April 11, 2007 - So Don Imus is a Jerk

But then everybody who listens to him already knew that. So what the hell’s the problem? Well this; he called the Rutgers University women’s basketball team “nappy-headed ho's” on the air, that’s what. A team that is mainly made up of black women. And so the “outrage” [sic] from the usual suspects. But whatever, folks. You regular listens of Imus’ morning radio show must have known by now that he talks about people like that, in between his guest interviews with big-time pols and the Hollywood set, and whoever's flacking their new book or movie, to whom he’s either snidely condescending or outright rude.

And just as predicted, (by me anyhow) the market is reigning ol’ Don in. Sponsors have announced that they are pulling their advertising and so the program's revenue. That is what is really gonna get him in trouble and not his rude and obnoxious language. And this is as it should be. Imus can clean up his act, or go on cable or satellite radio, and his outraged critics can just flip the dial and listen to music or another radio program.

Looking at the stats for his show, I see Imus has only about 300k (give or take) people that even listen daily to him anyhow, so again, what’s the big deal here? That croaking old toad Paul Harvey gets more listeners than that just in metro-Detroit. Hell, Imus' ratings are so low, even the proudly low-rated ideologues at the Air America ™ radio network or the tax funded ones at NPR would probably cancel him. And that being the case, I’d imagine that of the listeners Imus does have, few as they are for a national show, they must want and enjoy his schtick. A tempest in a tea cup here IMHO.

So tomorrow morning (in about two weeks that is; CBS radio and MSNBC have both “suspended” Imus' show for that long) spin that dial around and see what else is on then, or buy an iPod, or read the newspaper.

Technorati tags: Don_Imus censorship freedom_of_speech