loodvig
04-15-2007, 08:16 PM
Taylor Armerding
Don Imus' two-hour apology this past Thursday to the Rutgers women's basketball team was appropriate and overdue. His description of them during a game was - all together now - outrageous, insulting, racist, sexist, insensitive, appalling, deplorable, abominable, despicable, degrading, disgusting, inexcusable and unconscionable. And whatever other negative label you want to put on it.
Imus himself offered a good analysis of it. He said he had stolen what should have been one of the high points of the players' lives - coming close to an NCAA championship. Instead of positive attention on them, it was all about negative attention on him. Instead of being a sweet memory, for the rest of their lives this moment would be defined by a circus of controversy.
But he should also apologize to all of us for doing much of his groveling before two of the country's most divisive hate-mongers - Al Sharpton and Jesse "Hymietown" Jackson.
Just about every television network in the land should apologize for giving hours of face time to such shameless hypocrites. CBS should apologize for caving to them and others and firing Imus, when they ignore much worse from the wealthy stars of the gangsta rap world.
Does anybody seriously think either of them really cares about the Rutgers players? That either of them qualifies as a moral compass on race relations? Or, were they just more available than anybody with more credibility, as they always are?
They care about themselves and nobody else. Jackson used his time on a panel this past week to demand quotas for blacks in the radio and television talk industry. Sharpton used his to promote himself as the arbiter of racial offenses.
What rubbish.
Jackson has made a career of pursuing opportunities to be offended. His campaign to keep African Americans forever viewing themselves as victims has brought far more long-term harm to them than a stupid remark by a radio/TV jock.
Sharpton is even worse. He is a proven liar. He has done more to promote racial division in this country than any public figure in recent memory. He can match Imus, slur for slur and beyond.
Don't any of the media stars who call on him at times like this recall his history? Twenty years ago, he slandered prosecutor Steve Pagones, accusing him of being one of several white men who allegedly abducted and raped 15-year-old Tawana Brawley, and left her smeared with feces. The whole thing was a hoax.
Sharpton and two other defendants lost a defamation suit brought by Pagones, and were ordered to pay $345,000 in damages. Yet, Sharpton has never apologized, or even admitted he was wrong.
Four years later came the Crown Heights riots in Brooklyn, following an accident in which a Hasidic Jewish driver ran over and killed a black 7-year-old. While promoting a violent response to that, Sharpton said, "If the Jews want to get it on, tell them to pin their yarmulkes back and come over to my house."
You could review his regular attacks on "diamond merchants," a more genteel code for Jews than "Hymie."
Or, you could recall 1995, when Sharpton came to Harlem to promote violence against a Jewish store owner - a "white interloper" - who was having a conflict with a black business rival. He was successful - a protester shot his way into the store and set it on fire. Eight people died.
If a white Republican had done or said similar things about blacks, he wouldn't be allowed near a TV studio. Yet Sharpton gets a platform to say Imus should be fired. What rubbish.
Yes, Imus is a jerk much of the time. But the wasteland that is talk radio and television is filled with jerks who traffic in insults every day. They are not a reflection of society - their goal is to shock society. That's the way the rating game is played.
So, serious, sober Americans would be well advised to put this in context. The truth, which both Sharpton and Jackson know but won't say, is what a few commentators have noted: You hear worse than what Imus said about black women within the first 20 seconds or so of just about any gangsta rap "song." Where is the outrage? Where are the demands that the record labels drop these "artists" and that consumers boycott their recordings? Imus has no monopoly on disgusting, degrading and inexcusable. He's a rookie.
Where is the outrage about liberal activists, who are forever preaching diversity but who recently accused members of the Congressional Black Caucus of "dancing with the devil" and being "corrupt and compromised," just because the caucus agreed to cosponsor a couple of pre-primary presidential debates with Fox News?
It's fine to make Imus a punching bag. But he ought to have a lot of company, and that company should include Sharpton and Jackson.
