FRANK RICH: Everybody Hates Don Imus

[kevinmc]

FAMILIAR as I am with the warp speed of media, I was still taken aback by the velocity of Don Imus’s fall after he uttered an indefensible racist and sexist slur about the Rutgers women’s basketball team. Even in that short span, there’s been an astounding display of hypocrisy, sanctimony and self-congratulation from nearly every side of the debate, starting with Al Sharpton, who has yet to apologize for his leading role in the Tawana Brawley case, the 1980s racial melee prompted by unproven charges much like those that soiled the Duke lacrosse players.
It’s possible that the only people in this whole sorry story who are not hypocrites are the Rutgers teammates and their coach, C. Vivian Stringer. And perhaps even Don Imus himself, who, while talking way too much about black people he has known and ill children he has helped, took full responsibility for his own catastrophic remarks and didn’t try to blame the ensuing media lynching on the press, bloggers or YouTube. Unlike Mel Gibson, Michael Richards and Isaiah Washington, to take just three entertainers who have recently delivered loud religious, racial or sexual slurs, Imus didn’t hire a P.R. crisis manager and ostentatiously enter rehab or undergo psychiatric counseling. “I dished it out for a long time,” he said on his show last week, “and now it’s my time to take it.”

Among the hypocrites surrounding Imus, I’ll include myself. I’ve been a guest on his show many times since he first invited me in the early 1990s, when I was a theater critic. I’ve almost always considered him among the smarter and more authentic conversationalists I’ve encountered as an interviewee. As a book author, I could always use the publicity.

Of course I was aware of many of his obnoxious comments about minority groups, including my own, Jews. Sometimes he aimed invective at me personally. I wasn’t seriously bothered by much of it, even when it was unfunny or made me wince, because I saw him as equally offensive to everyone. The show’s crudest interludes struck me as burlesque......

http://freedemocracy.blogspot.com/2007/04/frank-rich-everybody-hates-don-imus.html

[babylonsister]

1. Thank you, Mr. Rich (and kevinmc)! nt

[HysteryDiagnosis]

2. Will we be seeing the Don (Imus) exchanging glances with

the Don (Trump) on an upcoming episode of The Apprentice??? I mean, he has shown that he can handle it gracefully enough.

[PSPS]

3. I'm sorry, but Rich is writing as a star-struck fan

By his own admission, he's been on the Imus show. As a result, he's smitten with him. Hence, this thinly-veiled attack on Imus' firing by listing many instances of similar (not really, though) behavior by others. In other words, he gives Imus a quasi pass because "everyone does it."

Sure, Imus' pig-headed slur that got him fired was indefensible and he was rightly fired. Frankly, his schtick is unamusing and offensive to everyone who's managed to progress beyond adolescence. But apparently the sole litmus test for any program's desirability is whether or not it can sell advertising. By that reasoning, we'll soon have live torture shows on TV. (Oh wait, we already do in fictional form on Fox -- "24.")

I remember seeing a TV piece a long time ago showing Mike Wallace dropping the name Don Imus when recounting an interview he (Wallace) did. I was shocked and, from that point on, never thought of Wallace in the same way. Who can respect someone who feels it gives them some kind of cachet if they can say they were on the Don Imus show?

I've long since grown tired of finding nothing on the radio anymore besides frat-boy fart jokes (or racial slurs) by and for the legions of "listeners" who share the same trait of arrested development. Anything that culls the airwaves of this unfunny chatter is OK by me.

[The Count]

5. Bingo! How is NOT Imus hypocrite? He " apologizes" then blames the rappers in the

same breath...The entire press is now blaming blacks for racism. The NY Daily News went a step further - they blame the Democrats for it - or at least the 2008 candidates. Can't find the cover now nut it had photos of Hillary, Obama and the banner: Dems woo Rap someone"Sorry, Rich. You blew it on this one, buddy.

[Berry Cool]

6. Rich is not hearing what I heard if he says Imus never tried to blame it on the media!

He certainly did! And for days, too!

[jobycom]

8. Yeah, it stuns me how people are turning this into an attack on Sharpton, Jackson, and rap artists.

Imus makes an indefensible racist attack, and people are blaming the victims and those sticking up for the victims. I remember this same reaction when Trent Lott said Strom Thurmond would have given America a better future. But only from conservatives, not from liberals, then.

