MSNBC bids Imus adieu

Look at that punim. Don Imus has reason to be cranky today. Yesterday, he was abruptly fired by MSNBC, ending an 11-year relationship with the network. The fate of his radio program is still in question. For now, CBS is maintaining that he'll be suspended without pay for two weeks. So far, that's the extent of his punishment.

I'm already tired of this story, to be honest, but I'd be remiss to leave out a few things. First, a good parody...



Stephen never disappoints.



Michael Smerconish brings up some interesting points here - he is right that people in our society walk around just waiting to be offended, but he's way off base with regard to the Rutgers women's basketball team. Words DO have meaning, and consequences. Yes, he was looking for a cheap laugh, by using racially hateful and insensitive comments.

Smerconish is normally a conservative I respect and listen to, because of his noted lack of hateful comments; he's level-headed and reasonable. But, he's got the Imus case all wrong.



I'm anticipating that this will be the first and last time in my life that I will agree with Laura Ingraham about anything, but I give her credit for reacting the way she did in this clip. The footage runs out, but evidently, she didn't return for the next segment.

It's hard to overstate how much I despise the insipid Hannity, and the footage above is precisely why the likes of Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson getting involved in this controversy clouds this issue. It gives conservative jackals fodder for the hypocrisy cannon, and distracts from what Imus said or what this whole story is about in the first place.

These two morons have a history of making highly racial and insensitive remarks themselves, so for them to come to the "aid" of Rutgers basketball players is absurd, and the height of hypocrisy.

What annoys me even more is the fact that Repubes are trying to make political hay out of the Imus remarks, when they really should keep their mouths shut. Take a look at this footage...



Terry Jeffrey, editor-at-large of Human Events magazine, probably says the most idiotic and contradictory statements I've heard on television in quite a long time.

"Don Imus represents the decline in standards in American broadcasting"?!? Surly you jest, Mr. Jeffrey.

Apparently Jeffrey's never heard broadcasts of Matt Drudge, Ann Coulter, Laura Ingraham, Michelle Malkin, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage, Tom DeLay, etc.? Talk about selective outrage. I'm choking on righteous indignation. Jeffrey almost (almost!) sounds like the right's idiotic answer to this whole mess vis à vis Sharpton and Jackson on the left.

As Keith Olbermann rightfully pointed out tonight on his show, where's the outrage over the "racist right's" comments. A recent sampling:

• Rush Limbaugh calling Barack Obama [and Halle Berry] "Halfrican American"

• Michael Savage saying the Voting Rights Act means "a chad in every crackhouse"

• Neil Boortz saying Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-GA), an African-American Congresswoman, "looks like a ghetto slut"

• How about former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay comparing Democrats to Nazis? (Scroll down a few messages and you'll hear audio of it.)

These are just a few examples. I don't have enough time or energy to cite them all, but that's a pretty good "worst of" list.

Jeffrey winds up this clip with a breathtaking bomb:

"I think this type of programming underestimates the intelligence for the potential audience it has."

I'll remember that the next time I hear Rush Limbaugh comparing Democrats who oppose funding a destructive, idiotic war to Stalin, while Vice President Dick Cheney plays the role of Ed McMahon, nodding in agreement and braying like a donkey. (I blogged about this last weekend.)

By the way, and I know I've mentioned this before, but when you have five minutes to kill, drop by the Human Events Website - it really is a kick.

Here's a press conference that the Rutgers Womens Basketball Team held yesterday...



Elegantly said, and well put. It will be very interesting to hear what comes of the meeting between Imus and the team. I give those girls a lot of credit for even agreeing to meet with him; it's going to be a pretty uncomfortable meeting all around, but mostly for Imus. It should be.



Here's Al Sharpton on CNN's Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer. I agree with just about everything Sharpton is says, but it's tough to get past the messenger. He's got such a checkered past, it's tough to look past his credibility problem. But, he's right about Imus.

I'll say it one more time, and then I'm movin' on, because I've had enough of this story already, but I hate it that Sharpton's even involved in this matter, because it's just fodder for the right's cannon of hate and intolerance.

I find it profoundly sad that Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson are spokesmen for African-Americans today in any capacity. Seriously, it undermines the issue whenever these two idiots show up and preen before the cameras and sound as if they've never done anything wrong in their lives.

Anyway, one down, one to go - time for Imus to go from CBS, too, but I'm not holding my breath.

I do wonder, getting back to Terry Jeffrey's comments, if this will be another excuse for Republicans to try and arrogantly push their morality on the rest of us. The FCC has done it before, and they'll undoubtedly try again. I really hope this isn't another Janet Jackson moment.