Essay 1965

From The New York Daily News…

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Imus spews hate, should be fired

BY FILIP BONDY
DAILY NEWS SPORTS COLUMNIST

Of all the very dumb and nasty things screamed on sports TV and radio these last few years, by everyone from Rush Limbaugh to Sid Rosenberg, what Don Imus said on Wednesday about the Rutgers women’s basketball team was the very worst, the most hateful of all.

What he said was terrible not only because of its content, which was despicable in its own right. It was even worse because of its target, a group of 19- to 21-year-old, largely African-American women from a nearby state university who had just accomplished something wonderful and unexpected by reaching the Final Four. What do you tell these women now, who did absolutely nothing to deserve such shameful scorn, to face such horrendous racist remarks?

And though this never will happen in a million years, Imus should be fired for it today — actually, yesterday — just as the National Association of Black Journalists demands.

He should be axed for one of the most despicable comments ever uttered on the air. If Limbaugh can be dumped by ESPN for an ill-informed opinion about Donovan McNabb, if Rosenberg can be dropped by WFAN for his vile comments about Kylie Minogue’s battle with breast cancer, then Imus deserves the same treatment, despite his status.

Of course, there are enormous profits to consider, and so the cowards at MSNBC and WFAN are simply standing back, distancing themselves from Imus, reminding viewers and listeners that the man speaks only for himself — even though he does it on their time and networks. The fact that he was even on the air yesterday, two days after his comments, was in itself a disgrace.

Here’s the deal, or what the deal ought to be: You don’t get to say these things, even if you finally decide to change your mind and apologize, nearly 24 hours later. You just don’t call young college women “nappy-headed hos.”

If you do, you should lose your microphone, whether or not you are the bread and butter and honey and cash cow of the local sports station.

You can talk about Imus just being Imus, about how he’s doing a shtick and should never be taken seriously. But even if you grant him the Charles Barkley exception, even if you want to say, “That’s just Imus,” you just can’t with this one. That’s how bad it was. Rutgers officials called his comments “unconscionable,” and that is exactly the right word for them.

Here’s how it went again, this mean discussion among four white men. Imus started it:

“That’s some rough girls from Rutgers. Man, they got tattoos,” he said.

Bernard McGuirk, his producer: “Some hardcore hos.”

Imus: That’s some nappy-headed hos there. I’m gonna tell you that now, man, that’s some — woo. And the girls from Tennessee, they all look cute, you know, so, like — kinda like — I don’t know.

McGuirk: A Spike Lee thing.

Imus: Yeah.

McGuirk: The Jigaboos vs. the Wannabes — that movie that he had.

Imus: Yeah, it was a tough —

Charles McCord, a co-host: Do The Right Thing.

McGuirk: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Imus: I don’t know if I’d have wanted to beat Rutgers or not, but they did, right?

Rosenberg (a guest commentator): It was a tough watch. The more I look at Rutgers, they look exactly like the Toronto Raptors.

Imus: Well, I guess, yeah.

Anybody who listens to the Imus show regularly knows how this usually works. It is McGuirk who is supposed to utter the basest kind of racist innuendo. Then Imus goes tut-tut, wink-wink, and McGuirk is left out there as the chastened hatchet man.

This time, Imus foolishly diverged from the script. He brought up the subject himself, then confirmed McGuirk’s crudest remarks.

It is impossible to imagine WFAN discovering a conscience on this matter. Here is the only reasonable hope. Those politicians who go on Imus’ show, those who pander to him during his “serious” segments, need to turn down the guest appearances. Maybe they will, at least until he launders himself. Those politicians he considers friends have been using Imus, every bit as much as he has used them.

Today, he is useless to them. He is worse than useless. He is McGuirk.