Imus cooked -- at least on MSNBC
04/11/07 05:46 PM
By ED BARK
MSNBC announced early Wednesday evening that it is dropping its weekday simulcasts of Imus in the Morning after the radio personality's much-publicized racial slurs against the Rutger's University women's basketball team.
CBS Radio and the 24-hour cable news channel earlier this week suspended Imus for two weeks, effective Monday, April 16th. Now he'll no longer have a TV home when and if his radio show returns. On Wednesday, CBS Radio reiterated that Imus has been suspended without pay. "During that time, CBS Radio will continue to speak with all concerned parties and monitor the situation closely."
MSNBC's termination "also takes into account many conversations with our own employees," the network said. "What matters to us most is that the men and women of NBC Universal have confidence in the values we have set for this company. This is the only decision that makes that possible . . . We deeply regret the pain this incident has caused."
One NBC employee, Today weatherman Al Roker, was especially angered and went public on his blog Tuesday with a call for Imus' resignation after he characterized the Rutgers team as "nappy-headed hos" during his April 4 program.
On Wednesday, Roker wrote, "I don't think I've ever had more response to a journal."
"The Internet, theoretically, is color-blind," he added. "Yet it was relatively easy to figure out someone's ethnicity by where they came down on this issue. It proves that we still, after all this time, have a long way to go in our country when it comes to race."
Some responders contended that "I was holding Don Imus to a different standard than the rappers and African-American comedians who traffic in the same kind of language," Roker also wrote. "Guess what? I think their speech is hateful, too. I don't condone it. Don't allow it in my home. Don't go to those concerts. Those companies that profit in the demeaning of women via musical lyrics, whether rap or rock, should be put on notice, as should the radio stations that play the music."
Roker said he's spoken out about Imus because he "broadcasts under the NBC News banner via MSNBC. This is a reflection of my company. I won't stand for the idea that someone who has the privilege of working under the aegis of NBC News could damage this organization with the taint of racism and sexism."
(Note: As of early Wednesday evening, there were numerous and obviously inadvertent misspellings in Roker's latest blog, including the word "ass" for "as." They've been corrected in the above excerpts, but he might want to take the same measures himself.)
Unknown at the moment is whether NBC News heavyweights and recurring Imus guests such as Tim Russert, Brian Williams and Tom Brokaw will cease and desist now that their employer no longer considers the radio jock fit for its airwaves.