Don Imus Rutgers Controversy Not Going Away

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When Don Imus called the Rutgers women's basketball team "nappy-headed hos" this week, he seemed to think nothing of it. It was just another in a long line of comments in which Imus makes people the butt of his jokes because of their race, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation or any other trait. (Watch the video.)

But the controversy surrounding those comments is not going away: MSNBC carries Imus's show each morning, and an NBC spokeswoman said the network is "continuing to review the situation."

There's not much chance of MSNBC taking him off the air, though. The network is in third place in the cable news race, and Imus's show has gained in the ratings by about 100,000 viewers over the last year. There's no way a struggling network is going to get rid of a guy who draws that kind of viewership.

However, Imus might find that he has an increasingly difficult time getting guests on his program. The National Association of Black Journalists is calling for a boycott of the show. Imus doesn't often have black journalists on his show, but he does often have people who don't want to be in the crosshairs of the National Association of Black Journalists: People like Tim Russert, John McCain and Joe Lieberman. If those people decide they're not going to do Imus's show anymore, his show will suffer.

And that's what should happen. Imus wants to be treated like a serious journalist when that suits him and then hide behind the excuse that he's just a shock jock when that suits him. This incident might teach him that he can't have it both ways.

UPDATE: Don Imus Apologizes Again, Al Sharpton Weighs In

Previously at FanHouse:
Don Imus Calls Rutgers Women's Team 'Nappy-Headed Hos'
Who's Worse, Don Imus or Billy Packer?

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 15)

4-07-2007 @ 11:15AM

Terry Carey said...

Imus is a pompass ass.

4-07-2007 @ 11:16AM

4-07-2007 @ 12:14PM

Jim said...

Imus calls his wife the "green Ho". He is an ass to everyone. Don't like the way he rolls, watch or listen to something else.

4-07-2007 @ 12:38PM

jason alan said...

Waaaahhh!Waaahh!!!!
We need to lighten up.

4-07-2007 @ 1:23PM

reality said...

why are people so shockof a racist white radio talk show host making racial comments about black women. all you have to do is listen to his apoligize and you can tell that don imus is nothing more then a red neck, drug taken, drunk. so im not surprised of what he said and no one else should be either. what i will be surprised at is if any type of punshiment from wfan will be passed down on him knowing that he brings in the bucks for the radio show and they will not be doing anything to him for his comments so is their any more white radio talk show people that want to make any more racial comments about black peole cause the door has been open for the remarks to fly??? only in america?????

4-07-2007 @ 1:52PM

mags said...

You can complain to the FCC about Don Imus. I filed a complaint online. I may be contacting the NAACP and other organizations to see if they will follow suit in filing a FCC complaint - maybe if they get enough fines they will pull the show. Here's the link to the FCC: http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/complaints.html The company that owns wfan is http://www.infinitybroadcasting.com

Pass it along. Let's get this show off the air!!!

4-07-2007 @ 2:06PM

brett said...

i like what imus said. the rutgers girls look rough and act like thugs. they trash talk like guys, they have tatoos like guys, imus had to make some sort of comment. that's his job.
i think it's interesting that the rutgers women's basketball team look and act like thugs. this might mean that women's basketball is starting to develop some of the same image problems that have plagued men's college basketball. maybe their coach is corrupt and looks the other way. maybe rutgers women's basketball is alot like UNLV men's basketball. maybe women's basketball players will start getting arrested. or maybe none of this will happen. but the fact remains: the rutgers women look and act like thugs, so it is imus's job to make a joke about it. he did. he could have said, "look at those dopes! boy they sure look rough. are you sure this isn't a tape of the men's team?" but that wouldn't have been funny. he went with "nappy-headed hos" instead. calling them "hos" doesn't make much sense. he should have said "nappy-headed thugs." i don't think "nappy-headed" is offensive because if the players were white he would have said "white-bread hos", or "honky hos".

4-07-2007 @ 2:09PM

he is always making off-color jokes, even when he has a high profile guest on. he makes fun of tim russert, joe biden, john kerry all the time - often to their face or at least as soon as he hangs up the phone with them. that's the whole point of the show. high profile polititians and commentators call in for serious political discussion and also to engage in hijinx in order to show off their "funny" side, or because they just like the show.

4-07-2007 @ 2:11PM

michael smith from espn is a douchebag. he had alot to say about this imus thing. i think he threatened to beat him up, then he gave a shout out to "my moms, my sis, and my wife." whatever michael smith! why don't you go back to being an apologist for pac man jones. tell us one more time about what a charming, likeable guy he is. pac man jones, who publically put a hit on that bouncer and left him paralysed. oh yeah, and he also smashed a female dancers head on the ground for at least the second time in his life.
michael smith, who cares if pac man jones, for minutes at a time can be very charming and funny and nice. he's still a bad guy.
maybe espn wanted to balance out the negative coverage it was giving to nfl troublemakers and michael smith gladly volunteered for the job and replaced pedro gomez (who seems gay) as the most biased reporter on espn.