[pretzel4gore]

4. why this herd ethic?

why when something happens does the body politic all run w/out looking where it's been, where it's going, or so on? the Don Imus case became a bfd because the pigmedia, which is constantly calling 'fire' in the crowded human theatre, or 'wolf' everytime it wants to distract the very herd who frank rich says 'hates don imus' from another gopig crime. In fact, imho, most thinking people credit Imus with being part of pigmedia when he simply went too far and got out in front in that one instance (which the media never ignored, as they did for william bennett or rush limbah-humbug, or partially did for anus coulter and john gibson- and will do whenever they think necessary) and was man enough to get beaten w/out resorting to usual whiney dodges. But Frank Rich nevertheless pretends there's some kind of high standard which usually prevails, but this reagan/miller case, the subject of a Dennis McDougal book, in which reagan's personal attorney's son raped and murdered his mother back in the 80's....the interesting aspect as applied to Don Imus etc is the way the media acted in concert in this murder case because reagan and his pals didn't want a 'Don Imus' type media scandal, and the merdia agreed. Frank Rich never mentions THAT! (that the media could say '"Don WHO? never heard of any 'don Imus!...sure you don't mean Don Rickles?, Don Ho? Don Coyote")
>
From Publishers Weekly
Clearly Roy Miller, a California tax attorney whose clients include Ronald and Nancy Reagan, is a professional success. But his family life is quite another story. In the picture presented by McDougal, his wife was an obsessive nutritionist and a smothering mother. Their older son, Jeff, who majored in religion at college, became a religious fanatic and, hospitalized for schizophrenia, committed suicide. Then an even greater tragedy struck when the younger son, Michael, raped and murdered his mother in 1983. Michael had been treated for schizophrenia for several years and, after a number of sanity hearings, was tried and found guilty but insane. He has been institutionalized for 10 years and his prognosis is dismal. McDougal ( Angel of Darkness ) had to fight for access to the court records, which had been sealed at the request of both the prosecution and the defense, one suspects because of the prominent figures involved. This is a compelling tale of the destruction of a family by mental illness. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

http://www.amazon.com/Best-Families-Anatomy-True-Tragedy/dp/0446602353

[The Count]

19. "most thinking people?" or rather "rich white men?"

Dunno what "herd" mentality you are talking about. I've been angry about this since I read it here - and no, I don't follow MSM - unless reviewed here (and other internet venues).So, don't tell ME I am following any herd. If I did, I'd probably scream about rappers just about now.

[pretzel4gore]

22. as distinct creatures, free of cant, hopefully

you can react to don imus's faux pas in one way, and i in the opposite; yet we both be right, because we both want the best (for the world) hopefully... frank rich hems and haws about what Don said about the Rutger U kids and then he goes after Rev Al and the ancient Brawley case, as if that exxonerates Don Imus somehow....meanwhile, frank rich, big fukking deal news man isn't telling society about bush's crimes, or the dangers our society is in from the criminals still using power to hide/commit their crimes. That's why i mentioned the Miller murder case. 'frank rich' saw what happened, ran to report it, then was told to 'scram' by the reaganites, and frank rich scrammed! the 'can do' media! The 'herd' mentality is whatever the frank rich newsmedia pretends it is, regardless of the real world. Don Imus despised bush, and the 'herd' went after him (in reality, of course, it was the frank rich media who destroyed Imus's careeer) we the people for the most part never paid any attention to Don Imus, knowing Don's hardly the worst (which doesn't say he shouldn't retire)
look at paul harvey! the ghastly old racist is truly vicious, and routinely is heard by greater numbers then Don, but....crickets

[jobycom]

7. "was an inhuman contempt in the moment that sounded like hate to me."

"...his slur was aimed at young women who had no standing in the world of celebrity, and who had done nothing in public except behave as exemplary student athletes. The spectacle of a media star verbally assaulting them, and with a creepy, dismissive laugh, as if the whole thing were merely a disposable joke, was ugly. You couldn’t watch it without feeling that some kind of crime had been committed. That was true even before the world met his victims. So while I still don’t know whether Imus is a bigot, there was an inhuman contempt in the moment that sounded like hate to me."

