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• Friday, April 13, 2007 - Imus' Firing Is An Outrage
Imus' Firing Is An Outrage
After reading on Yahoo! News the story of "Racist remarks cost Imus CBS radio job" By DAVID BAUDER, AP Television Writer (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070413/ap_on_en_ot/imus_protests)
I am appalled to see such narrow-sightedness and wanting to attack someone's livelihood, almost a witch hunt it seems, from such high figures in society as Hillary Clinton to Barack Obama to Oprah Winfrey and Rev. Al Sharpton.
"Imus' description of the Rutgers women's basketball team as "nappy-headed hos" set off a national debate about taste and tolerance."
I wish to question a statement made in this news report. "He has flourished in a culture that permits a certain level of objectionable expression that hurts and demeans a wide range of people," said CBS Corp. chief executive Leslie Moonves in a memo to his staff. "In taking him off the air, I believe we take an important and necessary step not just in solving a unique problem, but in changing that culture, which extends far beyond the walls of our company."
If this is the case, why are we, the people, being subject to other forms of this everyday on the airwaves, in CD and MP3 sales of rappers, hip hoppers, gangstas that record and promote far worse than this? Both styles of 'entertainers' have influences on the people and yet we see supposed role models jumping into one person's mistake but leaving the others do it on purpose and get paid well for it. I sense a reverse discrimination here.
Let's look for a second at 50 cent (http://www.50cent.com/) website. I'm not touching any lyrics yet. Just the site. Black man with a smokin' gun pointed right at you. Messege? Kill. And pictured behind it? Certificate of Death. Messege? Killing. For those that are religious isn't this a breakage of one of the 10 Commandments??? Shall I touch any lyrics???
For all of you, Oprah, Hillary, Barack and the Rev, I think you need to look a little closer to what you judge in ethics and morals. People are human and prone to make mistakes. But, to punish a mistake by barking for him to lose his job and not punishing deliberate bad messeges (recorded media that also makes it to radio) doesn't make sense unless you are part of the problem, the corporate money!
I bet if 50 cent recorded a hit and referred to the Rutgers women's team as "nappy-headed hos" nothing would be said or done about it and he would make big bank on it. So would the record industry, radio and all others tied to it.
So where's the true ethics here?
Kenneth R Sword Jr
Tags: Imus, Rutgers women's basketball, racial, Oprah Winfrey, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Rev. Al Sharpton, MSNBC, CBS, Leslie Moonves, David Bauder, News
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