Why Don Imus Won't Be Fired
By Cliff Kincaid
April 10, 2007
Don Imus' timing couldn't have been worse. The uproar over his comments about the mostly black Rutgers University women's basketball team being "nappy-headed hos" comes only a few weeks before the annual meeting of General Electric, the parent company of the MSNBC television network that airs his morning program. Accuracy in Media will be there.
Do you think GE chairman and CEO Jeffrey Immelt is going to want to answer questions in front of hundreds of shareholders about why his subsidiary puts Imus on the air? And why NBC News personalities like Tim Russert regularly appear on the show?
Another big problem for the shock jock is that his wife Deirdre, an environmentalist who piggybacks on her husband's fame, was planning to launch her new book on Tuesday on his show. (web site) She also has appearances scheduled on ABC's "The View" and "The Martha Stewart Show." Her book is about cleaning products, which she should think about using in her husband's mouth.
What will save Imus are his connections to current and former GE and NBC officials. He has interviewed former GE chairman Jack Welch on the air, giving him an opportunity to sell books, and Imus has given GE vice-chairman and NBC chairman Bob Wright and his wife a platform to talk about finding treatments and a cure for the autism disorder that struck their grandchild. Deirdre Imus works with the Wrights in a group called Autism Speaks. In short, Imus and his wife have ingratiated themselves with the top brass.
On Monday, Imus was desperately trying to contain the damage to his show and his reputation from the charges that he is a racist. He wants people to know that he is really a good man and that he hosts kids with cancer at his corporate-sponsored ranch in New Mexico.
In order to atone for his sins, Imus also announced that he was going on a radio show hosted by Al Sharpton, whose reputation was permanently stained by his association with the Tawana Brawley hoax, in which a black woman falsely charged white men with rape. It is a sign of our twisted times that Imus can be forced to pay homage to a character like this. But if he doesn't satisfy Sharpton, who has called for Imus to be fired, there could be fireworks at the GE annual meeting on April 25 at 10 a.m. in Greenville, South Carolina, at the Carolina First Center. You can find the details about the meeting here. (web site)
With Imus twisting in the wind, it is fascinating to watch his mostly liberal collaborators in the media try to avoid being affected by the stench. They all went on the show in the past knowing that that he specializes in making fun of people. But they excused that in order to reach his audience and, in many cases, sell their books.
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