Don Imus' two-hour apology this past Thursday to the Rutgers women's basketball team was appropriate and overdue. His description of them during a game was - all together now - outrageous, insulting, racist, sexist, insensitive, appalling, deplorable, abominable, despicable, degrading, disgusting, inexcusable and unconscionable. And whatever other negative label you want to put on it.
Imus himself offered a good analysis of it. He said he had stolen what should have been one of the high points of the players' lives - coming close to an NCAA championship. Instead of positive attention on them, it was all about negative attention on him. Instead of being a sweet memory, for the rest of their lives this moment would be defined by a circus of controversy.
But he should also apologize to all of us for doing much of his groveling before two of the country's most divisive hate-mongers - Al Sharpton and Jesse "Hymietown" Jackson.
Just about every television network in the land should apologize for giving hours of face time to such shameless hypocrites. CBS should apologize for caving to them and others and firing Imus, when they ignore much worse from the wealthy stars of the gangsta rap world.
Does anybody seriously think either of them really cares about the Rutgers players? That either of them qualifies as a moral compass on race relations? Or, were they just more available than anybody with more credibility, as they always are?
They care about themselves and nobody else. Jackson used his time on a panel this past week to demand quotas for blacks in the radio and television talk industry. Sharpton used his to promote himself as the arbiter of racial offenses.
What rubbish.
Jackson has made a career of pursuing opportunities to be offended. His campaign to keep African Americans forever viewing themselves as victims has brought far more long-term harm to them than a stupid remark by a radio/TV jock.
Sharpton is even worse. He is a proven liar. He has done more to promote racial division in this country than any public figure in recent memory. He can match Imus, slur for slur and beyond.
Don't any of the media stars who call on him at times like this recall his history? Twenty years ago, he slandered prosecutor Steve Pagones, accusing him of being one of several white men who allegedly abducted and raped 15-year-old Tawana Brawley, and left her smeared with feces. The whole thing was a hoax.
Sharpton and two other defendants lost a defamation suit brought by Pagones, and were ordered to pay $345,000 in damages. Yet, Sharpton has never apologized, or even admitted he was wrong.
Four years later came the Crown Heights riots in Brooklyn, following an accident in which a Hasidic Jewish driver ran over and killed a black 7-year-old. While promoting a violent response to that, Sharpton said, "If the Jews want to get it on, tell them to pin their yarmulkes back and come over to my house."
You could review his regular attacks on "diamond merchants," a more genteel code for Jews than "Hymie."
Or, you could recall 1995, when Sharpton came to Harlem to promote violence against a Jewish store owner - a "white interloper" - who was having a conflict with a black business rival. He was successful - a protester shot his way into the store and set it on fire. Eight people died.
If a white Republican had done or said similar things about blacks, he wouldn't be allowed near a TV studio. Yet Sharpton gets a platform to say Imus should be fired. What rubbish.
Yes, Imus is a jerk much of the time. But the wasteland that is talk radio and television is filled with jerks who traffic in insults every day. They are not a reflection of society - their goal is to shock society. That's the way the rating game is played.
So, serious, sober Americans would be well advised to put this in context. The truth, which both Sharpton and Jackson know but won't say, is what a few commentators have noted: You hear worse than what Imus said about black women within the first 20 seconds or so of just about any gangsta rap "song." Where is the outrage? Where are the demands that the record labels drop these "artists" and that consumers boycott their recordings? Imus has no monopoly on disgusting, degrading and inexcusable. He's a rookie.
Where is the outrage about liberal activists, who are forever preaching diversity but who recently accused members of the Congressional Black Caucus of "dancing with the devil" and being "corrupt and compromised," just because the caucus agreed to cosponsor a couple of pre-primary presidential debates with Fox News?
It's fine to make Imus a punching bag. But he ought to have a lot of company, and that company should include Sharpton and Jackson.