation if they file a lawsuit.
CBS is a corporation. Corporations don’t like lawsuits that are going to cost them money. The sponsors have already jumped ship and there is no one ready to take their place. If CBS brought the show back, there would be no advertising revenue, but there would be the expense of broadcasting the show. Imus was toast as soon as they did the math.
You can pretty much say anything you want about politicians or entertainers and be safe. To show you have class, you can apologize when you get caught in a really outrageous lie. An apology will usually cover stereotyping, because it makes advertisers nervous, but private citizens are strictly a no-no.
When you attack ten private citizens who are students representing a university founded before the Revolution, that has a law school and wealthy alumni, and that exists within range of your radio signal – start packing, it’s over.
9 comments
I kind of like this theory.
Some people have to learn the hard way… and then there are people who never learn at all. We’ll know soon enough which category Imus is in.
An elderly neighbor of mine, whom I love dearly and who generally shares my political views, tried the “But… but… Imus has done so much charitable work” line. As I told her, there are plenty of other org’s competing for one’s charity dollars, and if Imus is not a fraud, he will continue to fund those charities the neighbor mentioned, even now that his radio career is over. Surely he has the money, after his long career of (ahem) whoring (word chosen quite deliberately) for a deplorable crowd.
In case anybody needs it, The Fallen Uterus and Her Dick inadvertently found Imus’ little cutesy ranch in Montana, as his personal chef was punching in the security code at the gate.
No, they’ve never shared the specific address with ME, but I’m sure that you could bribe it out of them if you really really needed it.
Personally, I’d like to leave him tied to a fence a’la Matthew Shepard and paint him in blackface and a fright wig and leave him out on his expensive “ranch” property for the coyotes to nibble upon.
Too mean?
Except they weren’t professionals, Hipparchia. When you bad mouth pro athletes you shouldn’t do it on a show that depends on good relations with teams and the sports bureaucracy. It’s a good thing he didn’t say it about the Lady Vols. Their fans would have hung him by now. It’s always about money with corporations. If the sponsors hadn’t bolted, CBS might have kept him.
That’s a little close to “Hitler was kind to his dog.” The man had power and he misused it. He hurt ten young women he didn’t know supposedly to score points with a cheap joke. I’m not impressed with charity work unless it involves real work, not just money and photo ops. He has been getting a major tax write-off for that ranch.
Annti, he’s not worth the effort. He is a garden variety jerk that someone gave a microphone, and after he had done it for a while they decided he was a “professional”.
He was the president of the fraternity that all of the nerds wanted to join, so they submitted to his initiation of abuse.
He is of no importance in the real world, a local morning show host in a large market. He isn’t worth the powder it would take to blow him to hell [ a localism, not a threat, BTW].
There’s no shortage of no account peckerwoods. He won’t be missed.
Hey, not every Rutgers alum is wealthy. 🙂 Just saying.
– Elayne (RC class of ’79)
There are a few who are enjoying the tax cuts when the school has a half billion dollar endowment. I know the feeling though, as one of the 8 guys in my freshmen class at Colgate on scholarship.
If I ever do see Montana (though I’d hate to have to do it in THEIR RV), I fully intend to broach the grounds of Imus’ “ranch” (ha! Like Crawford is a “ranch”!) and have a little sit-down confab with the useless old fucker.
Hey, a girl can dream, right?
He just isn’t worth it. He is a nothing who was elevated to celebrity status to run a radio frat house. Everyone who ever went on the show should be ashamed of themselves, because he has been spewing the crap for years, except this time he picked the wrong target.