Saturday, April 14, 2007

Imus See Things Differently

Not better or worse only different. I've often joked that my name is an adjective as well as a proper noun. I'm not bragging or anything but I see things, sometimes, at a parallax view to what of others see. This unique perception has nothing to do with the right or wrong of any situation, though, thankfully. I remain joyously amoral as ever.

This fracas with Don Imus is a good example. He said some things on his show the other day, (he called the Women's B-Ball team from Rutgers a, 'buncha nappy headed hos', or words to that effect), and while reviled by the punditocracy on both sides of the aisle for this comment, it's not the first time Don's been down that street and has been talking his way out of it for over twenty years now. Or (as some stories are couched in ,"Le Mort D' Arthur"), so the French book sayeth. First it was announced by the radio station Don was taking a 2-week vacation, later it was called a suspension for the same 2-weeks and then... Boom! Fired.

Other than the current inhabitants of 1600 Sesame Street and their camp followers, I don't wish on anyone the loss of their employment, as mouths are, (now it's metaphoric in Imus' case as he's fuckin' loaded), hard things to feed on Love alone. What he said was really stupid. Freshmen stupid. So, for someone as seasoned as Imus? Needless to say that my natural cynical nature started sending out warnings to my bullshit detector and then I saw a headline Friday, (???), on Yahoo! News about this, wherein the team, had forgiven Mr. Imus for his cheap, stupid, slur, ahem, err.. Faux pas? Then a little while after seeing the headline, I surfed through the posts at Digby's and as always the level of discussion there made me think more about the issue. I'm not really interested in the press-release-hand-out lives of the rich and shameless. (ETA: and all this is before the Governor almost getting killed in a MVA on his way to a sit-down about this whole ordeal. BTW, it's five in the morning on Sunday now. I'm not going to update with fresh reports about Corzine. I hope he makes a full recovery.)

This is what I posted at Digby's and I haven't gone looking for any latest updates about it but I still thins it was a scam to give him a boost over to Sirius or wherever...

I think this whole Imus non-event is nothing more than a publicity stunt. I saw a headline on Yahoo! News, earlier this evening, 'Scarlet B-Ball Team accepts Imus Apology', or something like that and the idea hit me. I really have to buck the trend and say this whole kerfuffle is all an act. Please don't think I'm making an excuse, apology or anything else. I'm not writing this as any damned apologist nor as a rationalization for what happened, I think what he said was really off-base and the only reason I can't expound further about Ol' Don is that I haven't listened to his show or tv simulcast in aeons, if ever. However... Anyone who generates the kind of enormous revenue that's been bandied about on the 'net, that Imus generates, these past few days, doesn't get, "fired", like that. He'll be on Sirius Sat/Radio or one of it's competitors, in a few weeks. Right in time for whatever ratings book decides the commercial rates for that medium.

Imus may have been around longer but he's been a second-banana to Stern for almost 20 years now but he's always made his bosses rich. Howard went Satellite, so will Imus. It's where the money is.

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