4-07-2007 @ 2:28PM

Beat Visitor said...

He messed with the wrong school (wait until he hears from the Knights' biggest football fan, Tony Soprano).
This is not going away until he goes away. Over at http://www.beatvisitor.com , I'm going to treat this as if one of these fine young women was my daughter or sister, and I'll be writing often to viewerservices@msnbc.com and fanmail@wfan.com. And thanks to the commenter above who gave the link to the FCC complaints page at http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/complaints.html . I'm going there now!

the only thing shocking about all this was that sid rosenberg was on the phone and he didn't say it.

bernard, imus's sidekick, started it all by calling them "hard core hos". so is "nappy-headed" the offensive part? not the calling them "hos" part?

then bernard said something about "the jigaboos vs. wannabees, this sounds more offensive than "nappy-headed".

sid rosenberg they said they looked like the toronto raptors which was really funny. the portland trailblazers or the denver nuggets would have been more accurate, but the word "raptors" is funnier, scarier and is a better word for the point he was making, which was "these girls are SCARY!"

bernard confirmed this point by saying, "more like grizzlies"

i might be crazy, but i love this stuff.

4-07-2007 @ 2:44PM

even though it's difficult, i guess that i believe all of you who say that you are offended by what imus said. but still, i have yet to read one anti-imus post that hasn't just bored the you know what out of me. so i wonder, who is to blame, is it the subject or the writers? maybe it's the subject. maybe no one in the world can write something interesting about "anti-imus and his nappy-headed comments" or maybe it is the writers, and somehow only boring people are drawn to the anti-imus camp. maybe it's both. either way, it's boring.

4-07-2007 @ 3:26PM

Bill said...

Imus has been made plenty of offensive racist remarks, including many anti-semitic comments in the past. Where was the Al Sharpton and the anti-hate brigade back then? Oh I forgot, its ok to hate Jews.

4-07-2007 @ 3:44PM

Rick said...

Don Imus hit the nail on the head by saying what he said. He wasn't being a racist but pointing out the truth. If the Rutgers basketball team doesn't want him to make commnets then don't get tattoes. They brought it on themselves by dressing the way they do and it is their fault. They are just too sensitive and can't handle the truth. Thumbs up to Don Imus!

4-07-2007 @ 4:45PM

Carla said...

Dear Readers:

Please excuse my ignorance but what the hell is a 'nappy headed ho's' anyway? I'm Canadian, so I really have no idea what the fuss is about, till someone gives me the translation. I know Don Imus is almost always polictically incorrect, but I find it refreshing. I'm Italian, and frankly, our race has been the not only the ongoing butt of serious jokes, but the vehicle for an award winning tv series. And, frankly, I'm not pissed off about it, at all.
CCK

4-07-2007 @ 5:19PM

rudy said...

Imus used to be entertaining but now he is only boring. Since his marriage he has veered sharply to the Left. He constantly opines about subjects that he knows little of and harrangs on minute issues that only intertest him. His ego is collasal. A testimony to his lack of connection to reality is his pride in the Imus ranch which manages to help about fifty kids per year at a cost of more than a million dollars. If he really wanted to help children who suffer from cancer he could raise the money and give it to research or some group that could help thousands with a budget like his. As for nappy headed ho's ..I like it! Pretty funny.

4-07-2007 @ 5:52PM

stefanie said...

To answer one of the poster's questions about what "nappy" means, it is a term that is considered offensive, referring to hair texture that is coily. It is espeically offensive when used by a person of European descent referring to some someone of African descent.

The poster who wrote that Imus would have referred to white female players as "honkeys ho" doesn't mean that the comment isn't offensive, but it is certainly more offensive in the context under which this occurred.

Don Imus' comments are racially offensive to me. He should be removed from his position.

amanda m said...

I am truely intollerant for America's continued tollerance for biggotry and inexcusable behavior. Imus should definitely be fired for his racist, hurtful, inexcusable comments about female atheletes who did nothing to incur his disgusting comments.

4-07-2007 @ 6:18PM

to the person who described nappy hair as "coily". coily sounds so much worse than nappy. maybe because coily has the word oily in it. but if you prefer coily over nappy, then fine. pretty strange preference though. it's kind of like how midgets prefer the term "dwarf". i'll never understand that one.