That's the only part of the article that sounded true to me. I don't hate Imus, but to compare what he said to rap music, Borat, or South Park is disingenuous. Borat and South Park are satire, vulgar rap music is a reflection of internal attitudes and fantasies. Imus made racist comments directed at a specific group of real people. It's the difference between Frank Sinatra singing "The Lady is a Tramp" and Frank Sinatra screaming insults at a specific casino worker.

[frogcycle]

9. precisely

[babylonsister]

16. Bullshit, respectfully.

Imus was being Imus (with lots of kudos going to his asshole producer, Bernard McGurck(sp?).
Rich is spot on; as wrong as it was, the man is not a racist imo, and it got blown totally out of proportion to the words. As for me, there are many more people who deserve what Imus got.

[jobycom]

17. I didn't call him a racist.

I can't judge what's in his heart, and I have no reason to try. He is paid for his words, not his heart. And his words were racist, so they stopped paying him to spout those words. If Rush had said the same words, or Beck, or Coulter, the opinion at DU would be unanimous condemnation of them. It should be for Imus, too, and I'm stunned that it isn't.

[The Count]

20. Just once - poor little Imus? How about those other statements then?

Also "out of proportions" - or completely ignored?
http://americablog.blogspot.com/2007/04/imus-3-weeks-ago-on.html

[babylonsister]

18. Rich didn't compare them, for crying out loud.

Rich made the point that no one said squat about Borat, South Park, etc., but Imus got the brunt of the bullshit.
Whatever, for those who hate him, he's gone. Now you are free to attack someone else, though I don't see anyone of his caliber, regarding having the intelligent guests he had, the great discussions, Fisher House, Kids with Cancer, big advocate for vets at Walter Reed, etc. Yeah, Imus sucked.
When someone with his creds can replace him, let me know.

[The Count]

21. People said plenty about Borat - in spite being a satire. All movie critics in fact.

Faux gave it a limited release for starters because of the "outrage"
As for our "attacks" - they were less personal than you think. I am still angry about racism - Imus or not Imus. For one, uglier haters are still at their mikes. And for a second, I saw DU-ers embracing RW talking points to attack a disgusting fart like Imus.
Bootstraps, rap music, attacking the messenger and blaming the victim. The whole spiel as it came from a guy with black skin.

[jobycom]

23. So he compared them, but he didn't./

If he's saying no one brought up Borat or South Park as a point in the Imus debate, he's comparing them.

Face it, you're a fan, and you want to defend his comments. I've never watched Imus, I don't hate or like him. I heard his comments. They should have gotten him fired, and they did. I also watched him squirm and dance around, trying to save himself. He blamed the media, he blamed everyone. He went on Al Sharpton and said "I can't get anywhere with you people." After his first apology someone asked him if he promised never to make such comments again, and laughingly admitted he probably would.

Limbaugh is big on leukemia and lymphoma, does that make you like him?

[Morgana LaFey]

10. actually, he did end up whining and blaming the press

I'm getting effing sick of the Imus defense and rehabilitation efforts.

[babylonsister]

11. If so many people hate this article, why is it on DU's greatest? nt

[The Count]

14. Because 5 feel legitimized by it. At least is less crass than the black RW-er

swill - where the players were also trashed as "gold diggers' ...Rich stops short of that.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x641661

[The Count]

12. Very disappointed. On Gibson he was soo right - ALL Tthough the story ! Now....

I guess I expected more decency from Rich...Oh, well...At least he didn't mix Imus (and Coulter) with The Dixie Chicks and Mark Twain like Maher did in his "Getoveritall" commercial

[DeepModem Mom]

13. I think Rich hemmed himself in with some early quotes about this --

Here is the link:

Imus' predicament left Frank Rich in a bind
Commentary: N.Y. Times columnist hadn't ruled out going on show
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/don-imus-rutgers-furor-left/story.aspx?guid=%7B09574B9E-B1B1-4AC1-A3FC-4BCF661FF8C8%7D

Rich remains a strong, powerful voice, for which I'm grateful, for our side. But his response to this has been disappointing to me.

[The Count]

15. Interesting...